Last Minute Tax Tip - Minimize Taxable gain using Sale Expenses Many real estate investors overlook deductions when they sell their property. If you sold your rental property for a gain, make sure to minimize taxes by accounting for sale expenses - like closing costs, which can be found on the property's settlement statement. You should deduct Commissions Paid, Title Charges, Recording and Transfer Charges, and Additional Settlement Costs from the Contract Sales Price. This will help you minimize gain, and lower the tax liability on your sold property. Be sure to share these tips, and click here for more. To learn more about saving money on taxes, try the property management software and other money saving real estate software from TReXGlobal.com. 03/26/2009

A client I worked with this last weekend, got me to thinking about how I should look at this problem. It's all going to boil down to what you think will happen with: Your income stream (job security, ability to get another job, if your company decides it needs to downsize, etc.) Mortgage Interest Rates Property Values Obviously, renting is the safer, securer option for you right now, but the benefit of owning is that you fix your housing costs (since a 30 yr mortgage is major component of your home ownership costs, taxes are limited to increasing at 2% (California's Proposition 13), and insurance rates have actually come down the last 2 years). I don't think pricing will move up the next year. However we don't know where interests maybe. One concern out there is that interest rates wil... 02/25/2009

Considered the eighth largest economy in the world, California saw a near-doubling in home sales in the fourth quarter, a pace surpassed only by Nevada's 133.7 percent growth. Why is this important? The economy of California is a dominant force in the economy of the United States, with California paying more to the federal system than it receives in direct monetary benefits For many young couples, plummeting prices and record-low interest rates make it possible to own a home in California for the first time. And of course, Investors can snap up foreclosed properties for cheap and sell them during the next boom, one that is possibly not far off. Combined with the new California tax breaks, many dreamers are finding gold during the housing bust. California isn't the only market with inves... 02/24/2009

The new state budget contains a $10,000 tax credit for buyers of new homes in California. Here are some highlights: · Applies to new, never-occupied houses and condos bought between March 1, 2009, and March 1, 2010. · It is for 5 percent of purchase price or $10,000, whichever is lower.  · It is for both first-time buyers and move-up buyers. · Limit is one. This is not for investors. · Buyer must live in the home for two years to receive the credit. · Buyers will get $3,333 off their taxes starting in the year of purchase, and $3,333 in each of two years afterward. · There are no income limitations for the buyer. · The tax credit does not have to be repaid (unless buyer sells or rents out home before two years). · There is a $100 million limit statewide on this tax credit. First come, f... 02/23/2009

Absolutely nothing! But if you go to TReX's webinar, you might show up on the cover of Vogue, on posters in Paris, and even on the moon! Ok, I made that last part up... But this part I am not making up, and if you don't believe me, you can ask Tina Merritt! I am NOT kidding you about this! Tonight, I worked on the things I learned on your webinar last week and posted my links to Craigslist, Backpage and Kijiji. Within 3 (yes, 3!) minutes, I had another investor sign up! I may have lied about the beautiful agent who wanted to paint my face... but I am not making up what Tina said! Register for this Friday (2/20) to see what all the hype is about. MARKETING to Real Estate INVESTORS 25 Minute Webinar - Fridays at 2PM EST/ 11 AM PST Why are RE Investors important to me? (5 min) How can I be... 02/19/2009

President Obama announce his plan for forclosure mitigation a few minutes ago. One of the provisions in the new plan is to allow home owners who are under water, to refinance thier mortgages. What this means is that even if your home is worth less than the amount of Mortgage on it, you will still be able to refinance your mortage into a 30 or 15 year fixed rate loan at current mortage rates. This will be effective in 2 weeks from now. This will come as a big releif to a large number of home owners who have been making all their payments on time, but have been feeling the pain of not being able to refinance at the current historic low rates. 02/18/2009

