Can You Deduct Medical Insurance Premiums from

Income to Qualify for a USDA Guaranteed Rural Home Loan?

If you work with the USDA Guaranteed Rural Home Loan program you are aware that not only do you have to qualify the borrower based on normal Debt to Income Ratios, but there is also an income cap on how much a household can earn.

After taking all household income into account, you can then take qualified deductions away to lower the household income. Without going into all of these, I received an email today from the USDA clarifying how Pre-Tax Insurance Premiums are treated. Basically, you cannot deduct the premiums from Income. AND, you need to use the Gross Income before the premiums have been taken out.

Here is the memo.

"September 17, 2009


Medical Deductions and Annual Income Calculations

Due to questions surrounding the treatment of pre-tax medical plans, the following is provided to supplement and further clarify the interpretation of deducting medical expenses in the calculation of annual income.

Section 1980.347 of RD Instruction 1980-D provides instruction on the types of income to be considered in the annual income calculation.

Section 1980.347(e) describes the types of income that are not included in the annual income calculation, but may be considered in determining repayment ability. Section 1980.347(e)(6) of the instruction indicates:

"Amounts which are granted specifically for, or in reimbursement of, the cost of medical expenses."

This section does not allow for lenders to deduct the pre-tax medical premiums that applicants pay with wages earned towards their medical/dental/vision health benefits offered by their employers. These pre-tax employee premiums must be considered by lenders as gross income and utilized when calculating annual income.

Lenders seeking guidance on deducting eligible medical expenses for elderly applicants should refer to Section 1980.348(b) and 1980.348(d)(1) of RD Instruction 1980-D.

Questions regarding this notice may be directed to your state GRH coordinator or the division at 202.720.1452.

The Good news is that a low incoem borrower will qualify for more home since their Gross Income will be slightly higher. The bad news is that it may disqualify some borrowers who now make too much income.

Your Oregon Real Estate Internet Marketing Guide

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The premier Real Estate Social Media site, ActiveRain can supercharge your Internet marketing for Oregon Real Estate. With over 157,000 members, two million visitors monthly and world class training from your peers on what works and doesn't work in our ever changing industry, ActiveRain can transform your Oregon Real Estate related business like it has for countless others. Whether an Oregon Realtor, mortgage broker, appraiser, inspector or what not, if your income is derived through the sale or financing of a home in Oregon, ActiveRain can help you. Your Oregon ActiveRain Guide has been setup to help you maximize your Oregon ActiveRain experience. There are a lot of Real Estate professionals in Oregon and I'm sure that you know how hard it is to get your listings in front of your prospective Oregon home buyers. Google Juice SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a key component to any serious Internet marketing for the Oregon Real Estate professional. The search engines at Google, the worlds largest search provider, love ActiveRain! Since it's membership is so large and focused on the same thing you are focused on, Real Estate, it is not uncommon for a new post to be on the front page of google very quickly. Lasting Power What I bring to the table, for you my prospetive partner, is the advanced training that ActiveRain has provided on how to get your listings, and blogs on page 1 AND KEEP THEM THERE!! I trust that if I help you dominate your local market and earn more money, you will give me an opportunity to become one of your Trusted Mortgage Brokers. Even if you are an experienced blogger, SEO genius or currently have an ActiveRain account, are you consistently on page 1 of google for your local city or neighborhood? Do your posts stay there for more then a few days? Learn how to dominate your local Oregon Real Estate market with a supercharged ActiveRain account! If you are not using an ActiveRain outside blog correctly, you should be. For aboout $1 per day, and some advanced tips and tools, you really can't afford not to be. Call or email me today! Better yet, complete the form to the right and tell me if you: I don't have an ActiveRain Account but am interested in learning how to dominate my local market. I already have an ActiveRain account but need an OutSide Blog I already have an ActiveRain outside blog but realize I need help and would like to partner with you.		Signup below for our newsletter or to learn how you can get FREE personal training on how you can use ActiveRain to dominate your local Real state market.

