SAVE OUR HOMES PORTABILITY

SAVE OUR HOMES PORTABILITY

The Florida Department of State has approved the format for a petition to help Florida homeowners with homestead exemptions keep lower tax bills even if they move.
The approval clears the way for supporters to begin collecting signatures needed to place "Save Our Homes Portability" on the November 2008 ballot.

Click here to download the form. The signed petition should be mailed to: SOHP, care of Gary Nikolits, 3162 Camino Real, West Palm Beach, FL 33409-7828.

"The Florida Legislature could add the issue of Portability to its January special session agenda and adopt our ballot language," said Palm Beach County Property Appraiser Gary Nikolits, a member of the Board that sponsors the petition drive. "That would save us the work of gathering the nearly 750,000 signatures needed to place the issue on the ballot," he added.

Property appraisers who must administer the program if it is adopted wrote the portability language. "It simply makes sense that if property appraisers have the responsibility of implementing portability, they would be the best ones to write the proposal. Property appraisers understand how it should work to make it fair to taxpayers and taxing authorities alike." Nikolits said.

Under the proposal, a homeowner with a Homestead Exemption could transfer a cap valued up to $400,000 to a more expensive property. If a homeowner is moving down in the market, that transfer could not exceed 50% of the market value of the new property. Portability would be permitted throughout the state.

According to Nikolits, the $400,000 limit on what you can transfer to another property covers about 96% of the properties in Palm Beach County. "The committee was careful to make certain you would not devastate the budgets of smaller counties where property values are generally lower than they are here; that is why we wrote the limit when moving to a less expensive property," Nikolits said.

Opponents of the Portability measure, typically city and county government officials, contend that it would reduce revenues to government coffers and make it difficult to pay for growth. Nikolits disagrees but does agree that making Portability statewide has been a concern to smaller counties. "Residents of smaller counties are Floridians too, and when they move they deserve the same benefits as everyone else," he said.

"The way we have written the measure, we don't believe there will be any detrimental affect on local governments; in fact it will provide an economic stimulant to what is becoming a stagnant real estate market," Nikolits said. Portability will add two sales that the real estate market would not have had, and stimulate construction for the building industry and sales for the home improvement and furnishing industries. "Portability will provide more money from documentary stamps, sales taxes, real estate commissions, building permit fees and other items," he said. Turning property over also will add taxable value to the tax rolls, Nikolits said. "With portability everyone wins."


A bank account has been opened at Southwest Capital Bank to accept donations for the distribution of petitions and certification of signatures. Donations in any amount should be made payable to Save Our Homes Portability and mailed to Philip C. Bennett, Treasurer, P.O. Box 490, Fort Myers, FL 33902.

Any person registered to vote in the State of Florida.You do not have to own property to sign the petition.

PORTABILITY FACTS

What is Save Our Homes Portability?Save Our Homes Portability is a proposal to change the State Constitution to allow a property owner to transfer the difference between the market value and the assessed value of homestead property to another homestead property when they move.

Why is Save Our Homes Portability necessary?Many property owners feel "trapped" in their homes knowing that if they move they may be faced with substantially higher property taxes. Save Our Homes Portability would permit a homeowner to transfer a portion of their current tax savings to a new property wherever they move in Florida.

Who can sign the petition?Any person registered to vote in the State of Florida. You do not have to own property to sign the petition.

What do I do with the signed petition?A completed petition should be mailed to SOHP, care of Gary Nikolits, 3162 El Camino Real, West Palm Beach, FL 33409-7828.

How would portability work?If you move from your current homestead property to a new homestead property and the market value of the new property is higher than the market value of your old property, you can transfer your actual cap differential up to a maximum of $400,000 from your former homestead property to the new homestead property. If the property you are moving to has a lower market value, the amount of the cap differential you can transfer cannot exceed 50% of the market value of the new homestead property.

If two or more persons own separate homestead property and decide to move a single new property (such as in the case of a marriage), the amount of the cap differential they may transfer will be the larger of the cap differentials, subject to the limits noted above.

How long do I have between the sale of my house to establish a homestead on another property? You will have 24 months from the date of which you either sold or moved out of your existing homestead property to establish a new homestead. During this interim period you cannot establish a residency-based benefit in any other state.


What is the cap differential?First, look up your property on PAPA. Then simply subtract the Assessed Value from the Total Market Value. That amount is the cap differential and it is that amount which you can transfer to a new property, subject to the limitations noted above.
Example:Total Market Value $288,600Minus Assessed Value $153,861Cap Differential $134,739* This is the amount that you can take with you if moving to a more expensive property. If moving to a less expensive property, the amount you can take with you would be your cap differential up to 50% of the total market value of the new property.

