May 2008 
There are 2 blog entries for May 2008.
Income Taxes On Short Sale
Sunday, May 18th, 2008 at 10:01pm. 476 Views, 0 Comments.
A short sale is when your lender accepts less than what is owed on your mortgage and forgives the debt. On December 22, 2007 President Bush signed into law a new measure to provide tax relief for homeowners facing foreclosure or bankruptcy. The bill eliminates federal taxes due from homeowners who have had mortgage debt forgiven as part of a foreclosure or the renegotiation of a loan. Currently such debt forgiveness has been treated as taxable income.
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What this means is if you owe $200,000 on your current mortgage and your lender agrees to allow you to sell the home for $150,000, up until this new law was passed you would get a 1099 for the $50,000 as taxable income and be responsible to pay the income taxes on that amount. The government looked at
How A Realtor Still Gets Paid Even If Your Home NEVER Sells
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 10:23am. 1,325 Views, 0 Comments.
How a Realtor Still Makes Money By Overpricing Your Home, Even if it Doesn't Sell.
I was on a listing appointment the other day in Commerce Township, Michigan and I came to part of my presentation when the homeowner wanted to know what I thought we should list the home for. In this particular situation the comparable listings were very easy to spot in the neighborhood and the obvious list price was very clear to be between $450,000-$460,000 to be competitive.
They said "the Commerce Township Realtor that was here yesterday said we should list around $500,000." I was shocked. Then they asked, why would a Realtor tell us $500,000 knowing that it would never sell? He wouldn't make any money if it didn't sell, so why would he want to list our home at a
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