Price Reduction on one of the nicest neighborhoods in Panama City! The Woods!

 

 

This home has 4 bedrooms 3 1/2 bathrooms, pool, jacuzzi, tiki hut, large yard, open kitchen, living room and breakfast eating area. Call today for your personal tour of this beautiful home 850-596-4714!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How To Dive Into a Swimming Pool Addition

  May 3, 2012 — Realty Times Feature Article by Broderick Perkins

Adding a swimming pool to your property can add cash value and an enhanced lifestyle, but it’ll also cost you to keep it sparkling and, perhaps, some extra effort when it’s time to sell.

The pros and cons are many.

Home buyers love swimming pools and they hate them. Ditto for sellers.

A pool can be a family oasis during swim season or a mosquito breeding swamp during the off season.

Pools put small children at risk, but provide full body workouts for hard core athletes.

With construction down, chances are, you can drive a hard bargain to have a new pool installed these days. However, it’s going to cost you tens of thousands of dollars and, because of buyers’ love-’em-hate-’em relationship with pools, don’t expect to get a full return on your investment when you sell, especially in harsh winter areas.

If you are going to add a swimming pool to your property take as much time considering and planning for the improvement as it will take the contractor to put you in the swim.

Value factors

When it comes to value, get the opinion of a home appraiser in terms of how it will impact the value of your home. Even then it can be a toss up.

In a community with many existing pools, a poll could boost your home’s value nearer the value of like homes with pools. In a community without pools, your return could be smaller because you’ll attract a smaller pool of buyers.

The neighborhood also comes into play on the value scale. Even if you have the only pool on the block, if your neighborhood has excellent schools, is low on crime and is in a sought-after location, the pool could be a plus for the right buyer and your bottom line.

Also talk to a real estate agent familiar with your neighborhood to determine how homes with pools sell. Talk to sellers in neighborhoods with both high and low pools-to-homes ratios to see how they affect value and salability.

Of course, if you’ve got a family of swimmers and plan to stay in your home many years, selling and a return on your investment is far less important.

LandscapingNetwork also says anyone considering a pool addition should include design factors in the decision-making process.

Design factors

A pool will erase a large chunk of your property. It’s design must be a good fit for your family and your property. Once your plan reaches the blueprint and permit stage, changes can rack up additional costs.

• Drag out the hoses. Use a connection of garden hoses to outline your pool’s location to get a feel for the space you’ll loose to a pool. The hoses allow you to easily and quickly visualize a variety of pool shapes and sizes. Likewise, heavy rope, brightly colored power cords and other materials can serve the same purpose. Leave each design in place for a few days to really get a feel for pool space.

• Engage the neighbors. While discussing pool values with your neighbors, especially those who put in a pool after moving in, ask them to share their pool experience. Ask about their likes and dislikes; what changes they’d make; how long and disruptive it was to install the pool; and ask about unexpected costs. You’ll also want nearby neighbors to know major construction may be afoot.

• Start a scrapbook. Start a collection of pool images collected from magazines, showrooms, online searches, your own photos and other sources. Collect pool images that are alluring to you and stockpile images that contain pool features you like. The images will help you visualize the form and function you want built into your pool. After a while, you’ll see a common thread in the type of pool you desire.

• Make a wish list. Go overboard. Right now, don’t consider cost. From your images make a list of all the features, designs and other elements that would create your dream pool. Then budget what you can really afford, what will actually fit in the allotted space and otherwise whittle down the list you can show the contractor, along with the images you’ve gathered.

Both the value and design pre-work will help quickly get your pool improvement project off the drawing boards and onto your property.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tax season is upon us and for those who purchased or sold a home last year, there are a number of tax deductions for which you may qualify.

For starters, the Internal Revenue Service says that if you have a gain from the sale of your main home, you may be able to exclude up to $250,000 of the gain from your income as a single tax filer, or $500,000 on a joint return in most cases.

Here are some other factors to keep in mind:

1: Much of the interest paid on a mortgage is tax-deductible. A married couple filing jointly can deduct all of their interest on a maximum of $1 million in mortgage debt secured by a first or second home.

2: Real estate broker commissions, title insurance, legal fees, advertising costs, administrative costs, and inspection fees are all considered selling costs and may be used to reduce one’s taxable capital gain by the amount of the selling costs.

3: Refinanced mortgage points are deductible, but not all at once. Homeowners who refinance can immediately write off the balance of the old points and begin to amortize the new. Interest paid on a home equity loan or similar line of credit may also be deducted.

4: Points and origination fees on a home loan, which are paid during the purchase of a home, are generally tax-deductible in full for the year that they were paid.

5: Qualifying capital improvements can sometimes be deducted, including costs of a new roof, fence, swimming pool, garage, porch, built-in appliances, insulation, heating/cooling systems or landscaping.

6: If you move because of a new job, you may be able to deduct some of your moving costs. To qualify for these deductions you must meet several IRS requirements, including that your new job must be at least 50 miles farther from your old home than your previous job. Moving-cost deductions can include travel or transportation costs, lodging expenses, and fees for storing your household goods.

