Category: Selling

Single Family Homes

• Total single family sales in 2008: 136
• Highest Sales Price: $4,150,000 for a 8,445 square foot home built in 2007 on a 51,056 square foot water front lot on 92 Street
• Lowest Sales Price: $260,000 for a 1,092 square foot 13,644square foot lot.  Bank-owned foreclosure on 136 Street.

Condos

• Total condos sales in 2008: 8
• Highest Sales Price: $252,000 for a  1,045 square foot unit in Palms of Pinecrest
• Lowest Sales Price: $120,600 for a 792 square foot unit in Sunrise Point

Surprise! This is not going to be a negative blog about how depressing the real estate market is.

Instead, this is literally about real estate going to the dogs!

There are doggie bars, doggie parks, doggie spas, doggie accessory stores and doggie day cares. This is in addition to the standard groomers, vets, boarders and large pet store chains.

The pet industry is estimated to hit $40.8 billion this year and all of these dog related businesses require space, be it land, industrial or retail!

Additional resources: Dog Park Etiquette

Pet Industry Trends & Statistics

The Alternative Minimum Tax is basically a parallel tax system that runs in conjunction with the regular tax system. You may not have heard of it before now because it was originally only directed at individuals with extremely high incomes. However, since it was never indexed to inflation it will be affecting the middle class as of this year.

The regular tax system currently encourages home ownership by allowing deduction on mortgage interest, property taxes, home equity interest and not recognizing gain on the sale of a primary residence, up to $500,000 for a married couple and $250,000 for an individual.

The regular tax system also promotes real estate investing by allowing depreciation to be taken on a straight-line basis over a 27.5 year recovery period for residential income property and a 39 year recovery for commercial property.

The AMT as it currently stands, does away with a lot of these incentives to owning a home or investing in real estate.

1. It does not allow deductions for real estate property taxes.
2. It delays depreciation on real estate by increasing the recovery period to 40 years.
3. Does not allow deductions on home equity lines of credit used for anything other than to improve the home.

First, a disclaimer. I am not a CPA nor accountant and I don’t play one on t.v. To find out whether you are subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) contact your accountant or CPA.

The AMT was originally enacted in 1969 in order to make sure that high income individuals paid income tax. Over the years, inflation has gone up resulting in more people’s income becoming subject to the AMT, which is not indexed to inflation.

In 1995 only 414,000 individuals paid AMT. By 2001 1.3 million people were subject to the tax. This year, 23.4 million people will be subject to it.

Why is this scary? You could be one of the 23.4 million! This tax is now affecting the middle class.

1. If you earn over $75,000 you will need to do some calculations when preparing your tax returns to determine whether you are subject to the AMT. Under the AMT rules, if the amount you owe under the AMT tax schedule is higher that on your regular tax schedule, you must pay the difference in addition to your regular taxes.

The AMT disallows a lot of popular deductions, such as those for dependants, State and Local taxes, some medical and dental expenses.

So, families with children are more likely to fall under the AMT than those without children, and married couples are 12 times more likely to fall under the AMT than singles.

The good news is we are coming up on an election year and Congress should address the AMT or there are going to be a lot of unhappy voters in 2008 after having had to pay the AMT.

Unless Congress comes up with a fix for the AMT, I would suggest the following: Stay single, don’t have children and live in Florida!

As you drive around town, you notice all of the colorful “For Sale” signs. You were contemplating a move because you found another house you really like that is in your price range but you are nervous about trying to sell in today’s market.

Here are some tips for making sure your house will be considered by prospective buyers:

1. Contact a couple of Realtors and find out what they would do market your home.
2. Make sure your home really sparkles. From the time the prospective buyer pulls up, your home is making an impression on the buyer. You want it to be a good one!
3. Consider having your home professionally staged. The way you live in your home is not the same as how you market your home.
4. No matter how great your home looks, if the price is not competitive for your area, you are not going to sell your home. You are dealing with educated buyers who have been bombarded by the news that inventory and foreclosure rates are high and prices are coming down. They are going to be wary of overpaying.
5. Find out what the last couple of similar homes sold for in your neighborhood and price your home at or below those homes.
6. No matter how tempting it may be and what you may have heard, avoid the urge to negotiate your Realtors commission. A good Realtor is going to have to do some major marketing to get your home to stand out above the others and attract buyers to it. Why would you want to cut their incentive to spend their money marketing your home?

As you drive around town, you notice all of the colorful “For Sale” signs. You were contemplating a move because you found another house you really like that is in your price range but you are nervous about trying to sell in today’s market.

Here are some tips for making sure your house will be considered by prospective buyers:

1. Contact a couple of Realtors and find out what they would do market your home.
2. Make sure your home really sparkles. From the time the prospective buyer pulls up, your home is making an impression on the buyer. You want it to be a good one!
3. Consider having your home professionally staged. The way you live in your home is not the same as how you market your home.
4. No matter how great your home looks, if the price is not competitive for your area, you are not going to sell your home. You are dealing with educated buyers who have been bombarded by the news that inventory and foreclosure rates are high and prices are coming down. They are going to be wary of overpaying.
5. Find out what the last couple of similar homes sold for in your neighborhood and price your home at or below those homes.
6. No matter how tempting it may be and what you may have heard, avoid the urge to negotiate your Realtors commission. A good Realtor is going to have to do some major marketing to get your home to stand out above the others and attract buyers to it. Why would you want to cut their incentive to spend their money marketing your home?