With home searching on the Internet becoming the more popular choice for home buyers to do their initial house hunting, agents can become displaced very early on in the process of working with a home buyer.Take my site and I for example: tricityhome.com. It uses google/api integration for its Fremont CA home search engine. At the time of writing, we receive 21,000 hits each month. But, when an email arrives at the inbox or the phone rings due to a call to action on the site, the commonplace afterward is to just have the agent provide links, updates and e-notifications for the soon to be homebuyer.There's the disconnect. We are no longer in control. Most of the time, the home buyer does not want to form a relationship yet. They just want their stuff. I can relate. I only want my stuff wh... 02/08/2009

We are located in Pleasanton, California and provide services to those in Alameda, Contra Costa County and surrounding areas. Jason Ryback is a Short Sale and REO Certified Specialist. If you are behind your payments or have no equity in your house we can help you avoid foreclosure. You have Options! We will stop the harassing phone calls and letters from your bank. You have seen and heard all those commericals on the Radio and TV about Loan Modifications. The sad truth is most of these are scams. They will ask you for upfront money in order to start the process. In a lot of cases you can have this done for free through non-profit organizations or loan-modification assistance programs. A lot of homeowners are paying for work that never got completed and in turn are loosing their homes t... 02/07/2009

One of our homes for sale is getting more viewings. I have some ideas about that.In my opinion, I think that homebuyers are at least feeling better about searching for homes in general. That's really all this image taken from my Realtor.com reporting is proving. But, none the less, people are searching more than they were, say in November.My website has more visits too.     Here is a snippet from my domain reporting program. In short, After the Holidays, people seem to be ready to search.We do not have offers on the home, but that is another blog post.If you notice the spikes on the 13th and the 14th, then again on the 21st, you will see that those are Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Interesting. If you know why, let me know.I am hopeful and hoping that people are really starting to feel better... 01/24/2009

Some people say TLC means Tender Love Care. I call it "Time Labor and Cost". Please express your views on what this acronym should be called. 01/12/2009

I hear different opinions from different people when discussing this topic. I have talked to people who have owned a house in the Bay area for a number of years, people who bought at the peak, People who bought in recent months and people who are sitting on the fence waiting for just the right time to buy. All of them have different opinion, dased on the catagory (above) into which, a person falls. Since this discussion can be very long if I start talking about all the catagories of buyer. I will keep this discussion limited to first time home buyers and will keep the discussion limited to the Real Estate market in the SF Bay area. Federal Reserve has reduced the key interest rate to almost 0%. It cannot go lower than this. It has already driven mortgage rates down since yesterday. Ther... 12/18/2008

On Saturday (12/6), Congressman Pete Stark will hold a town hall meeting from 8:30-9:30 a.m. at the the Fremont Senior Center, which is located at 40086 Paseo Padre Parkway in Fremont.  These events are a great opportunity to meet with the congressman in a low-key, informal setting and to get Stark's often candid take on what's happening in Washington D.C. Considering Moving to Fremont or the East Bay?    ~   Do you want to Buy or Sell a home?      Do you have clients with needs in the East Bay?      Search East Bay Area Properties    Visit my website at http://pamwinterbauer.com 12/05/2008

I wrote a really cool article about depreciation (a huge deduction for RE investors), and it was published in November 2008's issue of INVEST MAGAZINE. There is some great information for you and your clients, so be sure to check it out by clicking the link or reading below. Death, Taxes, and Depreciation… The Three Certainties in Life... A wise man once told the world that there are only two certainties in life – death and taxes. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out (sorry Benjamin Franklin). Some people will unknowingly travel a great distance to elude one or the other. One of those individuals is my friend Bob. Bob's almost retired, and because Bob is a “small” real estate investor, he tries to save money whenever he can. That’s why Bob mows the lawns, manages the propert... 11/20/2008

