Countdown until you owe the IRS

So what are other homeowners doing? Many homeowners that are considering a short sale or a loan modification have decided that instead of waiting for the market to come back they are opting to sell their house now and get out while the getting is good!  If you owe more than your house is worth, it will take years to break even. If you decide to sell your house BEFORE you break even, there will be debt that is settled by the lender. Pursuit of a short sale AFTER this deadline expires will be subject to additional tax liability.

photo credit: 3rdStLA

A Florida teen just bought her very first home. After earning $6000.00 by selling items on craigslist, she saved up that money and bought a short sale property with her mother. "If there's one thing I want people to know, it's that your age does not matter. If I can inspire another person my age, younger, that would mean the world. Whether it's buying a house, buying a car, or whatever. If you really work for it and put your mind to it you can do what you want to do," she told ABC News. When Tufano learned that her mother, a real estate agent in Florida, was planning to buy the distressed property, she asked her if she could go in on the purchase with her. Tufano worked with her mom to fix up the home for its future tenants. When Tufano reaches the legal age of 18 -- will use her portion of the rental proceeds to buy her mom out, leaving her to hold the title herself.

When was asked if she would follow in mom's footsteps and become a Realtor, Tufano replied, "I'm not so sure about real estate, but investing is really cool. You get to see a property that was a mess before and afterward see that it's beautiful. I suppose with real estate you can connect with people more, but I would probably prefer investing."

Read the full article.

photo credit: robinhamman

The Federal Housing Administration has recently extended their waiver of the property anti-flipping rule throughout the end of 2012. FHA rules normally prevent insuring mortgage loans on any home owned by the seller for less than 90 days. The FHA hopes that  extending the waiver will let buyers continue to use FHA-insured financing in order to purchas HUD homes and bank-owned homes, such as foreclosures and REOs, through the end of December 2012. FHA expects this extension to allow faster re-sells of distressed properties. This will in turn, they expect, help stabalize housing prices and rejuvenate areas that still have a lot of foreclosures flooding their markets. Carol Galante, FHA's Acting Commissioner, explains, "This extension is intended to accelerate the resale of foreclosed properties in neighborhoods struggling to overcome the possible effects of abandonment and blight. The FHA remains a critical source of mortgage financing and stability and we must make every effort that to promote recovery in every responsible way we can."

Read the complete article.

photo credit: Images_of_Money

After a half-decade of falling home prices and decreasing sales, some experts say that the single-family housing market is finally beginning to turn around. Some metropolitan communities report an increase in both home prices and home purchases. We've been in a housing depression since 2007 but we may be climbing out of it now. Barclays Capital analyst Stephen Kim argues that "the pieces for a housing rebound next year are beginning to fall into place." The CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, Jerry Howard, believes, "with the exception of really hard-hit markets, the vast majority is ready to turn around."

The CEO of Realogy, Richard Smith, suggests that we're not out of the recession quite yet. Smith thinks it's premature to assume this recovery will be a big one. While volume is improving, housing prices are still "under pressure," Smith argues.

The signs of recovery are finally being seen. For potential home buyers, rental prices are on the rise, which means that for the first time in many years, consumers are actually considering purchasing a house. Existing home inventory is at its lowest level in five years; inventory of new homes is at its lowest in 40 years; mortgage loan delinquencies have finally peaked; and possibly most importantly, job growth is increasing at last.

The National Association of Realtors says that existing home sales will probably go up another five percent in the next two years and that prices will increase two percent in these years, and four percent in 2014. While the recovery may not be immediate, the signs certainly tell us that the housing market is making a comeback.

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There are many circumstances that will determine if a lender provides "Cash For Keys".

But in this particular case, the sellers did very well.  Beats foreclosure hands down.

6/24/11

Mark,

Thank you so much for all you did for us at a really stressful time.  You and Sam were on top of everything and had answers when we called you.  These are some important points that happened as we were going thru a short sale.

                Foreclosure sale date was postponed.

                Lender did not hold us responsible for the deficiency of the note.

                We received $23,000 at closing for participating in the short sale process.
                $3,000 from the HAFA Program and $20,000 from Chase.

If you know of others that are going thru the same circumstances they can call us if they would

like.  You have are numbers.

Sincerely,

Walt & Marlene Klein