The Atlanta Real Estate Blog

The following is a well written article about this important first time home buyer incentive aimed at stimulating the economy. As I have said many times before - if you know your job is secure and you have good credit, there has never been a better time to buy an Atlanta home or Atlanta investment property. Robert Whitfield

By Amy Hoak, MarketWatch 2/25/09

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — First-time home buyers who purchase a home this year can now take advantage of the stimulus bill’s $8,000 tax credit, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said in a news release on Wednesday.

Unlike the previous $7,500 credit available to this group of buyers, the credit outlined in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 does not have to be paid back — if the home remains the buyer’s “main home” for at least 36 months after the purchase date, according to the Internal Revenue Service’s Web site. First-time buyers, for the purpose of this credit, are those who have not owned a home in three years.

Buyers must purchase a home before Dec. 1 to be eligible, and the credit can be claimed on a home buyer’s 2008 or 2009 tax return. Tax returns for 2008 are due by April 15, but most taxpayers can get automatic extensions to Oct. 15 without citing a reason. (You must pay any estimated tax liability at the time the extension is filed.) Filing an amended 2008 return after you buy would also be an option for getting the credit sooner.

“For first-time home buyers this year, this special feature can put money in their pockets right now rather than waiting another year to claim the tax credit,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, in a news release. “This important change gives qualifying home buyers cash they do not have to pay back.”

Buyers can claim 10% of the purchase price, up to $8,000, or $4,000 for married individuals filing separately, according to the IRS’ Web site. The credit starts to phase out for those whose adjusted gross income exceeds $75,000, or $150,000 for joint filers.

The IRS has posted a revised version of the form required to claim the credit, Form 5405, on IRS.gov. Visit IRS.gov’s first-time home buyer page.

WASHINGTON - Credit squeeze, credit freeze, credit system seizures: Everybody knows how severe and painful the global financial breakdown has been - with banks unwilling to lend even to other banks.

But what about mortgages and real estate? Can you still get a home loan with less than a 20 percent or 30 percent down payment? Or with a credit score below 720?
Absolutely. It would be a big stretch to label housing the sunny side of the market at the moment, but there’s a lot more light there than in most other financial sectors. Consider these facts:

• There is no shortage of money available for home mortgages, no freezing of credit to purchase or refinance a house. Why? Because the American mortgage market has been federalized - at least for the time being. More than 90 percent of new loans now are being made through FHA, the Federal Housing Administration insurance program, plus Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. FHA is owned by the federal government, and Fannie and Freddie are operating under federal conservatorship. All three have unfettered access to global capital markets at rock-bottom costs because their borrowings are fully guaranteed by the Treasury.

• Loan terms and credit underwriting standards have been toughened up, but you can still put down 3 percent (3.5 percent after Jan. 1) on an FHA-insured mortgage and 5 percent on certain Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan programs with private mortgage insurance. FHA’s credit standards are generous and forgiving - the agency exists to help people with less-than-spotless credit histories. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have raised their credit score requirements over the past year, but buyers and refinancers with scores in the upper 600s can still qualify for loans carrying reasonable rates and fees.

• Despite the global financial system’s quakes, mortgage rates not only remain low by historical standards, but for the week ended October 30, 2008 while 30 year fixed rates ticked up to 6.46% from 6.04% a week earlier - that is still among the lowest rates for a 30 year mortgage in the last 25 years!

• Maximum “jumbo” loan amounts through FHA, Fannie and Freddie in high-cost local markets on the West and East coasts continue to be $729,750 through December. In January, the high-cost maximum is projected to dip to approximately $625,000.

• Home prices - pushed by foreclosures and short sales - have rolled back to 2003 and 2004 levels or lower in many of the former boom markets. As a result, growing numbers of buyers are coming off the sidelines, making offers and writing contracts. The pending home sales index jumped by 7.4 percent based on purchase contracts signed in August, according to the National Association of Realtors. The heaviest increases - pointing to higher closed sales in the coming two to three months - were in California, Florida, Nevada and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

Housing and mortgage leaders say consumer worries about the stock market have obscured positive developments under way in real estate, where pricing pain and downsizing have been facts of the life for the past two and a half years.

David G. Kittle, president and CEO of Principle Wholesale Lending Inc. and incoming chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association, says “the mortgage market has never shut down” despite the global financial crisis. Money is “clearly available as long as you can qualify for it” with at least a modest down payment and decent credit history.

On the front lines, mortgage company owner Jeff Lipes, president of Family Choice Mortgage near Hartford, Conn., says “I don’t think consumers really know how free-flowing capital is right now in the residential mortgage market. There are no shortages, no breakdowns. People ought to be aware of that.”

Bottom line: Scary as the news has been about stocks and banks, this is not the case for mortgages. Besides shopping at large national lenders, check in with local banks and credit unions who may be originating loans for their own portfolios - not for Fannie, Freddie or FHA. Many of them are healthy, have plenty of cash to lend, and may be surprisingly competitive on terms and rates compared with the big boys.

Contact Robert Whitfield at Advantage Realtors if you need a good source for home equity lines - we have a local North Atlanta lender with more relaxed underwriting guidelines and better rates than the big national banks.

