SAN DIEGO REAL ESTATE AGENT BLOG » David Marasco – San Diego Real Estate Agent

Open House a Waste of Time?

David Marasco - San Diego Real Estate Agent — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:13:06 +0000

Mike Carter San Diego Real Estate Agent MTC Future Realty (619) 488-5774

Final score: $8,000 for San Diego homebuyers

David Marasco - San Diego Real Estate Agent — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:57:43 +0000

There’s a nice windfall for some homebuyers in the economic stimulus bill awaiting President Obama’s signature on Tuesday. San Diego First-time buyers can claim a credit worth $8,000 – or 10% of the home’s value, whichever is less – on their 2008 or 2009 taxes.

A big plus is that the credit is refundable, meaning San Diego tax filers see a refund of the full $8,000 even if their total tax bill – the amount of witholding they paid during the year plus anything extra they had to pony up when they filed their returns – was less than that amount. But there has been a lot of confusion over this provision. Tom Schein of San Diego wrote to CNNMoney.com asking:

“I will qualify as a first-time home buyer, and I am currently set to get a small tax refund for 2008. Does that mean if I purchased now that I would get an extra $8,000 added on top of my current refund?”

The short answer? Yes, Billings would get back the $8,000 plus what he’d overpaid. The long answer? It depends. Here are three scenarios:

Scenario 1: Your final tax liability is normally $6,000. You’ve had taxes withheld from every paycheck and at the end of the year you’ve paid Uncle Sam $6,000. Since you’ve already paid him all you owe, you get the entire $8,000 tax credit as a refund check.

Scenario 2: Your final tax liability is $6,000, but you’ve overpaid by $1,000 through your payroll witholding. Normally you would get a $1,000 refund check. In this scenario, you get $9,000, the $8,000 credit plus the $1,000 you overpaid.

Scenario 3: Your final tax liability is $6,000, but you’ve underpaid through your payroll witholding by $1,000. Normally, you would have to write the IRS a $1,000 check. This time, the first $1,000 of the tax credit pays your bill, and you get the remaining $7,000 as a refund.

To qualify for the credit, the purchase must be made between Jan. 1, 2009 and Nov. 30, 2009. San Diego Buyers may not have owned a home for the past three years to qualify as “first time” buyer. They must also live in the house for at least three years, or they will be obligated to pay back the credit.

Additionally, there are income restrictions: To qualify, San Diego buyers must make less than $75,000 for singles or $150,000 for couples. (Higher-income buyers may receive a partial credit.)

Applying for the credit will be easy – or at least as easy as doing your income taxes. Just claim it on your return. No other forms or papers have to be filed. San Diego Taxpayers who have already completed their returns can file amended returns for 2008 to claim the credit.

By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer

Mike Carter
San Diego Real Estate Agent
MTC Future Realty
(619) 488-5774

San Diego Predictions from 2008

David Marasco - San Diego Real Estate Agent — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:51:46 +0000

San Diego Short Sales Dying

David Marasco - San Diego Real Estate Agent — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:09:30 +0000

Having been in the business for nearly 4 years now we have been akin to the trends of the short sale market in San Diego. San Diego Short sales have dominated in markets such as Chula Vista, La Mesa, Spring Valley, and all over Rancho San Diego for the past few years but it wasn’t up until recently where we have seen the number of short sales decline. Perhaps this is due to the Stimulus package president Obama set up to help or perhaps we are finally reaching the absorption phase of the real estate life cycle in San Diego. Whatever it is, there is no denying that short sales in San Diego in general are seeing a steady decline in its numbers.

Dynamics of a San Diego Short Sale
I have closed short sale deals in Florida, California, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina and have had to deal with a variety of different law structures but there is one constant. Short sales can be a huge undertaking especially if they are not handled with care. San Diego Short sales face an even greater hurdle because the prices of houses are generally more expensive here than they are in most parts of the country.

In either case, San Diego short sales pose a different but obtainable challenge because for the most part the idea remains the same. To convince the lender to sell below the principal balance on the borrower’s loan at a reasonable market value price. This dynamic poses a large challenge in some parts of San Diego mainly due to the fact that in some areas in San Diego like Chula Vista, prices have dropped much more dramatically than say Point Loma. Coupled with the time some lenders can take to process just the paperwork that upon completion the house has already declined in value and the original buyer has either found something bigger at a cheaper price or the appraisal cannot meet the value of the offer.

San Diego Real Estate Market For Short Sales
There is no denying that a house that winds up on the San Diego (Dowtown San Diego or El Cajon) courthouse steps (foreclosure) will cost the lender thousands of more dollars than if they had sold it below market value as a short sale. Sometimes the amount of money saved could be in the hundreds of thousands depending on location of size of the house. For this reason alone, more and more lenders as well as government officials have come up with different ways to help the borrower stay in their homes. Whether it be a reduction in interest rate or modification of a loan lenders are working tirelessly to avoid foreclosures.

Until these plans go into affect for San Diego Homeowners Lenders will to continue to lose millions of dollars from foreclosures. However, we are already seeing that Short sales in San Diego have slowly but surely started to decline which is a good sign but there remains a lot of work left to do.