Pinterest group boards take real estate marketing to new heights | Inman News

Pinterest group boards take real estate marketing to new heights | Inman News

You Don’t Need Experience To Gain Clients

You Don’t Need Experience To Gain Clients

Mortgage Rates Rising in 2014 [Infographic]

Mortgage Rates Rising in 2014 [Infographic]

Overlooked Real Estate Tax Breaks - Ocean City MD Vacation Beach Homes for Sale

3 Often Overlooked Real Estate Tax Breaks I’ve been in this business long enough now to have mastered the timeline along which most of our real-estate-related thought processes play out vis-a-vis the actual calendar. January dawns with thoughts of getting geared up to buy a home, move up or downsize, or simply clean, spruce and upgrade the home we have. The month winds down with a dribble of those large-sized envelopes in the mail, containing an assortment of tax forms, documenting everything from what we earned last year to what we paid out for mortgage interest. As soon as we slice those statements open, our thinking starts to shift to tax time and tax issues: Will we owe? If not, what will we get back? What does our tax picture look like now – and how can we improve it for next year? Lots of people make lots of moves – real estate and otherwise – to minimize what they owe and maximize what they get back on their taxes. The first step is to make sure you’re not actually missing any tax deductions and breaks you already qualify for. The tax code is 4 million words and over 70,000 pages long, but most Americans tap into fewer than 15 pages of it when filing their returns. To make sure we’re not missing anything we’re due, here are a few of the real estate-related tax breaks that are often missed, overlooked and underused. 1. State and Local Tax Breaks for Green Home Improvements. Most of us focus on federal income tax deductions, because federal taxes seem like the biggest bank account drain. In fact, in some state tax rates can reach as much as 15 percent of annual income! As the recession recovery made it’s way into full swing in 2013, many homeowners began embarking down a path of improving their home’s energy efficiency for a variety of reasons, including cash savings on their utility bills. Many of those improvements are eligible for state, county and/or city tax credits or tax breaks. If you installed dual-paned windows, insulation, low-flow plumbing appliances, tankless water heaters or solar panels in 2013, dig up your receipts and talk with your tax preparer or visit your state, county and city government websites to research tax advantages you might already be eligible for. 2. Mortgage Interest Tax Break. Many home buyers expressly call out the mortgage interest tax deduction as a major motivation behind their desire to own a home. Proof: in a survey conducted by the California Association of Realtors(R), 79 percent of people who bought a home in 2012 said the mortgage interest and property tax deductions were “extremely important” to their decision to buy. The ability to write-off interest on up to $1 million of mortgage debt shifts the affordability equation and makes buying more financially compelling than renting for thousands of home owners every year. So it shocks and surprises me every time I read the numbers of home owners who simply don’t take the mortgage interest deduction every year. According to the American Institute for Economics Research, only about 63 percent of home owners itemize deductions – a pre-requisite to taking the mortgage interest deduction and its cousin, the property tax deduction. Now, there are a number of home owners whose income tax liability is simply so low that itemizing their tax deductions doesn’t pencil. That just means that some people’s holistic financial picture, including the income they earn and the mortgage interest they deduct, renders the standard deduction larger than the tax break they would receive by virtue of the mortgage interest and other itemized deductions. However, my personal experience has been that many home owners who could be eligible for great benefits from itemizing don’t fully appreciate or simply don’t feel up to the task of determining whether they have sufficient non-mortgage related deductions to itemize, so they do their own taxes and just take the standard interest deduction to minimize the work. If you have a high mortgage or property tax bill, it might be obvious that itemizing makes sense. But if not, you owe it to yourself – and your bank account – to at least try working with a tax preparer or committing to spend the time and energy it takes to explore the question of whether itemizing makes sense. Even an extra thousand dollars or two in tax savings can make a big difference to your savings and your financial future, over time. 3. CODI Income Tax Exemptions. Again, 2013 was a year in which many home owners – or former home owners – took pains to use their newly stable incomes to heal the financial wounds of the recession. For many, this involved settling debts with former lenders on homes that were foreclosed, short sold or even retained with defaulted second loans or home equity lines of credit. Normally, defaulted mortgage debt that is forgiven through a foreclosure, short sale, deed in lieu of foreclosure or settlement via partial payment is actually charged to a taxpayer as income. It’s called Cancellation of Debt Income, or CODI. Under the 2007 Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Relief Act (“the Act”), though, the IRS has temporarily exempted CODI from incurring income tax liability for as many as 100,000 home owners a year,to avoid penalizing home owners for these sorts of settlements and resolutions to upside-down home mortgages. The Act expired on December 31, 2013 (though talks are ongoing about extending it into this year). If you were one of the hundreds of thousands of American home owners who was able to close a short sale or settle a defaulted home loan in 2013, chances are good that you are eligible to tax advantage of the CODI tax break when you file your 2013 return. SELLERS: What real estate tax advantages have you been able to realize, since becoming a home owner? AGENTS: What tax breaks do you think home owners too often overlook – or overestimate? BUYERS: Have tax issues factored into your decision to buy? How and why? ALL: Follow Trulia and Tara on Facebook.

