REInvest Group Blog

Archive for the ‘Finance’ Category

New Reasons to Buy a Home … ($6500 of them)!

Posted by: Bart Schroeder on: November 9, 2009

Finally!  A break for those of us complaining that First Time Homebuyers are snapping up all the incentives.  Congress ultimately reasoned that it makes sense to apply stimuli elsewhere in the economy.  Hello, Move Up Home Buyers!  Those of you who have owned their current homes at least five years will now be eligible for tax [...]

Real Estate and Retirement — 5 reasons to use a Real Estate-IRA.

Posted by: Bart Schroeder on: August 25, 2009

One of today’s soundest investments is never touted in financial-services ads. The reason: Wall Street wouldn’t make any money off it.  Since 1974, Americans have had the ability to use IRA assets to buy investment property. Yet the means to do that — called a self-directed IRA — remains one of the least known and [...]

Real Estate and Retirement – How much is needed?

Posted by: Bart Schroeder on: June 7, 2009

I’ve heard this question often enough that it’s time to formulate a standard answer.  Your financial planner should be able to put together a comprehensive plan that would consider the amount of investments you have in IRA’s, 401K plans, potential amounts from Social Security and, of course real estate.  I like being able to [...]

Property Tax Payers! The Appeal Clock is Ticking.

Posted by: Bart Schroeder on: May 2, 2009

Can you hear that sound?  Tick, tick, tick.  It’s the sound of time slipping away.  If you are, like many of us, receiving a “Notice of Valuation (NOV)” from your County Assessor that seems inflated (given recent events), then pay attention to that ticking sound because you don’t have much time to act.  This is [...]

First Time Homebuyer Credit — Final Update

Posted by: Bart Schroeder on: February 20, 2009

Well, it is now official.  The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is law.  View the entire act at www.recovery.gov. That necessitates another update of our ongoing series of  articles on this subject.  So,how does a first-time homebuyer take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit?   It comes with some guidelines. According to the most [...]

FHA Loans Gain Prominence.

Posted by: Bart Schroeder on: June 29, 2008

Among the financing tools gaining importance these days, are FHA insured loans.  Though, ostensibly for “owner occupants”, there are cases where FHA financing works well for certain investors (see below).  Demand for these once-neglected mortgages has surged because they do not require the hefty down payments or stellar credit scores that lenders have come to [...]

A Contrarian View of Inflation — Good for Real Estate?

Posted by: Bart Schroeder on: May 21, 2008

For real estate owners, inflation can be beneficial … yes, beneficial. Consider this:

Rising inflation raises people’s income and their home prices. Usually, the increases would be nominal in terms of what you actually receive in paychecks and the listing price you would set to sell your home. Of course, we are not in normal times. [...]

Expecting Mortgage rates to fall? Not necessarily so!

Posted by: Bart Schroeder on: February 7, 2008

Many of you may be thinking that recent Fed rate cuts will automatically have the effect of lowering mortgage rates. After all, rates did fall, right? Well, yes, but there is more to it than meets the eye. “If you are looking to purchase a home or to refinance, I’m not so [...]

Forget “Curb Appeal” … Let’s Talk “Tax Appeal”.

Posted by: Bart Schroeder on: January 31, 2008

This is the time of year when we homeowners get our property tax notices from the County Assessor. Now, if we are lucky our County Assessor has accounted for the fact that, unlike past assessment periods, the values of our properties may be declining rather than appreciating. So, what to do in the [...]


 

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