The Real Estate Agent Blog

More and more mobile apps are becoming available for Android devices. Grab the app, ‘Barcode Scanner’, for your Android Phone, which will enable you to scan QR Codes. QR Codes are square barcodes, like the ones you see below, which can contain data for a website, URL, URI, plain text, SMS message, full contact information and more.

Here, try out this QR Code, which takes you to FMLS’s Mobile Login screen:

I have found a few Android Apps on the Google Marketplace which I’ve found helpful during real estate. Below are the “MUST HAVES” for Real Estate Agents…

The Flashlight app:
Karl’s Mortgage Calculator:
Offiviewer: Lets you open MS Office Docs up to 2 MB..
Real Estate Droid: Good for quickly pulling up CMA info for buyers..

Want to purchase investment properties at wholesale prices? What if you don’t have the funds to do so?

As a licenced real estate agent, in the process of securing an LLC business license in Georgia, I can make it possible for investors to “pool” their money together, and with enough money, help those investors purchase real estate at wholesale prices. The reason we would get a wholesale price, because we will be buying in BULK.

Currently I work for a small investment group who buy properties to flip. We do not have enough money to buy in bulk, and are limited to only flipping property. With enough money circulating, a large group of investors (big and small), we could buy multiple properties at once and separate those properties into different types of real estate investing. This would successfully diversify our assets and create a steady profit. Not only would this investment group profit from the liquidation of assests (flipping properties), but receive returns based on percent of investment from rental properties and by the appreciation of properties which the group is holding.

So, you don’t have the funds to buy in bulk, no problem. Join a property investment group, like the one I’m forming now, and you won’t have to have the funds. Don’t have any money outside of your IRA? No problem, I can assist in turning your current IRA into a Self-Directed IRA.

This method to wealth building has extreme benefits. The real estate fund type of investment is based on income fundamentals, appreciation, and liquidity.

You may can call this the perfect investment, because with the right investors, the right real estate agent (one who will only take commissions on profits) and the LLC set up in the correct manor you will have a diversified portfolio using rental properties and flip properties, while having some serious assets on the increasing number of “hold” properties. The “hold” properties liquidated as needed, to pay off investors wanting out or to obtain other investment properties.

More on this topic in the future…

From: Perry Gambrell
Published on: February 26, 2009

The single largest provision in the $15.1 billion package of housing tax incentives in the recently enacted Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008 (the “Housing Act”) is a measure allowing individuals buying their first home to take a tax credit of up to $7,500 of the purchase price. Qualified homebuyers can subtract the credit amount from their federal income tax when they buy a home and even get a refund if the credit exceeds the tax. However, they are then required to pay the credit back over 15 years. The result is that the credit resembles an interest-free loan that must be repaid to the government. Here are the details of the new credit:
• The home must be located in the U.S. and must be the taxpayer’s principal residence (main home). The taxpayer (and the taxpayer’s spouse if married) must not have owned another principal residence in the U.S. in the three-year period before purchasing the new home. Thus, the home doesn’t literally have to be the taxpayer’s first home.
• The home must have been purchased from April 9, 2008 through June 30, 2009, inclusive. Purchases from certain related persons and acquisitions by gift or inheritance don’t qualify. A home constructed by the taxpayer does qualify if the taxpayer moves in from April 9, 2008 through June 30, 2009.
• A special rule allows taxpayers who purchase a principal residence in the first six months of 2009 to treat the purchase as if made on Dec. 31, 2008. This allows the taxpayer to claim the credit for 2008 rather than 2009.
• The credit is equal to 10% of the price paid for the home, up to a maximum of $7,500. The $7,500 maximum credit applies both to individuals and married couples filing a joint return. A married individual filing separately can claim a maximum credit of $3,750.
• The credit is phased out for individual taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income (AGI) between $75,000 and $95,000 ($150,000 and $170,000 for joint filers) for the year of purchase. Taxpayers with modified AGI over $95,000 ($170,000 for joint filers) can’t claim the credit.
• The credit is refundable, meaning that households with incomes too low to owe income tax can benefit from it.
• In the second year after purchase, taxpayers who took the credit must start paying back the credit in equal installments over 15 years, with no interest charge. This works as follows. Suppose a first-time homebuyer purchases a home for $100,000 this coming December and claims the maximum credit of $7,500 on his 2008 tax return. He would then be required to pay back $500 (one-fifteenth of the credit) on his tax return for 2010 and for each of the following 14 years, through 2024.
• If the taxpayer sells the home (or the home ceases to be the principal residence of the taxpayer or the taxpayer’s spouse) before complete repayment of the credit, any remaining credit is due on the tax return for the year in which the home is sold (or ceases to be the principal residence). If the home was sold at a loss to an unrelated person, repayment of the remaining credit is forgiven to the extent of the loss.
• No credit is allowed if: the taxpayer was ever entitled to a D.C. homebuyer credit; the home purchase was financed through tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds; the taxpayer is a nonresident alien; or the taxpayer disposes of the residence (or it ceases to be a principal residence) in the year of purchase.