Will Save Our Homes Portability save me property taxes?Yes. That’s the whole idea behind portability; to allow you to move and take your current tax savings with you.

Secrets to Simultaneous Real Estate Closings

Secrets to simultaneous real estate closings

NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla. – Jan. 18, 2007 – Selling one house and buying another is like putting yourself between a rock and a hard place. If you set both closings within the same basic time frame you run the risk of ending up with two mortgages or much worse. If you schedule them with sufficient time between to solve any closing problems you face the prospect of renting and moving twice.
This is not a rare occurrence – the National Association of Realtors, or NAR, estimates 6.24 million homes were bought or sold during 2006, and unless you were a first-time buyer or kept your old house as an investment property, most of those transactions involved buying one house and selling another.
But there are steps you can take to protect your best interests.
Timing your closings
The timing of your closings can be as critical as the cost of your new home or the interest rate on your mortgage. And each has advantages and disadvantages.
5 tips for successful closings
1. Specify contract terms. 2. Select date carefully.3. Have a Plan B.4. Be an early bird.5. Line up your money.
A dual real estate transaction means you have two choices: a simultaneous closing or a staggered closing. With a simultaneous closing, you set these two transactions as close together as possible, often on the same day – usually selling first and buying second. With a staggered closing, you build in some time between the two transactions – days, weeks, months or even more.
First, the bad news
With a staggered closing, you incur the cost of renting in the interim. You may have to find a place to store some of your belongings and deal with the hassle and added expense of moving twice. You’re losing the equity you could be building in a new home. And there’s the ever present danger you’ll fritter away the profits you’ve banked from the last sale before you can get into your next home.
A simultaneous closing also has disadvantages. If something goes wrong in the first transaction, you could find yourself in big trouble. If the first closing fails and you don’t walk away with a big fat check, you may not be able to close on the house you’re buying. Which could mean you’re defaulting on that contract and could lose your earnest money deposit – often as much as 10 percent or 20 percent of the purchase price.
If this happens at the last minute you, of course, have nowhere to live and have to immediately arrange to have all your possessions put in storage. Obviously this situation could lead to many other expenses and inconveniences. If you’re more fortunate, you could quickly arrange for an extra loan to enable you to close on the home you’re buying and to cover the period in which you own two homes – so-called “bridge” financing. At best, you would only have the burden of making two mortgage payments every month.
Kristina Grebener has seen the problem from the inside. When she and her family planned to buy a bigger house in their same Madison, Wis., neighborhood, they didn’t anticipate any problems. The market was hot and properties were moving. They found the house they wanted, made an offer and set the closing date for late July, thinking they’d have sold their old house by the end of June.
But in the interim, there was “a cooling in the market,” Grebener says. A lot of nearby homes went up for sale, and “the buyers weren’t there to support that,” she says.
The family closed on the purchase in July as planned, using a home equity loan on their old house to make the down payment on their new home. But they have yet to sell their first home or move. Counting the new mortgage payment, the home equity loan and double utilities, keeping the old house is costing the Grebeners an extra $2,600 each month.
“Every month I make a mortgage payment is lost money,” she says. And while the family can afford it for now, it’s putting a dent in their budget – especially with kids just a few years away from college, she says.
“It’s like a game of musical chairs,” Steven Rick, a senior economist at the Credit Union National Association, says about coordinating closings. “It’s a function of the housing market. Now that it’s unraveling, you definitely do not want to be buying a home without selling yours.”
Ron Phipps, a broker with Phipps Realty in Warwick, R.I., agrees.
“Very few people have the ability to own two properties with ease,” he says. “For some people, the closing date is as pivotal as the money.” So the goal is often to schedule the home sale first, then set the home purchase within the next 24 hours – often for later that same day. “Doing simultaneous closings is really the goal.”
But finding a buyer to close on your home at the exact minute you find a home to buy yourself isn’t always easy. More often than not, you’ve found one without the other – and that can make setting the closing date a tricky proposition.
“For real estate practitioners, this is always the hardest part of the transaction,” says Phipps. “Typically, you have to have the house you’re selling cleared out at closing.” But just as often, “you need money from the first house to close on the second house.”
