Dean Rizzi

What is a reverse mortgage?
February 8, 2012 · · Comment here

A reverse mortgage is a special type of loan made to older homeowners to enable them to convert the equity in their home to cash to finance living expenses, home improvements, in home health care, or other needs.

With a reverse mortgage, the payment stream is “reversed.” That is, payments are made by the lender to the borrower, rather than monthly repayments by the borrower to the lender, as occurs with a regular home purchase mortgage.

A reverse mortgage is a sophisticated financial planning tool that enables seniors to stay in their home or “age in place” and maintain or improve their standard of living without taking on a monthly mortgage payment. The process of obtaining a reverse mortgage involves a number of different steps.      Read more

Mark Hasha

‘Tis the Season for Tax Breaks
February 6, 2012 · · 2 Comments

     With April 15 rapidly approaching many are working hard to complete their taxes. For those who have recently bought or sold a home, there are a number of tax deductions that that may be available to them.
    Real estate broker’s commissions, title insurance, legal fees, advertising costs, administrative costs, and inspection fees are all considered selling costs and may be used to reduce one’s taxable capital gain by the amount of the selling costs. That could result in a big savings depending on the final sale price.
    Interest that is paid on a mortgage is also tax-deductible, within limits. A married couple filing jointly can deduct all their interest payments on a maximum of $1 million in mortgage debt secured by a first or second home.
    Buyers may also be able to deduct some of the interest they paid on a home equity loan or similar line of credit.
    One deduction that many buyers often overlook is points. Points or origination fees on a home loan that were paid during the purchase of a home are generally tax-deductible in full for the year in which they were paid.
     Refinanced mortgage points are also deductible but only over the life of the loan – not all at once. Homeowners who refinance can immediately write off the balance of the old points and begin to amortize the new.         Read more

Bernadette Ramirez

What Do I Get When I Buy A House?
October 11, 2011 · · 3 Comments

Well that’s a pretty loaded question. I think it depends on why you are buying. Lets break it up into pieces.

Are you investing or is this home going to be your primary residence?

If you are looking at purchasing a home for investment purposes, it’s probably a good idea to make sure it has a good return on it. Also… you want to make sure with the rent you are not only able to pay the mortgage (be sure to check if your property taxes are included in your mortgage payments). You will also want to make sure that the amount of rent you charge is comparable to the area and to your mortgage payments. Ideally you would like enough rent to cover the mortgage, property taxes, and maintenance.  In the perfect world you would like your tenant to pay enough rent yet the rent be atractive enough to keep them as long term tenants to relieve as many out of pocket expenses for you. Inevitably there will be some sort of repairs or maintenance that will be your responsibility as the owner to remedy  some of which you can write off :)      Read more

Lee Ginsburg

Learning to Budget! Kudos To The Teacher.
December 28, 2008 · · 6 Comments

As many of you are aware my Prudential office in San Bruno, Ca. is the largest single independent Prudential office in the country.  We are very progressive and have kiosk in several of the regional malls in the area.  As I had my shift just before the holidays, a young boy, I’d say about 12 or 13 was looking at some listings.  I let him look for a while and then approached.  He told me he was 30 years old and looking for a rental for his family of 4 with a $60,000 annual income.  I did a double take and he explained he had a home work assignment to balance a family budget including housing.  I helped him find a few rental homes in the area.  The reason for me writing about this, I thought it was a great assignment; Reality, Life.   I think this should be taught in detail to all high school seniors and to all purchasing a home.  I believe saving should be part of a family budget.  The savings could be for a down payment, home maintenance, vacation, rainy day, etc.  Read more

Nicole Machado

Is it a good time to Move Up?
October 17, 2008 · · 1 Comment

Everyone’s question these days seems to be “Is now the right time to buy”? I have come up with a chart that helps you make the decision if now is the right time to buy!

 

              Current Home                                                                                     New Home

Sell

Spread

(What it would cost you to move)

Buy

$100K

$100K

$200K

       (Value appreciates 10%)         $110K

$110K

$220K

 (Value depreciates 10%)

$ 90K

$ 90K

$180K

 The above chart is an example of a “move-up” buyer determining whether it is a good time to purchase an upgrade property.

 Now ask yourself this question… “When does it make more sense to move up- when prices have gone up less or when they’ve gone down more?”

If you have answered when prices go down, you are the lucky winner!!!! You profit the most when the spread is less. So whether you are discouraged that you don’t have enough equity or down payment in order to move, ask yourself this question….

“If you don’t feel you can move up comfortably now, how will you be able to do so when prices go up further?”

 ***One last thing to ponder… When interest rates go from 6% to 7.5% the prices of homes would have to go down 14.7% in order to keep the same monthly payment.