Sherwood Oregon Real Estate Update

September 2009

Sherwood has been and continues to be a desirable place to live. 

In 2007 Money Magazine voted Sherwood as the18th Best Place to Live. " Like much of the Northwest, Sherwood is home to an array of beautiful parks and natural beauty. But the quickly growing commercial sites of Sherwood offer true insight into the town's character: a juxtaposition of old and new, with reverence toward both the city's historic past and its bright, expanding future. The community events calendar is always full and the town's location makes for a fairly easy commute to nearby Portland. A.B."

In August of 2009 Family Circle declared Sherwood as one of the Top 10 Best Cities for Families. The Sherwood Gazette wrote "The magazine stated that each of the towns honored contained forward-thinking leaders, parents, teachers and students who are passionate about their hometown, dedicated to bettering their children's futures and involved in advancing their local school systems as exemplified by the implementation of such programs as partnering with local government in providing recreational amenities, private medical groups to ensure treatment for students who don't have health insurance and integrating dual language classes in grade school."


Sherwood has seen some of the fastest growth in the state of Oregon, and most of it has been residential homes. People moved to Sherwood to live, not necessarily to work. With the economy tanking, many homes went into foreclosure and people moved out. This left us with a lot of stagnant properties that until recently, weren't moving.

But there seems to be some positive news according to Zillow. Below is a chart of their estimated home values from June of 2008 through May 2009. From what I have seen, we can expect even better numbers for June and July.

It's interesting to note that the Sherwood, excluding the more expensive homes, saw an across the board decreaase in value this month. I don't place a lot of stock in it as our market is small enough that 1 or 2 sales can skew the numbers. Plus, what I am seeing is that the under $250,000 market is still hot. Look for an increase in next months values as sales close.

But the good news is that each of these segments has less deterioation Quarter Over Quarter. While we aren't positive this month, it still beats double digit depreciation!.

It appears that the worst is over in Sherwood!!

Buyers, you better get busy!! 100% financing is still available through the USDA Guaranteed Rural Home Loan program, as well as 3.5% down with the FHA. For more information on both of these programs cllick on the above links, or follow this link to an article on First Time Home Buyer Financing in Sherwood.

The $8000 Tax Credit is disappearing in a few months, so there is no better time than now to buy a home!! We are having an Oregon First Time Home Buyer Seminar soon, so ya better call!!

Whether you are a First Time Home Buyer, or moving up to your next home, call me to get started, or click here to fill out a short form and I'll call you right back..

I work with some of the BEST Realtors in Sherwood!!

There is not a business alive that can succeed without sales. That is how revenue is driven. I don't care what your business is. You have a product, or service, and your success is driven by how well you deliver that product or service to your clients or prospects. Do you know who your customers are? How do you follow up with them?

It doesn't matter if you are in a traditional sales oriented business like car or insurance sales, a retail shop like a Beauty Salon or Book Store, a professional like a CPA or Attorney, a Realtor or Mortgage Broker, you cannot exist without customers. How do you follow up with your customers?

You also cannot exist without the assistance of other, third party companies. There are others who provide essential services to you as you do your job. Some of these are essential to your success, others provide services upon which you rely upon. Do you know who your key partners are? How do you follow up with these key people?

Even within a large corporation or government entity, there are people without whom your job would not exist. The payroll department is reliant upon every other employee. Without them their job would not be necessary. The Insurance claims analyst has an external client (the policy holder), and many internal customers (all of the other employees whom he or she works with on the policy or claim). Do you know who your customers are? How do you follow up with them?

My point is that every one of our jobs is reliant upon the assistance of others. Whether it's the end customer who uses our product or service and pays the bill, or the various co-workers or vendors who help us do our job in order to satisfy the end customer. Our success is tied to how we respond to others and how they respond to us.