Just like staggered closings, simultaneous closings should be carefully planned. “It needs to be done with good advice and the best precautions,” says Dave Dalzell, a regional vice president of the NAR and the owner/broker of Abilene, Texas-based Dalzell Realtors.
Another potential downside of a simultaneous closing: If the buyers know you’re in a time crunch, they can use it to squeeze you for extra considerations at the last minute – like getting you to pay for decorating upgrades or more of the sale costs.
A Fort Lauderdale, Fla., couple told Bankrate they were “held-up” by the buyers of their home in this manner. “An inspection had showed a slight leak in a shower and so we had it repaired by a licensed plumber a few weeks before closing. To make sure it was done right, we had the entire shower removed, a new shower pan installed and the entire bathroom retiled. At the closing table, the buyer said he wouldn’t accept the repair because it had not been done by someone of his choosing and refused to close. This was the third delay in closing, and the buyer knew that we had to close on our new home that day or lose a $20,000 deposit. In the end, we had to give the buyer a $5,000 credit to get him to close. It was highway robbery.”
It can wreak havoc if something goes wrong with the first part of the transaction,” says Phipps. And nine times out of 10, if something does go wrong it will be with the first sale, not the second, he says.
The time constraints can also pressure you to gloss over closing details that may need further examination. This is one instance when it can really pay to have your own private closing attorney review the records ahead of time and either attend the closing with you or be available by phone to handle any last-minute questions or complications.
Before you agree to a simultaneous closing, analyze your buyer.
Some factors to consider:
Who are the buyers?
Are they financially sound?
How stable are they?
How firm is the offer?
What are their repair requests?
What is their personal situation? (Do they have to move to the area by a certain deadline or can they take some time?)
Are they indecisive and undecided or do they really need the home?
Do the old gut-check test, too. What do you really think of these people? Are they fiscally and emotionally sound? Are their requests reasonable? And are you getting a fairly consistent message from their camp or do their needs, demands and dates keep changing?
Look at your side of the table, too. What are your resources and risks? Can you get interim financing if you need it? Exactly how much would it cost? Do you want to put your stuff in storage and rent for a month or two? How soon must you close or move?
Dalzell remembers one friend (not a client) in another state who called for advice when his closing went awry. When the two of them put a pen to paper, Dalzell demonstrated that the man’s interim financing option would only add $500 to the cost of the deal.
“That’s why you have to analyze all of it,” he says. Ask yourself: What’s the worst that can happen? And put a number on it. Then consider: What’s the best that can happen? And put an estimate on that.
So which is safer – the simultaneous closing or a staggered version?
“There’s a risk no matter what you do,” says Dalzell. “There’s no easy way to do it.”
What you can do
But there are some steps you can take.
1. Specify contract terms. First, if you have to sell a home to buy your next home, put that into your contract. That way, if your first closing doesn’t occur you will have the choice of whether you still want to close on the purchase. In a market dominated by sellers, this sort of contingency clause will rarely be accepted, but in a buyer’s market sellers will be more likely to accept this as a condition of sale.
2. Select date carefully. Next, put a little thought into the actual closing date. Sometimes, buyers or sellers want to close in a specific number of days and will pick a date without looking at a calendar – which can create confusion if it falls on a weekend, says Phipps. Instead, pull out the calendar. “Set it for a date you can make things happen,” says Phipps. In case you need some missing piece of paper or additional information, close on a weekday and don’t set it for the very end of the month. “The end of the month is crunch time for mortgage companies, title companies and escrow companies,” says Phipps. “Pick another day.” And set it for early in the day,” he says. “Don’t try to do simultaneous closings at 3 and 5 in the afternoon.”
3. Have a Plan B. If you schedule a simultaneous closing, have a backup plan for what you do if the first closing doesn’t go off as planned.
4. Be an early bird. The real secret of any closing – simultaneous or staggered – is to do as much as you can in advance. You don’t want everything being done in the last 24 hours,” says Dalzell. “You want to back things up as far as you can.” And that includes everything from repairs and final inspections, to reading the closing documents and negotiating moving dates. Many times a sale is contingent on a professional home inspection. Get that out of the way right after the offer is accepted. That way, if the inspector finds a problem, you have time to either fix it or rework the price well before you have to actually close.
“It doesn’t make sense to create challenges close to the closing,” Phipps says.
5. Line up your money. At the same time, finalize the financing, says Phipps. Then, when those two steps are complete, do the title search. © 2007 Bankrate.com, Bankrate.com Inc. All rights reserved

