Buyer Help

Home Buyer Tax Credit, Explained

Buyer Help

(image by stock.xchng user woodsy, image ID 1066491) This is a link to the best darn explanation of the federal home buyer credit I’ve seen to date. Includes both the $8,000 first time buyer credit and the $6,500 “move up” home buyer credit. Do you qualify? Start shopping here. Technorati Tags: Phoenix Arizona real estate [...]

13 January 2010 Read the full article →

Mortgage Rates to Rise in Spring

Buyer Help

I was going to try to write a witty, engaging piece about how mortgage rates are expected to rise in the coming few weeks and months. But being witty about money is hard. Instead, I’ve blatantly stolen this tidbit from the wonderful Kris Berg’s San Diego Home Blog (via Phoenix’s own wonderful blogging Realtor Jonathan [...]

12 January 2010 Read the full article →

Is That Condo FHA Approved?

Buyer Help

Buyers using an FHA mortgage who are shopping for condos (or patio homes, or townhomes) need to be aware there’s a list of FHA-approved communities. If the community is not on the FHA-approved list, your FHA mortgage money might not be good there. Bookmark this website and check for FHA-approved status before you fall in [...]

7 January 2010 Read the full article →

Personality goes a long way

Buyer Help

A conversation between Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega, from the movie Pulp Fiction: Jules: Pigs are filthy animals.  I don’t eat filthy animals. Vincent: Yeah, but bacon tastes good.  Pork chops taste good. Jules:  Hey, sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I’d never know ‘cause I wouldn’t eat the filthy mother-fu**ers.  Pigs sleep [...]

1 December 2009 Read the full article →

Special Needs?

Buyer Help

Sometimes as a buyer it’s really crucial to tell your Realtor about your special housing needs. Here are my 2 favorite examples of former buyer clients with whom I’ve worked, and their special needs: buyers who were hyooge scuba divers and HAD to have a separate bedroom with a walk-in closet for their gear that [...]

11 November 2009 Read the full article →

Home Buyer Tax Credit Law Passed

Buyer Help

President Obama signed the Home Buyer tax credit legislation, per the reporting of the United Press International. It’s called the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009. The San Francisco Chronicle has an excellent bullet-point breakdown of the fine print of the new law. This is a partial summary… Up to $,8000 federal tax [...]

8 November 2009 Read the full article →

Home Buyer Tax Credit Extension Is a “Go”, Here’s Why

Buyer Help

Late yesterday the Senate passed a bill that included an extension of the Home Buyer Tax Credit. This morning, the House passed the same bill. For details of what the bill includes/excludes and ideas on whether you qualify, see our broker Jay Thompson’s PhoenixRealEstateGuy blog. Now goes to President Obama for his signature, some expect [...]

5 November 2009 Read the full article →

Senate Approves Home Buyer Tax Credit Extension

Buyer Help

The New York Times is just now reporting that the US Senate has just voted to extend the Home Buyer Tax Credit. There’s not much meat in the report, which was filed at 5:54pm Arizona time. It makes me wish (yet! again!) that Big Media reporters were required to state the name of the bill [...]

4 November 2009 Read the full article →

Update: Home Buyer Tax Credit

Buyer Help

It looks like the fat cats in Washington, D.C. will pull it together and extend the home buyer tax credit. But it’s really anybody’s guess. Here’s a Facebook message I sent just a few minutes ago to a friend who asked. Q: Will the tax credit be extended? A:  My gut says probably. Handing out [...]

4 November 2009 Read the full article →

Appraiser’s HVCC Rules on Way Out?

Buyer Help

Oh yay! Oh yay!  I might actually be able to talk to my buyer client’s appraiser again? From mortgage officer Rob Chrisman’s blog, earlier today: …It turns out that the HVCC, which has good intentions but arguably poor implementation and ramifications, could be on its way out. The House Financial Services Committee has just passed [...]

23 October 2009 Read the full article →

Metro Phoenix Utility Companies

Buyer Help

This might be helpful info to newcomers moving to our Valley or to first time buyers moving into a new home who never had to think about utility companies before. APS, Arizona Public Service, provides electric to much of the Valley. You can contact them at 602.371.7171 or www.APS.com. SRP, Salt River Project provides electric [...]

1 October 2009 Read the full article →