Wylie, TX

Smart ideas to help you sell your home in North Texas Part 1

The first impression prospective buyers have when they come into your home can make a huge difference. If your home appears clean, tidy and well maintained, they can begin imagining themselves living in it. But if your home looks like it needs alot of work, a prospective buyer may cross it off their list.

• Buy a home warranty while you are on the market
• Replace heating and AC filters
• Clean areas around the indoor and outdoor heating/cooling equipment
• Clean all decks and patios
• Inspect all faucets for corrosion or hard water deposits
• Have slow running drains cleaned
• Make sure all sinks and bathtubs hold water
• Label all circuits in your electrical service panel
• Have the AC serviced and the condensation lines cleaned

Make your home stand out from the rest!

More home selling tips to come!

Finally, training for Short Sales !

A short sale is a situation in which the seller owes more money on the loan than the property will produce on the market. The lender allows for the woner to sell the property to partially satisfy the amount owed to the lender.

I attended a Short Sale training class presented by the National Association of Realtors yesterday. The class qualified for the SFR, Short Sale and Foreclosure Resource certification from NAR. Even though I have been doing short sales for a couple of years now, I was not sure if I was doing them totally correct because there was no guidelines for realtors to go by!

A National Association of REALTORS member survey shows that short sales and foreclosed properties accounted for a third of existing home sales in July 2009.

Short sales represent a number of challenges, including but not limited to long timelines, substantial documentation & multiple approvals.

Achieving SFR certification offers a number of benefits:

• Electronic toolkit with practical forms
• Free Webinars that you can download anytime
• Access to the SFR logo and marketing materials
• Differentiation as and SFR at www.Realtor.org and www.Realtor.com

Short Sales are preferable to Forclosure because short sales lessen the impact a foreclosure can have on the community and won't damage the distressed owner's credit as much as a foreclousure.

If you would like a market analysis of your home to see if you qualify for a short sale, please give me a call.

What to do if your tenant is late with the rent payment

Being a landlord does have challenges and one problem that seems to crop up for every landlord in their career is tenants who are late with rent repeatedly. It's important that you don't let the tenant "slide" by without consequences, charge them the late fees written in the lease! Always treat every tenant in the same manner when they're late with rent.

Courtesy Call

At noon on the 3rd give reminder calls, emails or text messages that rent is due by 5pm today.

Late Notice

The first step is letting them know immediately that the rent is late. Add in the late fees in a late notice.

Attach the late notice to the homes door and have a witness. Don't accept rent without the late fees added. Tenants will think twice about paying rent late if they have to pay more.

Phone Call

Follow up the late notice with a phone call if you haven't received some sort of response within a couple of days after the late fee notice. Some tenants prefer text message or email.

Eviction Notice

Every states laws are different on eviction notices. Be sure you know your states property code! Most tenants pay up when they are given a one day notice to vacate! Follow the rules on these notices, because you want the judge to rule in your favor should the case go to court.

Eviction Process

Eviction is the eventual outcome if your tenant is still delinquent with the rent then you have to move through the eviction process. No one likes this process, but if you are a landlord chances are you will run into this situation during your career.

Credit Bureau

Always report your delinquent tenants to the credit bureau. This helps prevent other landlords in their background checks from falling into this tenant's trap. Unfortunately there are some tenants who know how to work the system.

Benefit for Jonathon Bird of Wylie TX

Wylie Lacrosse is doing a bake sale beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, at High Point Park in Plano to benefit the family of Jonathon Bird, the Wylie man beated to death by five teenagers last week. High Point Park is located at Alma Road and Springcreek Parkway. Donations will also be accepted.

Please show your support for this family for the terrible loss of their family member. If you cannot make it to High Point Park , I will accept donations at my office <1502 West Kirby (FM 544)> I will take the donations to the park for you. My office is in Wylie next door to Chili's. Thank you !

What's So Great About this "Tax Credit" anyway?

The benefit of a $8000.00 tax credit is, it's a Dollar-for-Dollar benefit, rather than just a "tax deduction". If someone owed taxes, a reduction in a tax liability would be just that. If you owed $1,000 you would get taxes reduced and NO cash back. If a buyer qualified for the entire tax benefit when purchasing a home and owed $2,000 in income taxes, they would get back $6,000 cash.

Higher Income Caps-The amount of income someone can earn and qualify for the full amount of the credit has been increased!! Single tax filers who earn up to $125,000 are eligible for the total credit amount. Those who earn more than this cap can receive a partial credit. However, single filers who earn $145,000 and above are ineligible.

Joint filers who earn up to $225,000 are eligible for the total credit amount. Those who earn more than this cap can receive a partial credit. However, joint filers who earn $245,000 and above are ineligible.

What are the New Deadlines?

In order to qualify for the credit, all contracts need to be in effect no later than April 30, 2010 and close no later than June 30, 2010. Those in the military do have some special extensions on the timelines available.