FAQ's on Mortgage Strategies for 2007

FAQ's on Mortgage Strategies for 2007

NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla. – Jan. 10, 2007 – Because everyone's situation is unique, it's impossible to give general guidelines for mortgage strategies in 2007, but maybe some answers will help you in deciding your next mortgage move.
1. What's going to happen to mortgage rates in 2007?
Economists predict that long-term rates will rise in 2007. They made a similar prediction about 2006 and were only partially right: Rates rose in the first half of the year, then fell steeply over the next three months, then leveled off for a while.
The fact is no one can predict the movement of interest rates accurately. It's relatively safe to predict that rates will rise in 2007, but no one knows how far they will rise and whether it will be slow and steady through the year, or if most of the increase will take place in just a few months, with rates being relatively flat the rest of the year.
And the pundits could be wrong -- rates could actually fall in 2007.
2. Should I refinance in 2007?
The answer to that depends on many factors. If you want to refinance strictly to get a lower interest rate, you're probably better off doing it sooner rather than later because most observers expect rates to rise through the year.
There are other reasons to refinance. Some people refinance to get rid of mortgage insurance. Others do it to pay off their high-rate home equity lines of credit and consolidate all that debt into one mortgage loan. Still others look at refinancing as a way to escape rising interest rates on adjustable-rate mortgages, particularly on interest-only and pay option ARMs.
If you decide to refinance for one of the above reasons, discuss it with a trusted loan officer or mortgage broker to make sure you have all the facts you need. You might find, for example, that it costs more in the long run (but less in the short run) to consolidate all your debt into one mortgage.
3. When should I refinance?
Refinance your mortgage when you're ready to do it. In other words, if it makes financial sense to refinance at a certain time, go ahead and do it. Don't wait for rates to fall further. You can't know if you grabbed the rock-bottom rate until after the fact, so don't even try.
When it comes to mortgages, getting a good rate is good enough. The world won't end if you don't get the absolute best rate.
4. Should I wait before I buy a house?
Waiting for home prices to hit bottom is just like waiting for interest rates to reach their nadir. You can't count on timing the market correctly. When you find the right house at an acceptable price, go ahead and get it. If house values in the neighborhood fall after that, well, you didn't buy the house just to sell it a few months later, right? The house is almost assured of appreciating over the next few years, even if its value falls for a while at first.
© 2007 Bankrate.com, Bankrate Inc. All rights reserved.

How to Make You Home Worth More in 2007

How to make your home worth more in 2007

Boosting the value of your home is never an easy task. It takes time, money, and – when your kitchen’s covered in plastic tarp – weeks of pizza delivery. And with home prices still sliding in many parts of the country, getting a return on your investment is now tougher than ever. Luckily, there is a secret to smart remodeling in a buyer’s market: do as much as you can with as little as possible.
Homeowners may have learned this lesson last year, when big spending on home improvement did not lead to big profits. According to Remodeling Magazine’s 2006 “Cost vs. Value” report, prices for most remodeling projects increased last year while their resale value decreased. Major, mid-range kitchen remodels, at an average cost of $54,000, returned just 80.4 percent in 2006 vs. a 91 percent return on $43,862 in 2005. Even the most profitable project in 2006 – upscale fiber-cement siding replacement – recouped just 88 percent of its total cost.
Americans spent $155 billion on home improvements and repairs in 2006, a 2.8 percent increase over 2005’s total, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. The Center estimates that we will spend over $160 billion in 2007, but if resale prices continue to lag behind remodeling costs, the pricey projects won’t pay off.
Know thy neighbor
What’s an ambitious homeowner to do? First, rule out needless projects by comparing your home to the others in your neighborhood. Ask your real estate agent for a list of homes for sale nearby so you can see what is being offered, and take advantage of open houses.
“You want to make sure you can turn apples into apples before you make any improvements,” says Sid Davis, author of Home Makeovers That Sell: Quick And Easy Ways to Get the Highest Possible Price. “If you put in granite countertops and everyone else has laminate, your house could end up overpriced.”
You will probably want to focus on the areas that are most important to prospective buyers – the exterior, the kitchen, and the bathrooms – and skip over frivolous renovations and additions of offices, sun rooms, and master suites. The least profitable project in 2006 was a home-office remodel, which returned 63.4 percent of remolding costs at resale.
Once you have narrowed down your options, stick to minor improvements. While major upscale kitchen projects, costing an average of $107,000, recouped just 75.9 percent of their cost in resale in 2006, minor kitchen remodels, costing $18,000 on average, did much better, with an average return of 85.2 percent.
Channel your inner handyman (or woman)
Of course, remodeling on a budget means more work for you. But do-it-yourself projects can have a major impact on a home’s value, and they can be as simple as cleaning up.
“Have your mother-in-law come over and give you a report on how clean it is,” says Davis. Then, starting with the front yard, eliminate all waste and clutter. Weed the garden and mow the lawn. Wash the siding and walls. Scrub the kitchen and bathroom. Shampoo the carpets.
“The cleaner, brighter, and more spacious a home appears, the quicker it sells, and for a lot more than a house in a ‘homey’ state,” says Sharon Rizzo, principal of Chicago-based real estate investment firm Rizzo Realty Group.
For the handier among us, tiling can be an amusing way to perk up the kitchen or bathroom. Discontinued tile can cost as little as $1.50 per square foot, and stores such as Home Depot (HD) and Lowes (LOW) even offer tiling classes. Refinishing kitchen cabinets is also much easier than you might think. Sand, apply a lighter stain or finish [this will make the kitchen seem bigger], and replace old knobs and handles with new stylish ones.
When all else fails, a few coats of semi-gloss paint in a light color can go a long way, making your walls appear brighter and your rooms seem larger.
Do your homework
Given last year’s smaller returns, the forecast for increasing your home’s worth in 2007 may still not look promising, but your specific situation may put you at an advantage. “Many factors affect a home’s value and, consequently, the resale value of any given remodeling project,” says Pat Vredevoogd Combs, president of the National Association of Realtors, in reaction to the 2006 “Cost vs. Value” report.
As always, your local real estate market is one important factor to consider before remodeling your home. Last year, homeowners in the Pacific region [Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, and California] saw the highest percentages of remodeling costs returned in resale. Minor mid-range [$19,000] kitchen remodels in that region recouped 106.4 percent of their project cost in resale, while mid-range [$15,000] bathroom remodels had 103.2 percent returns.
In general, hot markets, such as Seattle – which is expected to see a 3.6 percent increase in median home price and 4.7 percent jump in housing starts in 2007 – usually see higher returns on home improvement projects.
A good agent can spot buyer turnoffs, advise you what to improve, and figure out your home’s true worth based on the local market. If you have made all the necessary improvements and you still don’t like what you hear, simply wait for the storm to pass, and in the meantime, enjoy the fruits of your labor. “Real estate will always be a safe investment,” says Rizzo. “If you can hold on to your property during the market’s current state of softened appreciation, you will see the market turn in favor of sellers in the not-so-distant future.”

