FREE MONEY

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 gave the green light to a tax credit for 1st time home buyers.

* This only applies to owner occupied residences purchased on or after January 1st, 2009 and before December 1st , 2009.

* Can be applied on single-family detached homes, townhomes and condominiums.

* To qualify for a full credit ($8,000) as a single taxpayer your income has to be up to $75,000 and as a married couple up to $150,000.

* The tax credit does not need to be repaid as long as the buyer does not sell the home within the first 3 years and it remains their primary residence.

REAL ESTATE TIP OF THE DAY! Earnest Money

           You finally found a property that you like and you decided to put an offer on it. You know already how much you'll offer after discussing it with your Realtor. Now, how much will you put for earnest money?! First of all what is earnest money?

Earnest Money: Money given by the buyer with an offer to purchase. Shows good faith. Also called deposit. If the deal goes through the earnest money goes towards the down payment or closing costs.

You really like the place, you already see yourself living there and you want to present the most serious possible offer to the seller, making sure that this is your next home. There are no formulas for how much earnest money to put, but you want that seller to see you (through the offer) as a very serious  committed buyer who won't waste anybody's time and efforts, ready to buy the property. From my experience (like I said there are no formulas or exact amounts for earnest money and it depends from case to case, from a state to another) $1,000 is the most common amount that I've seen. Remember that this money, if the deal goes through, will go towards your down payment or your closing costs. To make a good impression put more than $1,000, make it $2,000 or $5,000 or even more. 

When I'm representing the seller and we get an offer there are three major points that we first look at in the contract: 

 1. Price

 2. Earnest Money

 3. Mortgage ( down payment, closing date, contingencies)

The details of those three make the offer  strong and based on this information you can tell from the beginning if we're dealing with a genuinely interested  buyer or someone that's going to make the whole process more difficult. By putting a nice amount for the earnest money you could also set yourself apart from other offers in a multiple offer situation.

This is my opinion, based on my experience about how much earnest money you should give when making an offer. After all it's your decision, of course and is only a matter of how much you want that property and what are you willing to give for it.

 

REAL ESTATE TIP OF THE DAY! Curb appeal

A winning first impression : Curb appeal - isn't the most important part of the buying decision, but is very important. Buyers decide within seconds if they want to check out the inside of the home. A lot of times I was showing properties to buyers and because the curb appeal was uninviting, they didn't want to waste time looking at the interior ( although on the inside you might have the surprise to find one of the most beautiful house on the block for example ). 

Make sure you have a neutral palette when it comes to exterior paint. This way the house will appeal to a wide range of buyers.

Clean and trim trees and shrubs. The landscape around the house, if properly done, can give you a nice feeling and it could be love at first side.

Welcome buyers with beautiful front doors and a clean sidewalks.

Don't forget about lighting your property. A lot of buyers drive by to take a look before they call their agent to schedule an appointment and because most of us work during the day they drive by at night. The exterior lighting makes the property look homey and inviting.

If the curb appeal says yey than the buyers won't be able to say ney!