While the two presidential candidates were taking time away from their campaigns this week to attend congressional hearings on the $700 billion dollar “bail out”, the internet and chat rooms in Atlanta have been on fire. Apparently a local Atlanta real estate Broker has been endorsed by people all over the country as a possible candidate! CNBC’s Wolf Blitzer says this is nothing short of a Phenomenon! Click the following video for this emerging story.

 
The Robert Whitfield Home Selling Team hope you enjoyed the video and the consensus is, there is very little chance of Robert being called away to Washington - at least for the near and far foreseeable future! Robert in a recent press release stated emphatically, My skill sets and intersts will keep me here in Atlanta - I am still available to assist the public with unmatched service for all their Atlanta Real Estate needs!

Hi, I would like to welcome you to The Atlanta Real Estate Blog!

Robert Whitfield, Broker/Owner, Advantage Realtors

This site will provide relevant and useful information and insights about all aspects of Atlanta Real Estate, including market trends, mortgage info and rates, legal and technical subjects we feel would aid and better inform and protect the buying and selling public, not only from other parties, but sometimes even from themselves! Information on homes for sale will include areas The Robert Whitfield Team serves, including In-Town Atlanta, Buckhead, and the Greater North Atlanta area above I-20 including the Counties of Cobb, North Fulton, Cherokee, and Dekalb including the communities and cities of Atlanta, Alpharetta, Buckhead, Marietta, East Cobb, West Cobb, Kennesaw, Roswell, and Woodstock for Home Sellers, and for Home Buyers, we serve the same areas plus virtually all areas from 1-20 north, throughout the North Georgia mountain resort and second home communities to the state line.

The other purpose of this site is to showcase and describe the unique services, extra protections, cutting edge marketing, and diligent representation provided by Robert Whitfield and The Robert Whitfield Team. We will feature some success stories and actual transaction case studies to inform readers as well as to distinguish our unmatched services from the ‘industry standard’ services you can expect from other Atlanta agents/realtors. Weather you choose to work with us or another agent, we want to urge you to take an active role in evaluating and choosing the best agent to represent you in the purchase or sale of your Atlanta property. What we know after years in this business, working with agents from every firm in Atlanta, while representing clients from every walk of life from first time buyers, to corporate executives, entertainers, architects, and attorneys, Atlanta real estate agents are not all they same! On the surface, that doesn’t sound very profound, but when you engage people in any discussion of real estate, if you listen closely, people often talk as if agents ARE all the same! The very services and marketing systems agents provide are not all the same - and thier capabilities, competancies, and most important their client based (not agent based) performance measures are definately not all the same! We have enjoyed working with and become friends with countless well qualified and dedicated agents who we respect and who are a true asset to thier clients to the point that thier client often doesn’t even have a clue how well they were actually served! We have also worked on the opposite sides of transactions with poorly skilled agents (from the most well known national and local firm in Atlanta ) that should be barred from serving the public until thier skills improve! In most of those cases, we singlehandedly held the deal together for the benefit of not only our own buyer or seller client but the other party as well!  Moral of the story - its not the firm that matters - its the individual agent you choose that will make (or break) your deal! Fortunately you do have a choice - but its up to you to choose the best and most qualified expert you can find - and not just “another agent”!

Robert Whitfield is a licensed Broker and the owner of Advantage Realtors and serves clients in In Town Atlanta and all of Greater North Atlanta. Robert lives in the Roswell section of East Cobb with his wife and business partner Hania, and their 11 year old son Robert. Robert is a member of the Atlanta Board of Realtors, and the International Code Council and is the only real estate professional in metro Atlanta who is also an experienced ICC Certified Building Inspection Professional. Roberts unique talents and complete knowledge of home building, materials, and construction and repair techniques allow him to provide unmatched insight, repair, rehab, and alteration guidance, counsel, and protection to home buyers, sellers, and investors through his complementary structure and major system evaluations. Robert has used his extra qualifications as a construction expert to prevent deals from falling apart for seller clients while refuting bad calls from buyers inspectors and preventing unneccessary and costly repairs. While representing buyers as thier Atlanta Buyer Broker, Robert has saved his clients many hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years by helping them identify, isolate, and avoid homes with serious structural problems, costly defects, and/or poor construction on both new and existing homes!

Because Roberts due diligence process takes place BEFORE an offer is ever submitted, his clients, unlike the typical buyer, actually know what they are buying before they ever commit to a purchase contract. This unique approach not only assurs Roberts clients of making a sound investment, but they avoid the aggravation and lost time other buyer experience while trying to back out of deals AFTER a bad home inspection has revealed items of great concern! Roberts diligent process is unmatched in Atlanta Real Estate at both insuring a sound troublefree home purchase for Atlanta families, but it also ”rapidly sorts through the chaff” to identify the absolute best properties available for each clients individual needs and desires. By assuring clients can spend thier time seeing metro Atlantas best properties - while they are still available, clients who are lucky enough to be represented by Robert Whitfield, have the widest possible choices. 

The Robert Whitfield Team