I'm a mortgage broker as well as a referral marketing coach. I have an end customer, the homeowner who is looking to purchase or refinance. But in order to do my job, I am reliant upon a variety or internal co-workers, a wholesale lender with who knows how many people influencing my loan, an appraiser, possibly a Realtor, inspector, Title & Escrow company, and possibly verification of income, rent, assets and who knows what else...

While it's easy to say I have 1 customer, there are a lot of people reliant on me and that I am reliant on to get the deal done.

Here is how I followup with my customers and key partners.

I have found that it is always better to be proactive and nice in order to get new clients and loans through the system. This takes more time, but the payoff is worth it. It also helps to have a system to spread that honey.

I use a combination of high tech and low tech services to bring in new business and facilitate the work flow on existing business.

Here are a few:

• In Person: Usually best for cementing relationships, but most time consuming. You also need to be concerned about your appearance and that of your meeting place.
  
• Telephone: Also very good as long as you are a good listener and can convey your thoughts. I use my office phone, iPhone and RingCentral for fax and 800#.
  
• Internet: Great for attracting new clients and transferring information easily and effortlessly. I have several websites that allow prospects to find me, easily leave information for me to get back in touch with them. I use facebook, ActiveRain and twitter, as well as others sites to attract new clients and make my work easier. In fact, my mortgage and Referral Marketing businesses could not exist without the Internet.
  
• Email: I have a love hate relationship with email. I need it, but about 50% of what I get is SPAM. Chalk it up to my success on google... I have also found limited success using email to draw in new clients. It is to easy to leave a bogus email address or for a well intended email to end up in the SPAM folder. Trust me, it happens.
  
• E-Newsletters: I send out several e-newsletters and know that they work, but they also can easily end up in the SPAM folder or wear out their welcome.
  
• Personal Greeting Cards: Everybody loves a personal greeting card. We are bombarded with email, junk mail, bills... But when we get a personal letter or greeting card, we get excited. I use SendOutCards to easily, and cost effectively send personal greeting cards. It takes a couple of minutes to create the card, push send and it's printed at our factory, delivered to the Post Office and within a few days delivered to the mail box. I can even send a gift.

How do you followup with your clients? Do you know who your clients and key partners are?

What I suggest is to take a good look at your business or job.

• Identify where your revenue comes from. Who are your clients who bring you money or what were you hired to do?
  
• Identify the different steps involved in providing that service or attracting new revenue sources.
  
• Identify who else is involved in the process of assisting you in meeting the needs of that revenue source.
• Identify the steps where communication is best served and the method best for the situation. This should involve a variety of resources including personal visits, telephone, Internet, e-newsletters and personal Greeting Cards.
• Setup a plan and put it into action. It doesn't have to be complicated. Just intentional.
  

If you would like assistance in this, please give me a call.

Larry

Sherwood, Oregon First Time Home Buyer Seminar
and the
$8000 Tax Credit

On December 1, 2009, the $8000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit is set to cease. In order to receive this credit, the home purchase must be finalized. This means that we have roughly 90 days in order to get pre-approved, find a home and get it through underwriting. While this sounds like a lot of time, it's not.

If you are at all interested in purchaing an Sherwood Oregon home, and are a First Time Home Buyer, and want to take advantage of an $8000 cash refund from our government, then you need to make it to our Oregon First Time Buyer Seminar on the $8000 Tax Credit.

Scheduled over 3 consecutive Tuesday evenings, and costing just $25 for an individual or $40 for a couple, you will learn what to look for in a property, what to expect in our market, the various types of mortgages available in Oregon for First Time Home Buyers. You will receive a 'game plan" and work book to help you move forward. We will analyze your credit report and documentation and by the end of the 3 week course, you will receive a pre-approval decision letting you know how much home you can afford to purchase.

If you are a First Time Home Buyer and motivated to purchase an Oregon Home before now and December 1st, 2009, the date the $8000 Tax Credit is set to expire, you cannot afford to miss this important seminar.