By: NAMAR, REALTOR Action Center

The House has defeated the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) on a vote of 205 – 228. NAR supported the package. Media reports about it did not present the case for the many ways it would have supported the real estate industry.

The summary below presents all the bill’s provisions, condensed into some general subject headings. Many of these provisions are likely to survive in whatever legislation comes next.

Help Homeowners and Borrowers: The legislation responded to the criticisms that lenders have been slow and/or unwilling to work with homeowners and borrowers. It encouraged negotiation in short sales and consumer efforts to refinance or reconfigure existing mortgages:

When the Treasury (or other federal agency that holds mortgages) acquires troubled existing mortgages from financial institutions, agencies are required to work with lenders and mortgage servicers to find ways to avoid foreclosures.

All federal agencies are required to work with servicers to facilitate loan modifications that will consider the net present value of the mortgage.

Similar refinancing and foreclosure prevention requirements apply to mortgages involving owners of multi-family properties. Policy goal is to assure that tenants don’t lose their residence when an owner has problems with the mortgage.

Changes to existing mortgages can include (but are not limited to) revisions in principal, interest rate and period for repayment.
Get Money into the Financial System Quickly: The credit markets are nearly frozen. Lenders can’t lend because they are receiving no payments on existing loans. The legislation allowed the government to buy troubled loans and mortgage securities. The funds that the institutions received when the government purchased the existing portfolios were to be available to issue new mortgages with more carefully specified and monitored lending standards. Provisions include:

Create a Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to purchase and guarantee the troubled assets from the financial institutions that hold mortgages and/or mortgage-backed securities.

A new Office of Financial Stability within the Treasury to operate TARP, with input from the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC – the agency that works with failed and failing financial institutions to insure and protect consumers), the Comptroller of the Currency (bank regulator), Office of Thrift Supervision (regulator of former savings and loan companies) and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Timing for TARP purchases designed to assure that all the authorized $700 Billion is not released at one time.

First release of funds to purchase troubled assets will be $250 Billion. Second release of up to $100 Billion must be authorized by the President. Final $350 Billion can be issued only on Congressional approval. Congress given 15 days to act.

Follow, Protect and Watch Over the Money: Congress will keep a tight rein on TARP. Congress will have the assistance of numerous agencies charged with specific tasks and reporting responsibilities.

TARP Oversight Board at Treasury — monthly activity reports to Congress.
Secretary of Treasury — detailed reports to Congress for each $50 Billion in transactions as the transactions are completed.
Government Accountability Office (Congress’s auditor) — financial reports about TARP activities every 60 days.
Judicial Review — Federal courts may issue injunctions when there is a finding that the Secretary of the Treasury has acted in a manner that is arbitrary, capricious or outside the law.
Create a new Inspector General (IG) for TARP. An IG might be viewed as the “cop on duty” who has authority to investigate TARP’s activities. IG will make quarterly reports to Congress.
Appoint a Congressional Oversight Panel – receive and process all these reports to keep Congress apprised of the state of financial markets, activities of the regulatory system and the use of TARP’s asset acquisition and disposition authority.
Federal Reserve — provide reports to Congress on utilization of the lending authority created earlier this year. That authority was intended to assist ailing financial institutions.
Put Brakes on the Bad Guys: Congress wanted to curtail perceived “bad acts” of executives who made big bets and lost.

Assure that skilled asset managers who buy and sell TARP assets have no conflicts of interest with prior employers or firms.

No golden parachute or severance payments to executives of companies that sell assets to TARP. If a company that sells assets to TARP does make any post-employment payments (other than retirement compensation), the executive (not the company) must pay a 20% excise tax.

If a company sells assets to TARP, then no tax deductions for salary or other compensation will be allowed if a worker’s compensation package is more than $500,000.

All financial regulatory agencies are required to cooperate with the FBI in its investigations of fraud, misrepresentation or malfeasance in the selling or advertising of financial products.
Give the Taxpayers a Stake in the Profits: Historically, when the government has intervened to shore up a company’s or government’s financial dealings (such as the loan guarantees made to Chrysler and the aid given to New York City during a fiscal crisis), the long-term effect has been that the government has made money back on the deal. The legislation provided an “upside” benefit for taxpayers:

Any profits generated when the government subsequently sells TARP assets would be used to pay down the national debt.

The government will receive warrants in the companies that participate in TARP. The warrants are similar to stock, but do not grant any voting authority to the government. If the participating company pays dividends at some future time, the warrants would allow the government to receive the dividend. Similarly, if the government sells its stake in the company, the warrants would entitle the government to any appreciation.
Recoup What’s Still Owed: If, after five years from the date of enactment (the date the President signs a bill), the program has lost money, the sitting President will be required to present a plan to Congress for ways to recover the funds from the financial institutions that benefited from the TARP relief.