When Is A 5.000 Percent Mortgage Rate Really 3.600 Percent? An oft-touted benefit of homeownership is its tax benefits. However, like most IRS-related items, understanding how the benefits work is not always clear. In general, homeowners are entitled to two home-related tax deductions -- one for annual mortgage interest paid, and one for real estate tax bills paid. Not everyone is eligible, though. Some of the exclusionary traits include total amount borrowed, and whether or not the home is a primary or secondary residence. The official IRS publication is filled with notes and explanations but, in general, you can calculate your approximate mortgage interest tax deduction using the following math: Sum your annual mortgage interest and real estate taxes paid Find your tax rate on the IRS... 01/14/2009

New Fannie Mae Loan Fees Target Condo Buyers, Among Others (And they missed the boat this time) When conforming mortgages started defaulting en masse in late-2007, mortgage guarantor Fannie Mae created a loss-offsetting, fee-generating scheme dubbed "loan-level pricing adjustments". The concept was basic: For mortgage applicants with high-risk profiles, collect up-front payments to offset potential long-term losses. Similar to the auto insurance model (I'm not sure what bureaucrat came up with this, by the way) in which younger drivers pay higher premiums, riskier applicants pay higher fees. At the inception of the program, Fannie Mae defined "risk" as a combination of borrower credit score and home equity percentage. In general, lower FICOs and higher LTVs paid more costs. Effective Ap... 01/12/2009

  Now that we’ve bravely crossed the bridge to the 21st century and find ourselves in the new webiverse of the life online. How are we doing? An important aspect of building your online presence is monitoring how you show up. What is going on about you on the net?   Who’s talking about me? Who quoted me in a blog? Where do I show up?   There are some great tools to monitor your webonality and one of the best I have found is Google Alert.   If you have a Google account, go to www.google.com/alerts. What is it? Google alerts are predefined automated topical searches that you design. You can save up to 1000 of them.  The searches happen automatically and the updates can be delivered to your Gmail account, posted to your Google Reader page, or you can track and share them via your iGoogle p... 01/10/2009

For King County Home Buyers (and people selling King county homes), the limits for conforming loans were rolled back. Make sure and call us and we will get you hooked up with a great loan officer.As part of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, Congress authorized a conforming loan limit increase in "high-cost" areas around the country. Versus the national conforming loan limit of $417,000, for example, a Manhattan home buyer could secure a 2008 mortgage for $725,000 and still be within "conforming" guidelines and all Puget Sound areas were also above the $417,000 limit.Effective January 1, however, those limits rolled back. Conforming mortgages in the 59 designated high-cost regions are now capped at $625,500. In non-high-cost areas, the 2009 conforming loan limits remain unchanged from ... 01/06/2009

Ashburn Townhomes in Renton WA where Jessie and I make our home and enjoy our great neighbors. I love to help folks buy and sell homes, especially in Ashburn. Close to Valley Medical Center and Hospital, Ikea, Boeing, Southcenter, SeaTac Airport and all the freeways north and south. Great South Seattle location. Please take a look at this quick slide show of the Ashburn Community. Considering buying or selling a Renton home, please call the Gary McNinch Team Renton Wa Real Estate. 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. No one else will back their service up like us! 01/02/2009

I started my real estate career trying to make sure that people got value from me before ever asking people to utilize my services - I call it my "give before you get" philosophy.  One way that we have provided benefits to the public is to provide classroom material that targets a variety of buyer and seller viewpoints.  When we started 5 years ago our classes were sponsored just by me and my partner, Michael, and we held the classes at the Phinney Neighborhood Center - which was also near our home office.  I had been an active member and wanted to give back to my community too. So, we did that for years and eventually we were asked to provide my partner's most popular class, the "No Fluff Real Estate Investing and Financial Analysis" seminar for an organization that did adult education... 12/31/2008

I have been often asked by buyers wanting to get a good deal by purchasing a home at foreclosure. Here is the story I tell them and let them decide whether or not they want to go down that path. I went down to the King County courthouse in Seattle, Washington on a friday morning arriving early, early meaning an hour in advance of the bidding, there were already a hundred people there on this particular day. It was a frenzy of people buzzing amongst the confusion of where I should stand since there were trustees everywhere. There was no rime or reason to what was going on and people on the street who were headed to their office jobs added to the mix as curious onlookers. The bidding started at 9:00am sharp and the frenzy became chaos, what I noticed was inexperience buyers over bidding ... 12/20/2008

