Where are you getting your funds for your Home Purchase?

Retirement Funds For Home Purchase...

For the person who has good credit and income but not enough money for the down payment on a home, their qualified retirement program could offer them some help. The rules are different depending on whether it is a 401(k), a Roth IRA or a traditional IRA.
Up to half of the balance of a 401(k) or $50,000, whichever is less, can be borrowed by the owner at any age for any reason without tax or penalty assuming the employer permits it. There can be specific rules for loans from 401ks that would determine the repayment; interest is usually charged but goes back into the owner’s account. You can consult with your HR department to find out the specifics.
A risk in borrowing against a 401(k) comes if your employment ends before the loan has been repaid. The loan may have to be repaid with as soon as 60 days to keep the loan from being considered a withdrawal and subject to tax and penalty. Even if you continue with the same employer, failure to repay the loan could be considered a withdrawal also.
Roth IRA owners can withdraw their contributions tax-free and penalty-free at any age for any reason because the contributions were made with post-tax income. After age 59 ½, earnings may be withdrawn as long as the Roth IRA have been in existence for at least five years.
Traditional IRAs have a provision for first-time buyers which include anyone who hasn’t owned a home in the previous two years. A person and their spouse, if married, can each withdrawn up to $10,000 from their traditional IRA for a first-time home purchase without incurring the 10% early-withdrawal penalty. However, they will have to recognize the withdrawal as income in that tax year. For more information, go to IRS.gov.
Another interesting fact about this provision is that the taxpayer making the withdrawal can help a relative includes children, grandchildren, parents and grandparents.
If you want more information to clearly understand the issues involved relative to your specific situation, talk to your tax professional or consultwww.IRS.gov.

Positive Home Equity

TX, HI, WA and CO have the highest 

percentage of homes with positive equity in 

the first quarter 2016.

92% of Mortgaged Properties Have Equity

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | MONDAY, JUNE 13, 2016

More home owners now have equity. About 46.7 million residential properties with a mortgage had equity at the end of the first quarter of 2016, according to data from CoreLogic. Home equity rose year-over-year by $762 billion.

In the first quarter alone, 268,000 home owners regained equity, which boosted the percentage to 92 percent of all mortgaged properties with equity.  

“In just the last four years, equity for home owners with a mortgage has nearly doubled to $6.9 trillion,” says Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “The rapid increase in home equity reflects the improvement in home prices, dwindling distressed borrowers and increased principal repayment. These are all positive factors that will provide support to both household balance sheets and the overall economy.”

More than 1 million home owners have escaped the negative equity trap over the past year, adds Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.

“We expect this positive trend to continue over the balance of 2016 and into next year as home prices continue to rise,” says Nallathambi. “If home values rise another 5 percent uniformly across the U.S., the number of underwater borrowers will fall by another one million during the next year.”

Still, 4 million -- or 8 percent of all homes with a mortgage -- remain in negative equity territory. But the number of negative equity properties has been steadily dropping. In comparison to the fourth quarter of 2015, negative equity properties dropped 21.5 percent year-over-year. 

Read more: 1 Million Borrowers Regained Equity Last Year

Five states accounted for 30.2 percent of negative equity in the U.S. The states with the highest percentage of homes in negative equity are: Nevada (17.5%); Florida (15%); Illinois (14.4%), Rhode Island (13.3%); and Maryland (12.9%). 

On the other hand, the states with the highest percentage of homes with positive equity in the first quarter are: Texas (98.1%); Alaska (97.8%); Hawaii (97.8%), Colorado (97.5%); and Washington (97.2%).

Photo Shoot Tips

Are you getting your home ready for the Photo's to put with your listing?  Here are some great tips for getting ready for the Photographer.  You want only the best when you place your home on the Market.

The Marketability of Your Property

Are You ready to Sell or List?


The seller has three tools available to affect the marketability of their home: price, condition and terms. Price is the easiest to adjust for the competing properties, amount of inventory or market conditions. However, lowering the price is not necessarily the best decision when trying to maximize the proceeds of sale.
If a home is in poor or outdated condition, updating can be done to make it show favorably with other homes that are currently on the market. Sometimes, sellers rationalize not doing the work by saying they believe the buyers would rather make their own choices. The truth is that most buyers are using all their resources to get into the home and will have to live in its present condition until they can save enough to make the changes they want.
Another reason to go ahead and invest the money and effort into improving the condition is that it is difficult for buyers to imagine the home any other way than its current condition. When comparing one home to another, buyers will sometimes refer to a home as the “stinky house” or the “old kitchen” which may put it at a disadvantage.
While price and condition are the main things that control the marketability, terms can be equally effective. Terms relate to financial considerations made by the seller to induce a buyer to make a decision to purchase their home.
Seller-paid points or closing costs, interest rate buy downs and owner-financing are examples of terms that may increase the marketability of a home because of the additional benefits they offer to buyers.
An example could be that a seller will carry a 10% second lien so that the buyer can get an 80% loan and avoid the expense of mortgage insurance. The seller gets most of their equity plus a fair interest rate on the loan that doesn’t have to be tied up for 30 years like the first mortgage.
Increasing the marketability of your home is a great conversation to have with your real estate professional especially to help you get the highest price in the shortest time with the fewest problems. Just be aware that not all agents may be as creative as some.

This Is A Tough Game!!

If you are not in for the long haul, you may want to get off the track..This is a very hard game, one that you need your sweat band on to run...


If competition is a buyer’s biggest concern, for goodness’ sake, get in the game. In a new survey of close to a thousand home buyers conducted by Redfin, affordability is still the number one concern but due to low inventories, competition from other buyers is moving its way up the poll.
26% identified affordability while 19% mentioned competition and 15% mentioned low inventory as their respective top concerns.
To win, athletes study the competition to come up with a plan and buying a home is not different.

1. Ask what terms are important to the seller before you write the offer.
2. Once you decide to make an offer, do it as fast as you can, hopefully, to be the only one the seller is considering.
3. Make a good (or possibly, your best) offer in the beginning; you may never get a chance at improving it. In highly competitive situations, offer above the list price.
4. Attach your pre-approval letter from a respected lender. This means you’ll need to get pre-approved before you even think about writing an offer.
5. Have your lender call the listing agent to reassure them of your ability to qualify.
6. Include a higher than normal amount of earnest money to show you are serious.
7. Eliminate unnecessary contingencies.
8. Write a personal, hand-written letter telling the seller what you like about their home and why you want it. Consider including pictures of your family.
9. Minimize seller expenses paid for the benefit of the buyer.
10. Shorten inspection times.
11. Don’t ask for personal property.
12. Be flexible on closing dates to accommodate the seller’s move.

Once you find your dream home, don’t take a chance on losing it. Write a winning offer that will be good for both the sellers and the buyers.

So Many Burglaries Happening Lately!!

Some Helpful Hints to Secure Your Family and Home!