GabeTheRealtor.com

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is offering homes for $100 down payment in select states.

The buyer must live in the home, secure finanincing insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and the sale must be for the full list price.

The program has been approved for two of the four national regions. The regions mananged by the Atlanta and Denver Homeownership Centers.

HUD homes in the following states listed are eligible:

Denver Homeownership Center
Arkansas
Colorado
Iowa
Kansas
Louisiana
Missouri
Minnesota
Montana
Nebraska
New Mexico
North Dakota
Oklahoma
South Dakota
Texas
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Utah

Atlanta Homeownership Center
Alabama
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Illinois
Indiana
Mississippi
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
The Carribean

Let’s see if the State of California will be allowed to participate in this program.

Here’s the link to me paying up on my debt, “Up downs on YouTube“  I’m just a tad out of shape, whew!  Coach Chris, coach Joe, and the FFL Chargers enjoyed this one…

I’ve been sent this info and I thought I would pass it along.  The following info might be very useful to anyone looking to sell their home:

The Internal Revenue Service has some important information to share with individuals who have sold or are about to sell their home. If you have a gain from the sale of your main home, you may qualify to exclude all or part of that gain from your income. Here are ten tips from the IRS to keep in mind when selling your home.

1. In general, you are eligible to exclude the gain from income if you have owned and used your home as your main home for two years out of the five years prior to the date of its sale.
2. If you have a gain from the sale of your main home, you may be able to exclude up to $250,000 of the gain from your income ($500,000 on a joint return in most cases).
3. You are not eligible for the exclusion if you excluded the gain from the sale of another home during the two-year period prior to the sale of your home.
4. If you can exclude all of the gain, you do not need to report the sale on your tax return.
5. If you have a gain that cannot be excluded, it is taxable. You must report it on Form 1040, Schedule D, Capital Gains and Losses.
6. You cannot deduct a loss from the sale of your main home.
7. Worksheets are included in Publication 523, Selling Your Home, to help you figure the adjusted basis of the home you sold, the gain (or loss) on the sale, and the gain that you can exclude.
8. If you have more than one home, you can exclude a gain only from the sale of your main home. You must pay tax on the gain from selling any other home. If you have two homes and live in both of them, your main home is ordinarily the one you live in most of the time.
9. If you received the first-time homebuyer credit and within 36 months of the date of purchase, the property is no longer used as your principal residence, you are required to repay the credit. Repayment of the full credit is due with the income tax return for the year the home ceased to be your principal residence, using Form 5405, First-Time Homebuyer Credit and Repayment of the Credit. The full amount of the credit is reflected as additional tax on that year’s tax return.
10. When you move, be sure to update your address with the IRS and the U.S. Postal Service to ensure you receive refunds or correspondence from the IRS. Use Form 8822, Change of Address, to notify the IRS of your address change.

For more information about selling your home, see IRS Publication 523, Selling Your Home. This publication is available at www.irs.gov or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).

I’ve cut and pasted the info above from the IRS website.  Here’s a link:

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=243682,00.html

I am a huge football fan.  I enjoy watching football and I was excited to have an opportunity to help coach on my older son’s youth tackle football team. 

Living in the bay area there is a natural rivalry between Oakland Raider fans and San Francisco Forty-niners fans.  Two of the coaches on my son’s team are Niner fans.  We made a friendly wager on the outcome of the game.  The wager was 10 up downs with the football team.  An up down is an exercise where you run in place and on a voice command or whistle you drop down to your chest, and then you stand right back up.  The outcome of the game was 17-3, San Francisco the winner.  So I have a few friends that I have told about the wager and now they plan to be at our practice to watch me perform the up downs on Monday.  Not only that, my wife is also very excited to see me perform the up downs.  Lucky me!

Coach Chris, coach Joe, and the Fremont Football Chargers are going to have a good time watching me pay up on my wager on Monday!  And of course, the Oakland Raiders do it to me again…

My new listing is a great Townhome in East San Jose.  The complex appears to be hidden off of South White Road.  The home is in an 18 unit complex nestled between 2 churches.  The back patio area rests against one of the churches parking lots.  It is a very quite location and has tons of potential.  The home does need some work, but it will shine with a little bit of elbow grease.  It is a 2 story home with a low HOA fee of $229 a month. 

I don’t expect this one to last on the market long, so if you are interested contact me for a private viewing.  Current list price is $250,000.

This past weekend was very action packed for my family and I.  Our youngest son turned 5 and we had a birthday party at our community pool on Saturday.  It was great to see family and friends and the weather was unbelievable.  That is usually enough action to last me a weekend, but my older son had a travel baseball ball tournament that evening, so off we go to the ballpark…

We arrived at Twin Creeks Sports Complex shortly after 6p.m. in preparation for some 10 and under baseball.  By the time the All Out Baseball travel team finished it was just after 10p.m.  They had a great Saturday with 2 wins and a number 1 seed leading into Sunday.

We arrived back at Twin Creeks on Sunday at 12:30p.m. for a semi final match up and a chance to see the kids make it to a championship game.  The kids won a nail biter in the first game winning 8-7 in the last inning of the game, and off to the championship game we went.  The kids played well in the championship game, but just fell short 4-3.  The kids from Pacifica that won the tournament seemed to have just a little more left than the All Out boys.  It was a great tournament and we left the complex after 8:45p.m. on Sunday evening.

My take on the weekend:

• My youngest son has a lot of toys to keep him occupied for the next few months
• All Out Baseball out of the East Bay runs a good program and is a fun team to watch
• The Tri-Tip Sandwich at Twin Creeks was worth the trip, I really like it with their house sauce

This may be old news for some of you, but I felt it is worth repeating.  The law SB 458 extends protection for home owners in short sale situations.  It ensures that any lender that agrees to a short sale must accept the agreed upon short sale payment as payment in full of the outstanding balance of all loans.

The previous law in place protected home owners against first mortgages requesting a deficiency judgement but junior lien holders (2nd mortgages, equity lines of credit, etc.) did not fall under protection for home owners.  Law SB 458, signed into law in July, now extends protection against junior lien holders.

This law is a big win for homeowners who find themselves in a financial situation that leads them to a short sale.  Homeowners will be protected from requests for additional payments by lien holders.  The law had a clause making it effective upon signing.

Thanks from all of us Gov. Jerry Brown…

I have a great new listing in San Jose near Santa Row.  It’s a 4-plex that is fully occupied and is in great condition.  Units 3 and 4 have have been updated in the last 3 months and unit 2 has been updated in the last 12 months.  This one is an investors dream, or someone who wants to move into 1 unit and manage the other 3 from on-site.  There is tons of financial opportunities for the next owner.  This area in general is very renter friendly with highways, shopping, and entertainment all within a 2 mile radius.  Contact me for more information or with any questions.