Mar 05
0

Refinement in 1031 exchange

By | Buyers, Financial news, RE Investing, Visit WineCountry | No Comments

Good news for all you folks  who own investment property for appreciation purposes in a ‘vacation’ area (Lake Tahoe, Hawaii). Exchanging this property will be a whole lot easier.

Per March 10, 2008 the IRS officially allows limited personal use of an investment property and will not prevent the  qualification of a property held for trade or business or investment use for purposes of the tax-free-exchange rules. Here is a link to an article from Tom Kelly.

Using your investment property 1 or 2 weeks a year and keep it vacant for the rest of the year and still qualifying  for 1031 exchange rules is ok by the IRS.

Sonoma County is a great area, historically track records of property values doubling every 10 years, the wine county is a great vacation destination and on top of that: great opportunities right now!

Have a great day.

Mirjam (mirjam@c21alliance.com)

Mar 03
0

Your biggest nightmare when buying a home

By | Buyers, Financial news, ID Theft, Sellers, Sonoma County info | No Comments

Anybodies worst nightmare: you have worked on keeping your credit just perfect and by the time you find yourself ready to finally buy your first home (or for that matter refinancing your home) and you have to deal with Identity Theft. Please read enclosed article in PD: Woman’s stolen identity not easily restored.

Can you even imagine what this means? You’re getting ready to be pre-approved and you are denied because of purchase you did not do, creditcards you did not open, hospital bills while you were not hospitalized.

Cannot be said enough: CHECK YOUR CREDIT REPORT AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR! Or any time you detect suspicious activity. You can go to www.AnnualCreditreport.com or call 1-877-322-8228.

An other great website is www.FTC.gov/idtheft.

While writing this I come to realize that I am due my yearly check for my credit report. So guess what I am doing the coming days…

Enjoy your day

Mirjam (mirjam@c21alliance.com)

Feb 29
0

Barrel Tasting and Real Estate

By | Buyers, Financial news, Visit WineCountry, Wine Tasting | No Comments

Coming 2 weekends will be the 30th annual barrel tasting weekend in Sonoma County. There will be food and lots of great wines to preview from the barrel. Tickets are $20,00 per person per weekend. It’s going to be busy, usually Sundays are less busy than Saturdays and rain keeps people away too…

Eric Trailer did a great article on the stimulus package : How Stimulating Will Raising the Conforming Loan Limit Be? Interesting article it is expected that the conforming loan limit in Sonoma County will be $ 625,000 so a lot more people will be able to either refinance or purchase a home with a conforming loan.

The market is picking up, this week we had 84 properties opening escrow, as of this morning, we had 414 properties opening escrow for the month. With 2462 active residential listings (count 7 am this morning) we have about 6/7 months of inventory. Here’s the chart for last 2 years:inventory.jpg

Enjoy the weekend, should you go barrel tasting, let me know which winery/wines you liked best.

Mirjam (mirjam@c21alliance.com)

Feb 23
0

Spring Cleaning!

By | Around the house, Buyers, Sellers, Visit WineCountry, Wine Tasting | No Comments

The spring is in the air, trees are blossoming, it’s beautiful. Although it will be a rainy weekend, it’s beautiful outside, perfect for some wine tasting -> just an excuse to drive through the county side, enjoy the scenery and taste some great wines (make sure you have a designated driver). Next 2 weekends will be the annual barrel tasting weekend which will be extremely busy. So may I suggest a visit to Alexander Valley this weekend, should you go, drop by Alexander Valley Vineyards, my favorite is their Wine Club Reserve.

Of course, don’t forget to check out Sue Bonzell’s XtremeGuide, there is a Wine and Cheese reception at Graton Ridge Cellars today.

p3123253.jpg

Should you decide to do some spring cleaning, while your at it, you might as well take a home inventory. According to the Insurance Information Institute, in the event of a fire or other disaster, a current, detailed home inventory can help you obtain enough insurance to replace the things you own, get claims settled faster, and substantiate any losses on your tax return.

An other interesting fact to keep in mind while going through your house:

Nearly 30 percent of home electrical-wiring fires can be traced to the misuse of electric cords, such as overloading circuits, poor maintenance and running the cords under rugs or through high traffic areas. Source: InsWeb.com

Have a great day!

Mirjam de Rijk Mirjam (mirjam@c21alliance.com)

Feb 14
0

The Stimulus Package!

By | Buyers, Financial news, Sellers, Sonoma County info | No Comments

That’s the buzz word right now! It will be extremely beneficial for our local real estate market. As we discussed in our office meeting this morning, the most interesting part will be that the ‘conforming’ loan limits will go up but even more important, that the loan limits for FHA loan programs will go up.

Hmm for many agents …. FHA… let me think, that was a long time ago that we would even do these loans in Sonoma County, the current loan limit is around $ 380,000. Yep, but it’s going to be good, FHA (Federal Housing Administration) allows for 97% financing, it can be combined with gift funds (Nehemia program) and is very lenient with your credit score and the best part… the rates are great!

This increased limit for FHA loans might take an other month or before it can be used by lenders but it’s good news.

I am not going to repeat the stimulus program, please visit the info on the CAR website or  this link to Inman News

An by the way… there are some tremendous deals out there right now, this property at 421 Manka Circle for $349,900 is one of them.

Have a great day!

Mirjam de Rijk Mirjam (mirjam@c21alliance.com)