$25K Rental Loss Limitation

Most rental owners claim tax losses, even when they are making a profit. You can deduct up to $25,000 of rental losses on your tax return if your adjusted gross income is less than $150,000.

If your adjusted gross income is less than $100,000, you can deduct the full $25,000.

If your adjusted gross income is between $100,000 and $150,000, you can deduct up to ($150,000 – Your Income)/2. So if your AGI is $120,000, you can deduct up to $15,000 (150k – 120 k)/2.

source: http://www.trexglobal.com/property-management/category/real-estate-tax-tips

Things to Do Before You Buy a Strata Property

• Review Strata Council minutes for the past 12 months or more, along with by-laws, financial statements, Annual General Meeting minutes, and engineering reports that may have been completed. Look for past problems, previous repairs, special assessments, and upcoming expenditures.
• Look at the history of price increase on the Property Management / Strata Fees. Past increases may indicate future results.
• Ensure a maintenance program is in place by talking to the strata manager to determine whether the building has a solid preventative maintenance program in place.
• Check the contingency fund since a portion of strata owners’ monthly maintenance fees must go into a “contingency fund” to pay for extraordinary repairs, such as a new roof or exterior painting. Find out if the contingency fund is large enough to cover any upcoming expenses.
• Review the Strata Property Condition Disclosure Statement which sellers are required to complete. It is a checklist about the property's condition. Buyers should carefully review it for any defects or potential problems.
• Investigate the warranty program and builder’s background whether the condo is new or resale. Your realtor can find out what type of warranty the building carries, noting the limits and duration of coverage. S/he may also be able to help you obtain background information about the builder/developer of the project.
• Hire a professional home inspector with proper accreditation and one who carries Errors and Omissions insurance to inspect the condition of the suite, common areas, and the overall building structure.

source: http://chuthisrealestate.blogspot.com/

Ways to stay in foreclose home payment free

An unemployed single mom in Georgia stayed in home foreclosing home for more than 18 months. A lady aged 65 year with only social security income saved her home from foreclosure with no need to make any mortgage payment. An angry and frustrated homeowner lost his home and large amount of home equity and destroyed his credit due to his uncontrollable emotions and ignorance. Those are the real stories or examples you can find in a newly released book entitled “How to Save Your Home & Credit, Stay Payment Free & Get Cash Legally from Mortgage Foreclosure”, which is available online at Barnes & Noble, amazon.com, BookaMillion, Biblio, AbeBooks and several other websites. Millions of American homeowners unfortunately lost their homes that could have been saved due to the lack of understanding the foreclosure laws, borrowers’ rights and available options, based on John Wen, the author and also an investor specialized in real estate foreclosures, tax foreclosures and default mortgage notes.


In the book, the author demonstrated 8 options for you to save your home, including loan modifications using Obama Foreclosure Prevention program, other government programs, and reverse mortgage. He also showed you 4 ways to delay or stop foreclosure proceedings to buy you time to save your home or credit, or to stay payment free. He explained 7 ways for you to walk away with cash legally if home foreclosure is inevitable. Unfortunately, majority of homeowners facing foreclosures do not know this. The author wants to help those homeowners through this book.

This year, more half millions Americans lost their jobs each month and they will get trouble to make their mortgage payment and will be facing home foreclosures. Even worse, reset of the ARM and option ARM will peak in 2010 and millions of borrowers may have trouble in making the mortgage due the huge increase in their monthly payment caused by the interest reset.

”With this book, millions of those homeowners can save their homes, or stay in their homes for months and even more than a year if they do not have any income, or least work away with hundreds or more than thousand dollars if their home are to be foreclosed”. The author said.

”In order for homeowners to understand the complicated foreclosure laws and processes, difference ways to save their homes, I have provided step by step guide with examples to take the right actions. I also showed them on how to deal their own emotions to avoid costly mistakes and how to communicate with lenders to pave the road to the success in the foreclosure fighting.” John added.

source: http://besthomesellingtips.com/2009/05/31/ways-to-stay-in-foreclose-home-payment-free/

Great Buys In FHA Foreclosures

FHA foreclosures have been steadily rising in the last three years and the number of new homes getting on the selling block keeps coming by the day. A dominant market is taking a new form today and that is FHA foreclosures.
Real estate market forces have pushed the price tags of homes down nationwide but the number of FHA foreclosures has continued a sustained increase in rate up to this point. Market analysts are even predicting a new wave of foreclosures. This time, it will hit the prime mortgage sector.

At face value, this means more homes priced cheaper will be available for potential homeowners as mortgage lenders are pressed to dispose of FHA foreclosures to ease their liquidity problems. The prospects seem to be attractive for those with sufficient equity.

Words of Caution on FHA Foreclosures

Buyers of FHA foreclosures should be wary with their buying of homes from the FHA foreclosure listing. As would be expected, most of the foreclosure homes for sale are results of default of sub-prime mortgage loans. In this case, a lot of these real estate properties have not sufficiently built on its equity from payment of mortgage from the original homeowners. You might end up with a home with a price tag that is almost equal to its actual value or at best with only 10% off from the original cost...

source: http://real-estate-gateway.blogspot.com/

Spring Cleanup: Getting Your Garden Back Into Shape

It looks as though...dare I say it? Spring has almost sprung in Prince George! After a couple of MONTHS wondering if we were going to get spring at all...looked for awhile there like we would just go back into winter...it looks as though Jack Frost has given up. It is a bit dreary outside as I write this, but...I was fortunate enough to see both robins and tulips just the other day!
So anyway, thought I'd post another article on spring gardening...it has some interesting tips in it. Enjoy :)

Early Spring is a great time to emerge from hibernation. We all do it; humans, animals and even our gardens. If you take some time to give your garden an early boost, you will likely be rewarded with a spectacular growing season.Early SpringTiming is different in all parts of the country. But you may find that if you get outside and do a little work in your garden before the start of the growing season, your garden beds will look fantastic. You may even enjoy the cool weather and getting your body in shape for the gardening season to come....

source: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/139103/spring_clean_up_getting_your_garden_pg2.html?cat=32