First Time Home Buyer Seminar With Kenton Brown 13
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Transcript:
So, let’s talk about the IRS’s great giveaway, which is the $8000 federal tax credit. I’ve got a little flyer outside that has some more detailed information. One of the things that’s really nice about this is that it doesn’t have to be repaid it he home is purchased and used as the principle residence for 3 years. The purpose of this is to stimulate the economy and to allow those that have the ability to buy a home a chance to do so. It’s not a write-off like you’d normally think of. It’s an $8000 credit from the government. There is some gray area and you’ll have to check with your CPA. You can’t have owned a home and if there’s a significant other that’s owned a home that’s buying this home with you, then neither one of you could. You have to purchase from an unrelated person, or what they call “arm’s length transaction.” There’s income limits on this because it’s designed for low to moderate income. Individuals are under $75,000, joint returns are under $150,000. They’ll phase it out after that. So there’s a partial payment formula and we can look at that if you like. It has to be used as a principle, single-family residence. It doesn’t work on multi-family, duplexes, triplexes and those sorts of things. The tax credit lasts from January 30th of this year through November 30th. Why didn’t they say December 31st? I don’t know. But it’s November 30th. The interesting thing is that if you buy a home now, you can amend your ’08 returns to include the $8000 credit and the IRS will send you the $8000 right now. Which is kinda weird, but they’ll let you do that. I thought it was kinda interesting. It’s an actual refund. It’s a 3 year thing that you have to own the home. There’s a website on here and I think it’s in your hand out that you should look at. It’s at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5405.pdf . There’s some gray area that you should familiarize yourself with. Even the IRS isn’t 100% clear on this stuff because I don’t think they knew what they were doing when they rolled it out. They just decided to do it. So our disclaimer is to consult with your CPA because that would be an important thing to make sure that you’re following the letter of the law.
One thing that I would offer to you is that anybody in here, and we’ve talked to several of you guys, is that if you want to initiate the process, prepare ahead of time. If you’re not buying a house till next December, that’s great. That’s ok. Knowledge is power, so go do the work right now. It’s good to know, especially if you’re not sure of something like your credit score. We can help you look through it and help you get the score where you need it to be. We always look at it as it’s not a matter of if, but when. Somebody might go through our home loan action track and find out that they need to save up a little bit of money for their down payment. Or they might need to repair a few things on their credit or pay off some collections. But it’s important to plan ahead for long time horizons. We’ll be happy to help you do that and we’ll pull a free credit report on you and give you straight answers on what the real deal is. Dominick likes to meet with all our clients and he’s an expert on what’s going on in the marketplace. He has a pretty good narrative when he sits down with somebody and evaluates them and says, “this is your situation, this is the real deal, here’s where I see the way that rates are moving.” He’s an expert at that and I trust him, which is why we’ve been working together for a little over 9 years. What you need to know is that rates are rates and there’s no magic place to get money. Everybody fishes out of the same pond and I’ll see something ridiculous like 3.9% and I’ll be like, “no, I don’t think so.” The reality is there is no 3.9% money out there, unless you’re willing to pay 3 or 4 points, then yeah, there is a possibility of that, but that’s a separate conversation. What I want to tell you though is consult with us. We’ll be happy if you want to go on our website and fill out an application. It’s a little quick app. We’ll pull up your information and say, “tell me about your situation. What’s your timeline? Are you ready? Are you willing? Is this something you want to move forward with? If you don’t, do you feel pressured?” We’re on your timeline so don’t feel pressured. I think that’s all I had to say, so thank you very much. I appreciate your attention and for being here. I think you’re going to do the giveaways?
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Kenn Renner:
Yeah, we’re going to do some giveaways, so thanks Kenton.