Home Office Safe Harbor, Other Tax Changes

Home Office Safe Harbor, Other Tax Changes



Visit an H&R Block office near you.  susan antigone-shorefun4u in Ocean City MD.

Creative Storage Ideas

http://www.realtor.com/home-garden/home-maintenance/Spring-maintenance/Creative-storage-solutions.aspx Creative Storage Solutions [These ideas will work wonders in an Ocean City MD summer vacation beach property. A Homes by Email portal will allow you to look at home photos to determine price, size, and location that suits your needs. Contact ShoreFun4U-Susan Antigone at Long & Foster Real Estate] Make use of the ordinary in surprising places By David Starr Wall Corners Storage Idea Your walls and corners can be used for storage with simple wall racks and corner shelving. Photo courtesy of The Closet Factory. There are many ways to find space where none seems to exist. The key is to look and then look again. Glimpse beyond a door, look above the window, peek below a table and put a cabinet in a place you never thought to put it before. Instead of looking around at eye level, look up and down. Think vertical. The air above you is fertile ground for storage. Using storage cabinets Dolores Cobb, a New York decorator and self-proclaimed veteran of tiny apartments says, "A tall storage cabinet (96" tall x 12" deep x 18" wide) can open up your floor and wall space and provide limitless storage solutions. She employs such cabinets with or without doors, depending on the available space. "Open cabinets can make a space look bigger. In tiny apartments, I use them on both ends of a small sofa, paint them to match the walls, install new pulls (on doors), then float a small end table in front of them. Sometimes Ill place a small painting or mirror on the doors they look fantastic." Cobb says she gets the cabinets unassembled, often made of pressed wood and sometimes faux-paints them for drama. "In an hour of easy gluing and assembly, you can create enchantment and a much more appealing and organized life!" If off-the-rack storage cabinets seem a bit dull, Atlanta designer June Oliveri offers an interesting touch. A collector of architectural salvage and ephemera, she says, "Use old doors to customize pre made cabinets." Her idea is ingenious and beautiful. "Buy cabinets and stack them high. Choose a cabinet that fits your needs at one of the big box stores, and then rummage for some old doors to hang on the front for an artful and beautiful look. Even new shutter doors painted to look old can work in a pinch." If you are a woodworker, Oliveri advises making a frame for your vintage doors so you get a perfect fit. Cabinet Tall pre-fab cabinets can be used in living areas with some minor modifications to paint and doors. Photo courtesy of Advanced Furniture Outfitters. Think creatively Flea market seller and scavenger, Chris Mead of Pasadena, California, is constantly running out of room for all the things he collects. "Floor-to-ceiling diagonal shelves in a corner painted to match or to contrast with the walls are magic." A furniture rescuer, Mead also suggests: Transform an old dresser you love but dont use in your bedroom anymore into a focal piece right in your living room." The advantage he says is that "you get to keep a cherished object and give it a new life as storage for magazines, books, extra blankets or whatever you need space for." Go with a pro "Some people want perfection," notes Jean Knight, a home and closet organizer by trade. Today anything is possible. If you want a large closet and don't have one, call in a closet and storage team to find the space, and they will they do it every day. I have put storage around beds and sofas. I have built in window seats. I have put bookcases and bookshelves around washing machines to make linen closets and it has all been done with pre fabricated items available at most big box stores." Quick ideas and tips Think vertical; dont focus on eye-level solutions. Look to corners for hidden space. Make great storage from the space above kitchen cabinets. Connect two cabinets with a shelf. Put a shelf above a window and line it with your favorite books. Use your fireplace in off season as a storage area. Stack books under tables. Buy a cheap campaign trunk, paint it and place it under a table to hide clutter. Use flea-market wicker suitcases stacked to hold needed items. Copyright © by Move, Inc.

Serve me, don't sell me | Inman News

Serve me, don't sell me | Inman News



Susan Antigone - ShoreFun4U in Ocean City MD with Long & Foster Real Estate.  I will help you determine if now is the right time to buy, sell or invest in a summer beach home.