The news is buzzing with talk about the Fed lowering interest rates to 4.5% in an effort to increase home purchases. (Please keep in mind that this low rate is just talk...no banks are offering 4.5%). This idea is similiar to the recent Tarp bailout plan to purchase $500 billion in mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, along with the options to buy out another $100 billion in low performing mortgage debt. This news of the Government's help has caused bond prices to spike, forcing lower interest rates. It is important to remember that the Federal Government does not directly dictate home loan rates....they simply have the ability to influence buyer sentiments and investors by fueling cash in the market. Rates are determined by the price movements of Mortgage Backed Se... 12/11/2008

Please, Protect Your Family, Check For Abnormally High Levels Of Carbon Monoxide in your Renton Home. As the weather turns cooler and home heating systems get fired, it's important to safeguard your home from carbon monoxide gas. Often called the "silent killer", the odorless and colorless gas accidentally poisons about 170 Americans each year. And tragically, last winter we lost a family in Kent. The video above with Harry Smith from CBS News tells the story of 2 such deaths. Throughout the 5-minute piece (and after the commercial), note the mother talking about headaches, fatigue and nausea. Because carbon monoxide poisoning shows similar symptoms to the flu, many people confuse the two -- sometimes with fatal consequences. Experts and every good home inspector says to outfit each roo... 12/10/2008

As those of you who know me, I’m a fan of 1000wattconsulting.com. Marc Davison and Brian Boero consistently offer clear and thoughtful discussion about Web 2.0 topics (especially how it relates to real estate) through their blog. Marc’s post on December 2nd, The trouble with Twitter , addresses some meaningful concerns. Are you cranking out gibberish, or contributing meaningful communication? A few of us in my daily work reality have been playing with Twitter for several months. I’m still not confident I understand its real value, but I certainly feel its allure. We’re using it at work to keep in touch. Between conversations I enjoy hearing from a marketing rep that a meeting went well, a client made it to a tradeshow, or one of my team members found a great new resource on the web. We ... 12/07/2008

Well here is the latest from the creative minds of Keller Williams International. Last year at the Keller Williams Convention called Family Reunion, Gary Keller rolled out a series of 12 books to help us handle the real estate market shift that was starting in many areas. That training put most KW agents ahead of the competition. Now the book "Shift" has sold over one million copies and is being used by realtors all over the world to stay ahead of the market and better help our clients. Plus Keller Williams International has sent Gary Keller, Dave Jenks and Tony DiCello out across the continent to put on training classes and present the 12 strategies. Gary Keller has stated, "Keller Williams is a world class training company disguised as a real estate business." Well besides the Shiftb... 12/03/2008

One busy fun challenging work week that felt a lot longer than three days for some reason. Action packed, I guess? A five day'r squished into three before a holiday kind of week. My ITM team, Matt Sweet and Kareem Hunter had a hopper full of projects and I did several appointments with clients about internet marketing and leveraging technology. Tuesday I drove to Scappoose, Oregon to meet with George Hafeman and his group at Windermere. I was on the I-405 headed south by 6:00 AM. I love the drive to Oregon when the weather is nice. Its three hours from my condo in Renton. I savor the quality time with self. I had my iPod loaded up with music and a few podcasts. For me, driving down the road is a great way to take time out to contemplate life, the universe, everything, and my place in it... 11/27/2008

Saturday, November 22nd… This morning I skipped my usual dart straight from bed to the shower grab a quick cup of coffee and head out the door for my Saturday rounds. I opted instead for a Sunday kind of morning. It’s been a full week of meetings, deadlines, expense reports, marketing projects, 2009 goal setting, internet strategy round table discussions, website updates, and an awesome company awards banquet. I needed quiet time. I skipped the shower, went for my bathrobe, brewed up a cup of Joe and nestled in at my desk. I fired up ‘Old Moe’ my home computer to catch up with a few things of personal interest online and just quietly drift awhile in ethereal cyberspace. Over the past year or so I’ve spent time on the Rain looking around. I signed up this past summer. I have a blog on ou... 11/23/2008

We get great phone calls from people looking to buy or sell their Renton or Kent homes.  So a few minutes ago the phone rings and the lady says "are you selling my house?"  Of course I didn't recognize the voice or phone number so I thought no.  But then I asked her name and address.  She is not one of our great clients which we know and love and the address is kind of familiar (I know the neighborhood in Kent) but not one of my listings. So I offer to look it up in the MLS.  It shows an archived sold property in 2005 and running the tax record attached I find her name.  So I explain that to her that no real estate company has it listed. She said that was good because she was living there and didn't intend to ever sell it. I asked if a sign had appeared in her yard and she said no. Now ... 11/03/2008

