About Portsmouth City County, VA

The Homebuyer Tax Credit has extended and expanded for Portsmouth residents. It has been extended to include current homeowners. The following are features of the new bill:

•·Deadline for current credit is November 30, 2009.

•·Deadline for new and improved credit is April 30, 2010, as long as the home is under contract by that date; deal must close within 60 days.

•·Eligibility and amount of new credit:

•-$8,000 for first-time homebuyers (those who have not owned a home in the last three years).

•-Up to $6,500 credit for homeowners who have lived in the home they are selling, or have sold, as a

principal residence for five consecutive years in the past eight.

•·Buyers with income exceeding $125,000 for single and $225,000 for married couples are not eligible.

•·Homes valued at more than $800,000 are also ineligible.

The pool of eligible buyers will increase and the program will be in place through the first half of 2010. This is a very positive event for home buying and the Real Estate industry!

http://www.geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

Run, the Droid is here. Verizon has finally announced a new phone based on the Google operating system called Android. This is the 2.0 version. I did a small blog here on it a few days ago.

There will be a lot of phones based on the Android operating system but I am focused on the Verizon phone as that is the carrier I have. I don't know if AT&T will sell one as it is direct competion to the iPhone. Does it best the iPhone? I don't know but to sell more of them it really doesn't have to be. It is available world wide and other networks besides Verizon.

Aside from all the other neat things it does such as touch screen, real multitasking, large touch screen, voice GPS, VOICE ACTIVATED SEARCH, micro SD card, 5 MEG camera with DVD quality video, Slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a host of other tricks. it has a GPS app from Google you don't have to pay for.

Did I mention it has a GPS that you can use. Verizon has always disabled the GPS in its phones so you had to purchase the service from them at $10 a month. That alone is worth the price of admission for this phone. I guess Google has "Juice" I didn't even know about.

You can read about the Droid here.

http://www.geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

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Here is how to make your MLS pictures better in Portsmouth, Va. This is a lovely little vacant home in the Prentis Park area of Portsmouth, Va. The listing agent has done a good job of staging the home. I really wasn't taking this for the MLS picture but thought I could show what you can do with about 5 minutes worth of work in Photoshop Elements 7 and a little thinking a head.

I took the first picture to show what the room looks like without any adjustments. The walls and plant are pretty well exposed but as typical the windows are blown out. Not wanting to go back out to the house I took a second picture. This time I exposed for the window and turned on the flash. If you have a point and shoot camera, turn your flash to be on all the time or forced, then aim your camera right at the window and push the shutter halfway down, now compose your shot and take the picture. It should come out something like the second picture here. The windows come out great but the sofa a little dark. That is what photo shop is for.

I took the second picture into Photo Shop Elements and went to enhance. I enhanced the Shadows by 25% (this works on a lot of dark pictures). The next thing I did was clone out the light that was shining onto the carpet and the wall. It took about five minutes. Of course there were probably a few more things I could have done like compose better but this was really a picture just for me. The results are in the third picture. At least it is pretty good for a MLS picture.

http://www.geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

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SPSA and Portsmouth are in another fee dispute over three facilities it operates in Portsmouth. This dispute dates back to the original agreement from 1983. Portsmouth officials want $1.5 million in service fees that it says they are owed. Of course, SPSA says they don't owe the money and want the courts to decide that matter. Stay tuned as the courts decides the $1.5 million dispute.

geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

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I just came back from court. This is the story of how tenants can live free in your investment property.

These are the same tenants that inspired me to write: Finding the right tenant.

A tenant moves in and has 5 days to report anything that has to be fixed. They complaint: it is to cold, so I bring them spaces heaters the next day. They don't turn on the water, so they burn the water heater. I fix the water heater. On the first of the month when the rent is due the lady calls me hysterical telling me that some one broke in the place. In the police report that I finally saw today, the policeman writes that the point of entry was the bedroom window and there are no finger prints at all. He also writes that the tenant is unemployed. I called the man that does all my repairs the night of the supposedly break in;he tells me he is on his way, but never shows up until the next morning. He closes the hole with a piece of wood and informs me that the window was broken from the inside out. We look for a window that will fit that hole, but it is an old window, so finally three days later we install a new window and just make the hole to adapt.

By this time the tenant calls the city inspector which condemns the house for lack or water. There are other repairs that need to be done, and he gives me 4 days. I do all the repairs in the time allotted. The story continues.....but to make the story short, they stay in the place for another month and a half.

The judge a very old man Robert F. Babb rules for the tenant awarding me no money for rent or damages. Very happily looks at me and says, I award Zero money because this is to CONFUSING. (I do know people in their 90's who are sharp beyond belief. Unfortunately this judge doesn't appear to be in this category)

He did not ask me or the tenant any questions. I tried to ask what is confusing, but by this time the policeman is walking towards me to escort me out the door. I am told I need to appeal. Spend another $108 in court fees plus I think at this time, I would have to hire an attorney to recover the $2000 plus these people owe me. The attorneys fees will be $800.

I AM DEVASTATED TO THINK THAT IN THIS COUNTRY THE LEGAL SYSTEM DOESN'T WORK. If the judge doesn't understand what he has in front of him, he needs to ask questions.

I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR YOUR COMMENTS. I AM SO UPSET, I NEED TO VENT.