Callahan's is Back!

After three + years of work, Callahan's Siskiyou Lodge (www.callahanslodge.com) has risen from the ashes of the September 2006 fire that destroyed the landmark hotel which opened its doors in 1947. It is bigger than before, more modern and has a dramatic "lodge" look to it. There is a great restaurant again which serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner Friday through Monday.

Sixteen of the 19 rooms have wood burning fireplaces and all have jacuzzi jet tubs, right in the room along with refrigerators, flat screen HDTV, and wireless internet access. Breakfast is included in all accommodations and reservations are strongly recommended by calling 800-286-0507 or emailing them at info@callahanslodge.com.

The lodge property is located at the Ashland Ski Resort exit on Interstate 5 at the very top of the Siskiyou Summit making it the perfect stopover for a Medford shopping run or a weekend skiing getaway. The Pacific Crest Trail is only 1/4 mile from the lodge, and Ashland is only 8 miles further (and all downhill!).

Note; this is not a paid testimonial. I have yet to eat or stay at this facility and they have not compenstated me for this article in any way.

Apples and Oranges

Sally didn't like this title but I did because it comes in two layers. When people say you can't compare two things because they are different, like apples and oranges. But you also remember scenes from the Great Depression like this one that show unemployed people selling apples. And you see them again today, in The Other Great Depression, selling sacks of oranges from their vans and trucks.
Same suffering, different fruit.

Tax Credit Benefit Extended

(courtesy of Ben Copeland, The Mortgage Center, Yreka)

Homebuyer Tax Credit Update!

On November 6, 2009, President Obama signed a bill to extend the tax credit for first-time homebuyers (FTHBs) through June 30, 2010. The bill also opens up opportunities for others who are not buying a home for the first time.

To learn what the new tax credit means to you and your clients, take a look at the concise overview below.

In addition, we’ve put together a script featuring wording you can cut and paste as needed to beat out your competition by connecting with clients who may be able to benefit from the new plan details!

View the Tax Credit Script Now!

TAX CREDIT OVERVIEW

Who Gets What?

First-Time Homebuyers (FTHBs): First-time homebuyers (that is, people who have not owned a home within the last three years) may be eligible for the tax credit. The credit for FTHBs is 10% of the purchase price of the home, with a maximum available credit of $8,000

Single taxpayers and married couples filing a joint return may qualify for the full tax credit amount.

Current Owners: The tax credit program now gives those who already own a residence some additional reasons to move to a new home. This incentive comes in the form of a tax credit of up to $6,500 for qualified purchasers who have owned and occupied a primary residence for a period of five consecutive years during the last eight years.

Single taxpayers and married couples filing a joint return may qualify for the full tax credit amount.


What are the New Deadlines?

In order to qualify for the credit, all contracts need to be in effect no later than April 30, 2010 and close no later than June 30, 2010.

What are the Income Caps?

The amount of income someone can earn and qualify for the full amount of the credit has been increased.

Single tax filers who earn up to $125,000 are eligible for the total credit amount. Those who earn more than this cap can receive a partial credit. However, single filers who earn $145,000 and above are ineligible

Joint filers who earn up to $225,000 are eligible for the total credit amount. Those who earn more than this cap can receive a partial credit. However, joint filers who earn $245,000 and above are ineligible.

What is the Maximum Purchase Price?

Qualifying buyers may purchase a property with a maximum sale price of $800,000.

What is a Tax Credit?

A tax credit is a direct reduction in tax liability owed by an individual to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In the event no taxes are owed, the IRS will issue a check for the amount of the tax credit an individual is owed. Unlike the tax credit that existed in 2008, this credit does not require repayment unless the home, at any time in the first 36 months of ownership, is no longer an individual’s primary residence.

How Much are First-Time Homebuyers (FTHB) Eligible to Receive?

An eligible homebuyer may request from the IRS a tax credit of up to $8,000 or 10% of the purchase price for a home. If the amount of the home purchased is $75,000, the maximum amount the credit can be is $7,500. If the amount of the home purchased is $100,000, the amount of the credit may not exceed $8,000.

Who is Eligible fort FTHB Tax Credit?

Anyone who has not owned a primary residence in the previous 36 months, prior to closing and the transfer of title, is eligible.