Hi !Realtor and Stager, Julianna Hind here... with an invitation for ALL Stagers to join us on Friday, November 14th 10 am to 1 PM in Renton, Washington at my Keller Williams Real Estate Training Room for a fun and enriching Round Table Event! We are expecting a large group of people, including stagers from Bellevue, Issaquah, Auburn, Kent, Seattle, Renton, so please RSVP through the RESA website. (Link below) November is Home Staging Awareness Month Professional Home Stagers Gather to Discuss Industry News and Promote Home Staging The Real Estate Staging Association (RESA) the Trade Association for Professional Home Stagers has announced that November is Home Staging Awareness Month.  RESA along with ASHSR and IRIS is proud to announce that we are National Co-Sponsors of Home Staging A... 10/28/2008

Posted by David Edwards under For Buyers, For Sellers, Regional - West, General Information, News & Media It has come to my understanding that the developers of The Landing are having additional discussions with Trader Joe's about locating a store here in Renton and there is some interest.  They recommend that those who would like to see a Trader Joe's should fill out a simple "vote" to register your support on the Trader Joe's website. Feel free to encourage your neighbors and friends to vote as well: http://traderjoes.com/location_requests_form.aspx 10/24/2008

Well everyone is wondering, talking, considering, opinionating about housing prices. (and stock market prices and on and on.) Well here is the Obvious Truth About King County Housing Prices Predictions. As the stock market dips then jumps then dips again, it's important to remember that markets are unpredictable and nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop the analysts from trying. An obvious example comes from May of this year. As the price of oil crossed $120 per barrel on its way to an all-time high of $147, a Goldman Sachs analyst was quoted as saying that $200 oil was "likely". It seemed like a logical conclusion at the time. Today, though, just five months after the prediction, the analyst's "likely" scenario looks downright laughable. Oil is off by... 10/17/2008

If my mortgage Lender Fails, Are My Renton Home Payments Still Due? Yesterday, I got asked this twice. Once in person and one was a call to the office of the Gary McNinch Team. Of course both people who asked this were mostly laughing. Like there is ever a chance we don't get to pay our mortgage!?!. Thursday, federal regulators seized mortgage lender Washington Mutual. Since WAMU is local this is a monstrous hit in our local economy. That aside, the Seattle-based thrift became the third "big name" lender to close its doors since July, joining IndyMac and Lehman Brothers. In 2007, these 3 lenders represented about 10 percent of the mortgage market and their subsequent failures are confusing American homeowners. The most prevalent question: If my mortgage lender fails, are my payments sti... 09/27/2008

Posted by David Edwards under For Buyers, For Sellers, For Realty Professionals, Regional - West, Statistics, Marketing Reports, Renton Note: NWMLS implemented some Area Designation and Boundary changes in the Newcastle/Renton area to more accurately reflect the true market areas in this section of Bellevue/Renton. The boundary changes took effect on June 24th, 2008. To view a map that shows the old and new boundaries, click here: http://www.nwmls.com/discover/library/monday_update/MonUpdates/MU2008/Jun08/KC_SW_350_500.pdf. These numbers are based on a three month historical analysis that compares this week with last week. MLS Area 500 (Newcastle, Bellevue South of I-90 & Issaquah South of I-90)Single Family HomesAverage Days on Market: 102 Days (Up from 101 last period)Inventory of Act... 09/15/2008

Title:   Photography for Advertising Real Estate Seminar  Organizer:   Julianna Hind, Real Estate and Design Professional Date:   Monday, September 29, 2008 Time:   9:00AM to 4:30PM PDT Location:   Training Room - Keller Williams Southeast Sound: 560 Naches Ave SW Suite 100 Participants:   Realtors and Stagers Description:   Please Bring Your Camera and Camera Manual to the Class! Topic: "Photography for Advertising Real Estate Seminar", 7.5 Clock Hours by Dennis Huckaby Location: Keller Williams Realty Southeast Sound 560 Naches Ave SW Suite 100, Renton, WA, 98057 Training Room 425-277-5100 Date: Monday, September 29, 2008 Time: 9:00am - 4:30pm Cost: Members $97.00 - Bring Sack Lunch, or Pre-order with Janene 425-277-5100 *Pre-registration required. Only Pre-Paid registrants will guar... 09/13/2008