In a rising trend, homeowners are abandoning their homes and their mortgages, rather than trying to keep up with rising payments on deteriorating assets. So many people are handing their keys back to lenders that a new term has been coined for it: jingle mail.

Current lending practices have created an environment where a measure as extreme as abandoning a home actually makes sense to some people.

Many buyers put little or no money down, so they don’t have much invested in them. That leaves them with little incentive to keep making payments when a home’s market value dips below the balance of the mortgage. (more…)

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Beautiful Wilkes County NC Timber Frame Home and Mountain Property.

MLS Number: 51166, List Price: $898,500

2 Bedrooms, 2 Baths, 2 half baths, 2 car attached garage, full basement, and a barn on 5 acres of land.

These terms are used to describe thousands of homes and yet some things just can’t be described, they have to be experienced. This is one of those homes that really has to be seen to be appreciated.

This majestic Timber Frame home of the Bob Timberlake genre is not just another house, it provides a feeling of home that is not about walls and floors and windows and doors. It creates a feeling of the flow between your outdoor and your indoor environment that is seamless. Everywhere you look there is a view. Everything you touch feels natural and beautiful in a way that cannot be described, only owned.

Contact Elizabeth Carter, 336.973.5594 or Greg Stikeleather, Broker, 704.880.5247 or email eacarter@charter.net

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Faltering home sales have resulted in increased popularity of real-estate auctions. Sellers unable or unwilling to wait are turning to live auctions for faster sales. While still only a small percentage of housing sales, the real-estate auction market climbed 5.3% in 2007, generating $58.4 billion, according to a recent report from the National Auctioneers Association.

Auctions can quickly sell your house and even fetch you a much higher profit than if you have listed your house. The first step in deciding if an auction will work well for your particular property is to research the field. Books such as the one shown here will allow your to find out the ins and outs of real estate auctions.

This guide will help you to understand just how to auction off your house or business property, choosing an auctioneer, whether or not you need a real estate broker, types of property best suited for auctioning and more. (more…)

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The first step, for those thinking of purchasing a vacation residence, is to review your debt history on your primary residence if you plan to borrow against it and deduct the mortgage interest on your federal tax return. Under the mortgage-interest guidelines, taxpayers are limited to the original acquisition debt, plus $100,000.

You can deduct the loan fees (”points”) paid to buy or improve your main home in the year of purchase. You cannot deduct these fees in the year you refinanced if you refinanced only to obtain a lower interest rate on your loan.

The tax rules and deductions for second-home owners who rent out their properties on a short-term basis depend on many factors, including how often you personally use your second home, how many nights or a percentage of the nights you rent out your home, and your personal adjusted gross incom. (more…)

Renting an existing home or vacation property comes to mind for many homeowners for a variety of reasons. Unable to make the monthly mortgage payments may be one, but not the best choice. After all, unless you move back in with your parents (ugh!), a monthly rent payment will still be necessary.

But maybe you’ve recently gotten married, receive an inheritance or buy a new house before you are able to sell the old one. That’s when turning your existing property into a rental makes sense.

Still, Is it worth hanging onto this property? Does it need major repairs, just to be rent-able? And, is your temperament suited to being a landlord. Tenants can be a major headache and in most locales, evicting a tenant can be a lengthy and arduous process. (more…)

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Section 1031 of the federal tax code allows investors to swap “like kind” properties without having to pay the hefty capital gains taxes they’d owe if they simply sold their real estate. With so many real estate investors engaging in 1031 exchanges, tax revenues on these sales have been falling.

To close, or modify this tax “loophole” a bill that’s already passed the Senate would narrow the definition of “like kind” in certain agricultural real estate transactions. This bill would force potentially large numbers of farmers to sell, rather than exchange, their properties and pay high capital gains taxes that they’d currently be allowed to defer. (more…)

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Home builders feeling the squeeze from the housing slump are looking for any advertising tactic that might entice buyers to choose their product. Some builders are aiming to save their customers money by reducing the choices they offer to buyers.

Lennar Corp., the nation’s second largest home builder, is whittling down options and moving toward a one design fits all model, seeing standardization and simplification as tools in a cost-cutting drive aimed at saving millions of dollars and surviving the housing slump.

The savings potential goes beyond simply substituting lower-quality kitchen cabinets or cheaper carpet. Limiting the number of faucet styles, for example, lets builders order earlier and negotiate bigger bulk discounts from suppliers. (more…)

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Home staging experts tell us that one of the first steps in making your home “saleable” is to get rid of useless junk. Right now, if you are considering a sale in 2008, make it a New Year’s resolution to de-clutter your home and get rid of accumulated junk.

Usually such efforts require trips to the municipal dump or heated arguments between family members the night before garbage day. To sidestep such difficulties and get the job done swiftly, residential junk-hauling companies will come to your home and haul away all your unwanted items. Or you can enlist one of many free local services that can suggest a number of junk-seeking charities and individuals willing to haul away your items. (more…)

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Beautiful Wilkes County NC Log Home and Mountain Property.

MLS Number: 50863, List Price: $359,900

Bedrooms: 3, Full Baths: 2, Half Baths: 0, Est Total SqFt: 2600, Type/Style: Log Home, Area: Area 6, Middle School: Cntrl Wlks, High School: Wlks Cntrl, Construction: Log

Foundation: Combination, Roof: Metal Roof, Floors: Carpet/Hardwood/Tile, Garage/Carport: None-Garage, None-Carport, Interior Features: Master Bedroom, Main Level, Large Master Bedroom, Walk-In Closet(s), Hardwood Floors, Fireplace(s), Great Room, Exterior Features: Double Pane Windows, Wooded Lot, 1-5 Acres, Hot Tub, Subdivision: N/A, Lot Size: 2.47, Apx SqFt: 2600 - 2800 SF, Basement: None

Contact Elizabeth Carter, 336.973.5594 or Greg Stikeleather, Broker, 704.880.5247 or email eacarter@charter.net

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