This applies both to single taxpayers and married couples. In the case where there is a married couple, if either spouse has owned a primary residence in the last 36 months, neither would qualify. In the case where an individual has owned property that has not been a primary residence, such as a second home or investment property, that individual would be eligible.

As mentioned above, the tax credit has been expanded so that existing homeowners who have owned and occupied a primary residence for a period of five consecutive years during the last eight years are now eligible for a tax credit of up to $6,500.

How Much are Current Home Owners Eligible to Receive?

The tax credit program includes a tax credit of up to $6,500 for qualified purchasers who have owned and occupied a primary residence for a period of five consecutive years during the last eight years.

Can Homebuyers Claim the Tax Credit in Advance of Purchasing a Property?

No. The IRS has recently begun prosecuting people who have claimed credits where a purchase had not taken place.

Can a Taxpayer Claim a Credit if the Property is Purchased from a Seller with Seller Financing and the Seller Retains Title to the Property?

Yes. In situations where the buyer purchases the property, even though the seller retains legal title, the taxpayer may file for the credit. Some examples of this would include a land contract or a contract for deed.

According to the IRS, factors that would demonstrate the ownership of the property would include:

1. Right of possession,
2. Right to obtain legal title upon full payment of the purchase price,
3. Right to construct improvements,
4. Obligation to pay property taxes,
5. Risk of loss,
6. Responsibility to insure the property, and
7. Duty to maintain the property.

Are There Other Restrictions to Taking the FTHB Credit?

Yes. According to the IRS, if any of the following describe a homebuyer’s situation, a credit would not be due:

They buy the home from a close relative. This includes a spouse, parent, grandparent, child or grandchild. (Please see the question below for details regarding purchases from “step-relatives.”)
They do not use the home as your principal residence.
They sell their home before the end of the year.
They are a nonresident alien.
They are, or were, eligible to claim the District of Columbia first-time homebuyer credit for any taxable year. (This does not apply for a home purchased in 2009.)
Their home financing comes from tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds. (This does not apply for a home purchased in 2009.)
They owned a principal residence at any time during the three years prior to the date of purchase of your new home. For example, if you bought a home on July 1, 2008, you cannot take the credit for that home if you owned, or had an ownership interest in, another principal residence at any time from July 2, 2005, through July 1, 2008.


Can Homebuyers Purchase a Home from a Step-Relative and Still be Eligible for the Credit?

Yes. As long as the person they buy the home from is not a direct blood relative, the purchase would be allowed.

If a Parent (Who Will Not Live In The Property) Cosigns for a Mortgage, Will Their Child Still be Eligible for the Credit?

Yes, provided that the child meets the other requirements for the tax credit.

Auto Dealerships vs Joe's Garage

If any reader has an opinion on this I'd like to hear it. The question is this: should you take your car to an OEM dealer or use a generic repair shop? There must be good reasons for each but we own a Hyundai and there is no dealer this side of Medford so for us anyway the question is very relevant.

Despite assertions to the contrary I have trouble imagining a small shop that works on all makes and models having factory training for my car. In fact, cars seem to be getting impossibly complex and it seems almost necessary to specialize in a brand. Perhaps independent shops can do better with older models rather than new? After all even I could change the spark plugs on a 235 Chevy in-line 6 but when I need to change them on my Hyundai it will cost $128. Good grief I told the guy but he said that on todays cars you have to remove most everything on top of the engine just to get to them. The truth is I can look into my engine compartment and I can't even SEE the spark plugs.

And then there is the issue of parts. We've had regular oil changes done by local shops but even that simple job had a problem. Seems the OEM oil filter comes with two "O" rings and either was installed wrong or they used an after-market filter that only came with one "O" ring. Not a serious problem, just an irritating drip. But it wasn't until we took it to the Hyundai dealer in Medford that we learned why.

There is of course a cost difference, too. Our latest service, the 30,000 mile one, caught my breath at $458. Especially when I learned that a local shop could have done it for about half. But would it be the same, do you think? Would they get the wrong oil filter, or miss checking a sensor, or not have the manual or software for the service thereby making their version of it priced about right?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for keeping business in town. And if I had a Ford or Chevy or Dodge I wouldn't be writing this. So back to the top, is there a difference?