There’s been a lot of discussion among the media, economists, and even us real estate agents in Fremont, about what President-elect Obama will do about the housing market. Based on a review of Obama’s previous legislative record, senior leaders of National Association of REALTORS stated that Obama has generally supported legislation favorable to homeowners. Fore example, while in Illinois, Obama supported tax credits for property owners. As a U.S. senator, he’s argued for a stronger Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and voted for the economic stimulus bill that increased loan limits in high-cost areas, like Fremont. From a Bay Area real estate perspective, I believe increasing the FHA-backed loan limit is really important. The 2008 conforming jumbo loan limit in the Bay Area is $729,... 11/09/2008

As part of a proposed economic stimulus package, Gov. Schwarzenegger proposed a 90-day freeze on pending foreclosures in California. According to MDA DataQuick, California had 80,000 foreclosures in Q3 2008, so the proposal by Gov. Schwarzenegger is meant to slow down the pace and provide homeowners with more time to find and re-finance with other, more affordable loans. However, as an incentive to provide more affordable loans, lenders can avoid the 90-day freeze under the plan if they proved they were actively rewriting loans so that homeowners could afford to make lower payments and avoid foreclosure. From a Bay Area perspective, while I applaud the government’s effort to call for a “cooling off” period from the time a homeowner receives a default notice from a bank, in terms of actu... 11/09/2008

This is a light, non-exhaustive view from my own broker experience regarding the differences between purchasing a short sale property and a real estate owned or bank-owned property (REO). It's helpful for would be buyers to take 5 minutes and view because having clarity and realistic expectations in whatever goal you set out to accomplish is good. Having clarity and realistic expectations when it comes to purchasing real estate ranks pretty high. Wouldn't you agree? View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: ca fremont) 11/04/2008

On Thursday City of Fremont Planning Department staff held a community workshop to discuss plans for meeting the city's housing needs over the next 20 years.  Planning consultant Don Weden made a presentation about population, energy consumption and environmental issues that Fremont residents should consider when making land use and housing plans.  Dan Schoenholz, General Plan Update Project Manager discussed the two major issues the Housing Element will address: land use; where future housing will be located and housing affordability.  Schoenholz reported on that Fremont will need to create approximately 4,300 new housing units by 2014 to accommodate population growth.  Of these new units half will need to be made affordable to moderate, low and very low-income households.  This works... 10/31/2008

Conforming Jumbo CHANGE on 12/1/08  October 6, 2008The maximum conforming-jumbo limit for California officially changes for Fannie and Freddie on 1/1/09 to $625,500, however just recently I've learned that the banks will not fund any loan over $729,750 after 12/1/08. If you loan is greater than $625,500 and you can't pay it down before your lock expires, you should consider completing a refinance into a 30 yr fixed ASAP. It'll take at least 30 days to process the loan as the lines get longer, so start the process today.Here are some pricing scenarios:Scenario 1: $729,750 loan amount, Loan to Value 80%, FICO 720, on a no-closing cost 30 yr fixed:Rate 6.625% APR 6.625%Scenario 2: $729,750 loan amount, Loan to Value 75%, FICO 720, on a no-closing cost 30 yr fixed:Rate 6.250% APR 6.250%Scen... 10/06/2008

Educated buyers are seldom shortchanged. For the most part, this post is designed to convey a general understanding of shortsale principles to buyers who want just a 5-6 minute crash course.It is, by no means, an exhaustive look at the foreclosure market and the economy. These are my opinions based on a behind the desk and on the field experiences related to the plunge of the real estate market since 2006. Anatomy of a Shortsale 09/28/2008

On Tuesday (9/23), the Fremont City Council reached a compromise position on second-story additions. They scrapped a proposed ordinance that would have allowed individual neighborhoods to ban such additions for a seven-year period and instead will place a temporary and limited moratorium on "monster home" additions. Responding to months of input from neighborhood groups, individual property owners and the real estate community, the council agreed to place a temporary, six-month moratorium on second-story additions and "tear-down" remodels in the Glenmoor and Mission Ranch neighborhoods. During the moratorium, the city will develop specific design standards for second-story additions - an action suggested by Bay East during earlier testimony to the planning commission and city council. ... 09/26/2008