Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 was enacted on December 20, 2007. 

Normally if you do a short sale, or if you foreclose on a home, you would receive a 1099 for the amount of debt you have not had to repay. Then you would be required to pay the taxes on the amount as income to you.

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 made it so many people having financial challenges from 2007 till 2009 who sell their home in a short sale situation or have their home foreclosed upon will not have to have the burden of being taxed on the amounts of the debt.

The catch is, not everyone is exempt from getting the 1099.

If the home was a second home or an investment property, you will still receive the 1099 and have to pay taxes on the debt.  If you refinanced, pulled money out of your home, and it was used for anything other than adding to the value of your home, you will be gettting a 1099 and paying the taxes.

Check out the IRS information on this Act as you consider your options.

Short Sales - What Sellers should know

Read what you sign.  The Short Sale Addendum (one of the forms that gets to be included in any contract that is a short sale) covers the seller if the bank should come back with an acceptance of short sale conditional on the balance being paid off.

Some times in a short sale the bank will want the seller to pay the difference the bank is being shorted. 

When a seller applies for a short sale with the bank they have to fill out a package similar to a loan package.  With all of the financial data; that means your 401K could look mighty nice to the bank. 

The Short Sale Addendum in Arizona allows for all parties to be satisfied with the final conditions.  If the bank agrees to the sale and the seller once they have the final agreement letter does not like the terms there is no contract.

Be sure to read these other posts as well:
Short Sales, info for the Buyer
Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007

Short Sales, info for the Buyer

There is a lot of talk these days about short sales.  My first words of advice; if something looks too good to be true, it usually is.  Short sales have snags all over them.  If you are considering putting an offer in here are a few things to find out first.

Does the seller have one loan or two on the home?  If the seller has 2 loans the likely hood of getting approval from both banks is slim.

Is the seller in a hardship? With out seller hardship the bank will not easily approve a short sale.  Hardship could be death, divorce, health issues, and loss of job.

Does the loan have PMI? If it does, just forget about a short sale, the loan is insured and there is no reason for them to take less money.

Is the seller late; or rather how late is the seller on their mortgage?  Has the foreclosure process begun?  If the seller is on time with their loan payments, what incentive does the bank have for accepting a short sale? 

Are the sellers investors? Or was the property a primary residence?  The banks are more forgiving to personal residences than investors.

Does the seller have a big 401k or other investments?  If so the bank may want it to pay off the difference rather than being shorted, and our short sale addendum allows for the seller step out of the contract.

Each of these items could mean no contract for the buyer, so it is important to know as much as you can, before you take up months waiting to hear if your offer has been accepted.Be sure to read these other post as well:
Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007
Short Sales - What Sellers should know
Short Sales - “If something looks to good to be true it usually is”

 

Text Google rather than call 411

This one gets a thank you to Amy Chorew of Real Estate 2.0 and Mathew Rathbun of VARbuzz. Check out Mathews post for images and greater detail.

The tip, and why it is so great.  Last week I called 411, from my cell, got transferred to the wrong number; called 411 again.  With this tip, no 411 fees, and always get the right info.

Go to your text message server on your phone.  Open a new message, in the “To” box type Google, or 466453 then for your message, enter the name of the business, if it is common like Starbucks, also enter a zip code and press send.  A few seconds later you get phone number, address etc. of the closest busiesses.

Very cool and very easy.  Add Google as a contact and it will always be easy to remember.

Have a great day,

Artesia a New community next to McCormick Ranch

As you gaze across Camelback Lake from the McCormick Ranch Golf Club you see a strange site in this area.  You see new construction.  Starpointe’s new community Artesia is not in McCormick Ranch, but is just next door and so I am including it in the area communities.

The community located off Scottsdale Rd just north of Indian Bend Rd is in a great location, with restaurants (including the soon to open Roka Akor) and shopping walking distance from the homes.  The community will have a fitness center, yoga and aerobics room, massage rooms, lap pool, spa, clubhouse with theater, event/ game rooms, state of the art golf simulator, pet spa and much more.  The community besides being on the golf course will also have 10 acres of private park area, four miles of walking paths, and water gardens.

In Artesia there are two styles of buildings.  The first has what they are calling Residences, single level condos, starting from $354,900 for a one bedroom unit, on the first thru third floors, and two bedroom units starting from $434,900.  On the fourth floor they have the Penthouse with 2260 sqft, and 1211 sqft of private wrap around deck, I am sure the views will be stunning.  The pricing is $1,199,900 for the penthouses.

The second style is the Brownstone collection, three story units starting at 2907 sqft with private garages, and  views of the Pines course at McCormick Ranch.  The prices start from $1,064,900.

If you are looking to be close to everything Scottsdale has to offer, and looking for new properties in an urban setting, Artesia may be right for you.

85258 Real Estate Statistics for February

< ![CDATA[This months stats are looking good.  We have a nice increase in the number of pending homes.  These reflect the sales that took place in February and are waiting to close.  Notice the dip in the number of closed homes in January, those are the homes that sold during the holiday season in December.  We should see an even better number next month, with 72 pending contracts ‘in the hopper’.

The average price of a single family home that closed last month is $590,000
The average price of a town home/patio home was skewed a bit with a $1.5 million sale, so eliminating that from the average it was $473,000
and the average apartment style was $155,00.  It will be interesting to see that number adjust with the increase in pendings (17) from the category.

	26-Nov-07	2-Jan-08	1-Feb-08	3-Mar-08
Total Active Listings	568	523	578	556
Single Family Homes	264	246	277	279
Patio/Town/Gemini Homes	168	153	157	150
Apartment style Homes	136	124	144	127
Total Pending Listings	51	36	57	72
Single Family Homes	21	19	36	33
Patio/Town/Gemini Homes	17	11	17	22
Apartment style Homes	13	6	4	17
	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb
Total Sold	36	38	29	42
Single Family Homes	14	17	14	21
Patio/Town/Gemini Homes	10	11	11	17
Apartment style Homes	12	10	4	4

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March 3, 2008 by Irene · Leave a Comment

Scottsdale’s Camelback Walk thru McCormick Ranch, a video tour

Filed Under Videos · Tagged: Camelback Walk, Scottsdale multi use path 

The Camelback Walk is a multi use path that meanders thru the parks, under roads, along the golf courses, lakes and communities of Scottsdale.  It was designed to support the water flow of a hundred year flood, creating for us the wonderful open spaces to enjoy.

March 2, 2008 by Irene · Leave a Comment