Giggling on the Social Network With My Strawberry, Tongue in Cheek

This could also be considered twitting, skooching, inkling or any of a remarkably long list of silly "noun-verbs" that seem to appear without warning or reason, or even any particular need. We are being urged to 'connect' with each other whether we really want to or not because somebody out there thinks this is good for us and evidently we should be grateful and get busy.

Well, I'm out. Please don't ask me to tweet, schmeet, or otherwise bother your pleasant day. If I want to socialize I'll walk across the street and say hi. Or I'll call you. Or visit you with any number of other archaic social contact methods like writing a letter. Who wrote this script anyway?

The more observant reader will notice that blogging is a form of social networking and that I appear to be contradicting myself, however this is not technically so. You see, true networking is two-way communication. You write something and get an answer from somebody, somewhere. Letters sent in the blind so to speak; you don't address a particular person.

This blog is like that but with a singular exception. Nobody ever writes back in the form of comments and thus I am not social networking here and am free to make fun.

We go to real estate classes all the time in order to stay up with current developments and a recurring theme in all these classes is to get onboard the social networking train if you want to be successful. Tweet. Zing. Bleep. Whatever. Try to be "social" in the hopes that somebody out there with nothing else to fill their day will connect with you and buy a home.

Please.

Doing real estate for us anyway doesn't work like that. How people find you on the web means you need a website, sure. But once they connect with us we go to the hands-on mode right away. I'm a big believer in good first impressions when I meet someone....eye contact, firm shake, listening a lot. Chirping on the internet just doesn't come close to doing this.

Whoa the marketing gurus say, DID YOU KNOW THAT 87% OF ALL BUYERS SEARCH THE INTERNET FIRST ? ? Well, okay. That's fine. What's that got to do with frittering? WELL GOOD HEAVENS, YOU'RE NOT OUT THERE ! ! Uh huh, well I'm not convinced a buyer is surfing around for an agent. He or she is looking for a home. That's why most buyers call the listing agent first, the guy or gal who has that home advertised on the internet.

So we are fans of the tried and true Word Of Mouth method. Do a good job. Communicate with your clients. Treat everybody the way you would like to be treated. You can spend all the keyboard hours you want but nothing works as well as WOM.

Raking Pine Needles and Other Obsessions

It's that time of year again and piles of black trash bags full of pine needles are lining the streets. Personally I don't favor raking. First of all it's work ___ physical effort which I oppose on principle. Then there is the overwhelming likelihood that another storm is right on the heels of this one which will dump as much or probably even more needles. This is one of the corrolaries of Murphy's Law, a related topic which I will not go into here for lack of room. Whole books have been written about this bundle of natural laws which are so germane to our everyday lives.

Finally, with the above two predispositions in mind, it is extremely comfortable to believe that pine needles SHOULD carpet the ground. They were here well before Lake Shastina was and what harm did they do then, hmmm?

Well, some skeptics would say, they pose a fire hazard to homes and bare dirt is much safer. To this blatantly sensible argument I say, humbug. Wildfires are nature's way of cleaning out the underbrush and frankly, some yards around here are pretty trashy and need clearing out.

Of course I rake the lawn. I mean, if one didn't do that we'd look like savages. What self-respecting homeowner has a brown yard? Besides, removing those needles allows the grass to grow more aggressively which in turn requires mowing which I do just to illustrate that I'm not completely against physical work.

Despite all of this rationality, Sally thinks I suffer from another sort of obsessive behavior other than the clean-yard variety. On occasion (and this is not every trip, no sireee) when I'm out and about I will load up the car with garbage cans' full of grass clippings or sawdust. These go onto large piles in our side yard next to an equally impressive mound of composted (meaning odorless) horse manure.

I try and try to explain the concept of stockpiling but Sally isn't buying any of it. The idea of course is that these organic materials are components of a healthy vegetable garden. And when you do the lasagna thing of layering stuff like this, you feed them onto the basic bed each season and avoid rototilling.

On top of all this flawless logic we hope to develop an area next to the existing garden for berries and perhaps fruit trees next year. Where, I ask Sally, could we possibly find time to go fetch such demanding quantities of these ingredients when the pressing task of planting is upon us?

My final grabbing line is that the car always smells like pine needles.