| In this issue: |
• Landlord Beware!
• Capital Gains Tax Relief
• Timing Your Home Buy
• Become a BBB Agent
• Buyer Workshop
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| Interest Rate Watch |
Selected Rates as of
July 14, 2005:
• 30 yr. fixed: 5.66%
• 15 yr. fixed: 5.25%
• 1 yr. adj: 4.39%
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| Free Buyer Workshop! |
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Every Thursday
Get a guided tour through the real estate buying process, learn about Atlanta's new and historic neighborhoods, ask a mortgage professional any finance questions you may have and more.
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| About the Weekly: |
The Real Estate Weekly is a free weekly bulletin published to keep clients and associates informed of happenings in the real estate market. If you would like to unsubscribe from the Weekly, please use the button at the bottom of the page.
The R.E.W. is published by:
Bo Bridgeport Brokers, Inc.
2033 Hosea L. Williams Drive
Atlanta, GA 30317
office: 404-377-1369 | |
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| » Landlord Beware: Advice to Protect You and Your Investment |
Do you dream of being a landlord and collecting a paycheck every month, basically making money while you sleep? Sounds like a great way to get paid. However, being a landlord can also bring a lot of liability issues, but taking the right precautions may keep you out of the courtroom.
"It's a higher risk to own a tenant-occupied property," says Mary Eblen, owner of Allstate Insurance Company in Encintas, Calif.
Often neither the landlord nor the tenant is carrying the right amount of insurance. According to a survey by Agents and & Brokers of America, nearly two-thirds of those living in United States rental properties do not have renter's insurance.
Eblen says when you become a landlord taking vital precautions are a must. Top of her list is to make sure that as a rental property owner, you have a landlord policy rather than a homeowner's policy for your rental.
"The landlord's policy really protects you for issues such as, let's say, there were a fire. If there were a fire the tenant obviously couldn't live there any more and couldn't pay rent, so the landlord's policy would pay fair loss of rent. In other words, if it took six months for the home to be fixed due to the fire, the policy would pay six month's rent until the tenant could get back in," explains Eblen.
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» Capital Gains Tax Relief Extended To Home Offices |
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Late last year, when the Internal Revenue Service published guidance about capital gains tax exclusions on the sale of your home, giving millions of home sellers an early Christmas present, it also sent a little package of cheer to home-based business owners who sell their home.
As long as your qualified home-based business is in the same dwelling as your primary residence -- rather than some unattached structure on your property -- you don't have to allocate a home sale's capital gains between the home and the business, according to "Exclusion Of Gain From Sale Or Exchange Of A Principal Residence," U.S. Department of Treasury Decision 9030, published Dec. 24, 2002 in the Federal Register, Vol. 67, No. 247.
The provision is among the latest round of Congressional tinkering with the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. Law makers have been adjusting the landmark tax package since it was enacted more than a half decade ago.
Among numerous provisions, home sellers have most enjoyed the provision that says when you sell your home, up to $500,000 of capital gains is excluded from federal taxes for married couples who file a joint tax return. Up to $250,000 is excluded for those filing separate or single-filer returns. To qualify for the exclusion when you sell your home, you must have lived in your home as your primary residence for two of the past five years.
The tax relief law, which applies to sales made after May 6, 1997, also said if you qualify for and take the home-office deduction, that portion of your home designated as a work place was not eligible for the exclusion.
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» Forget Location, Timing Key To Real Estate Investing |
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I remember in the spring of 1998, sitting at an awards ceremony for one of the nation's largest independent real estate companies when the president/founder of the company predicted: "Anything with a door on it will sell in the next 12 months."
He was dead-on. What began that year was one of the largest real estate value surges in the markets where his company sold real estate. History has proven him right, as well, with average appreciation growing in many regions in double digits every year.
If you're buying a house to live in, the three key aspects of real estate are: location, location, location. If you're looking to buy real estate as an investment, however, the three key aspects are: timing, timing, timing.
Robert M. Campbell notes this principal very well in his book "Timing the Real Estate Market," published last fall. Every once in a while, a book comes out that you want to read thoroughly, thumb through regularly, and file as a reference work in your personal library. "Timing the Real Estate Market" is one of these books.
Many times, I'll read a real estate pub and it's timely – so timely, that it's no good to me, because the material is dated. In six months the principals it touts are obsolete because the nature of the economy upon which it's based has changed. The beauty of Campbell's "Timing" is that it prepares for the reader proven methods of reading a regional economy so the real estate investor will know just when to buy and when to sell to maximize his or her returns on real estate investing.
The meat of the book can be found in Chapter 4 – The Five Vital Signs Indicators: Your Window into the Future. If you're so busy you can't read all 100 pages, then memorize these 10 pages. Here they are in brief:
Vital Sign Indicator #1: Existing Home Sales. This is the best leading indicator of real estate price trends. As sales increase, the inventory of homes drop, thus pushing up prices. When the opposite happens, prices drop.
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