Housing Starts Up for Second Month

Housing starts up for second month

WASHINGTON – Jan. 18, 2007 – Home starts are up for December, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), while builders are more optimistic about the future, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) in yet another sign that the slow housing market may have turned a corner.
Housing starts
Privately-owned housing starts in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,642,000 – 4.5 percent above the revised November estimate of 1,572,000 but 18.0 percent below the December 2005 rate of 2,002,000.
Single-family housing starts in December were at a rate of 1,230,000, or 4.1 percent below the November figure of 1,282,000. The December rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 350,000. An estimated 1,800,700 housing units were started in 2006 – 12.9 percent below the 2005 figure of 2,068,300.
Building permits
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,596,000 – 5.5 percent above the revised November rate of 1,513,000 but 24.3 percent below the December 2005 estimate of 2,107,000. Single-family authorizations in December were at a rate of 1,164,000 – 1.2 percent above the November figure of 1,150,000.
Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 353,000 in December. An estimated 1,833,500 housing units were authorized by building permits in 2006, 14.9 percent below the 2005 figure of 2,155,300.
Builder Confidence Improves
WASHINGTON – Jan. 18, 2007 – Builder confidence rose two points in January, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), released yesterday. The HMI increased from an upwardly revised 33 in December to 35 in January, its highest level since July of 2006.
“Builders are responding to increased buyer interest at the end of 2006 and beginning of 2007,” says NAHB President David Pressly. “This bodes well for the upcoming spring buying season.”
“The same factors evident at the end of 2006 continue to hold true in today’s housing market – improving affordability measures, strengthening consumer assessments of home buying conditions and an upswing in applications for mortgages to buy homes,” says NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders.
Seiders adds that the recent stabilization of homebuyer demand largely reflects reductions in mortgage interest rates since mid-year, lower energy prices following what had been record highs, and solid growth in employment and household income. Reductions in home prices and widespread sales incentives offered by builders have also helped resuscitate buyer demand.
Two out of three component indexes that make up the complete index registered improvement in January. The index gauging current single-family home sales and the index gauging traffic of prospective buyers each gained three points, to 36 and 26 respectively, while the index gauging sales expectations for the next six months remained unchanged at 49.
Meanwhile, three out of four regions surveyed in the HMI posted gains in January. Two-point gains were registered in the Northeast, Midwest and South, to 39, 24 and 41, respectively. The HMI for the West remained unchanged from the previous month at 32.
Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for 20 years, the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as either “good,” “fair” or “poor.” The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as either “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very low.” Scores for each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor. © 2007 FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®