7: Property taxes are fully deductible from your income. If you have an impound or escrow account, you can’t deduct the money held for property taxes until the money is actually used to pay your property taxes. And a city or state property tax refund reduces your federal deduction by a like amount.

8: For those who took advantage of the first-time homebuyer credit the past two years: If within 36 months of the date of purchase, the property is no longer used as your principal residence, you are required to repay the credit.

9: Another important tip for those who moved is to make sure you update your address with the IRS and the U.S. Postal Service to ensure you receive refunds or correspondence from the IRS.

Since tax laws change every year and certain tax deductions become available while others phase out, it’s always a good idea to speak with a professional tax consultant about these and other considerations.

 

 

Home Sellers: What About Your Pets?

 

 By Bob Douglas

Prudential Shimmering Sands Realty

 

            Home sellers are advised to create the illusion that everything is new and fresh in their homes, but when pets are involved, it’s not always easy to keep things clean and orderly.

            The simplest solution for a pet owner who is selling a home is to relocate the pet to a friend’s or family member’s home or to pet daycare while the home is on the market. Keeping a pet in the backyard, the garage or in another room that you keep locked is insufficient, and is certainly not fair to the pet.

            When a pet is in a home that buyers are coming to view, it could often scare away the people from even stepping foot into the house. Many people are worried about dogs or freaked out by birds, and then allergies can also come into play if cats or other animals are inside.

            Owners may think of their pets as the gentlest creatures, but when strangers come into the home to look around, who knows what the animals are thinking? A dog that barks or jumps on people is never a good thing.

            If pets are left in the home, make sure to put them in a carrier and attach a note warning buyers not to disturb them. The last thing you want is somebody sticking their hand inside and getting bit or scratched.  

            Removing signs that you have a pet is simply smart practice. Make sure you clean the litter box daily and keep them out of sight. Also, keep all food and water dishes somewhere out of the way, or put them away after the pet eats.

             Considering hiring professionals to remove all pet stains on the carpet as buyers will spot them and form unfavorable opinions about the rest of the home.

            Finally, although a sleeping cat on the bed may make for a cute picture, someone seeing the shot on a website looking for a home may automatically bypass the house because they immediately picture cat smells and claw marks on the rug.

            Pet owners must understand that not everyone loves animals as much as they do and that to many, pets are considered smelly, noisy and damaging to a property. Don’t let a pet be the reason you don’t sell your home.

 

Bob Douglas can be reached at (850-596-4714). Prudential Shimmering Sands Realty is an independently owned and operated member of BRER Affiliates Inc. Used under license with no other affiliation with Prudential.  Equal Housing Opportunity.

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VA Loans Are Opening Homeownership Doors for More Veterans

            Past and current military personnel looking for financing in today’s more stringent mortgage environment can take advantage of the VA loan program, which has been available for more than six decades to help members of the military own their own homes.

            The program, established in 1944 as part of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, is available for any individual who has served in active duty in any branch of the U.S. military for a minimum of 90 days.

            “The beauty of this loan is that it allows financing without requiring a down payment,” said Eric Kandell, founder of lowvarates.com. “It also doesn’t allow the mortgage lender to charge the veteran private mortgage insurance.”

            A VA loan does require the borrower to pay a one-time funding fee on their purchase, which can be paid up front or financed into the total cost of the loan. The funding fee for regular military members is 2.15% of the loan. Reservists pay a fee of 2.40%.

            Non-active duty personnel, such as individuals in the Army Reserves or National Guard, may apply for a VA-backed mortgage provided they have completed six years of service. Spouses of deceased or missing military members are also eligible if they have not remarried. Those who were dishonorably discharged from any military branch are not eligible.

            “I’ve closed more VA loans in the past two years than in the past decade,” said Steve Thorne, area manager for First Financial Services, Inc. in Raleigh, N.C. “It really is a great benefit to the veteran in the ‘New Mortgage World.’ The key to getting more veterans to take advantage of this benefit is simply an awareness of the benefit.”

            Statistics provided by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs show that roughly 25 million people are eligible  for a VA loan yet only 10-15 percent of those have taken advantage of it when buying or refinancing.

            One reason is that for many years leading up to the mortgage crisis, there were many conventional mortgage products that were easier or more economical to the veteran than the VA loan.  

            “In the wild, wild west of mortgage lending from the early 2000s to 2008, 100% financing was common,” Thorne said. “So why pay the VA funding fee just to have 100 percent financing? Not to mention the VA control of the appraisal process, understanding residual income and all the additional disclosures. It was just a more cumbersome process then the ‘come on down, everybody gets a loan’ of the conventional arena.”

            Many veterans, especially those not so recently discharged, aren’t sure of VA loan benefits or that the program even exists. With the VA loan the veteran can buy a home with little to no money out of pocket. 

            “In the past, veterans were told about other financing on the market and people were more inclined out of ignorance to use non-VA loan financing,” Kandell said. “[The VA loan] is a great loan and you are going to see a massive shift in numbers going forward.”

            Talk to a mortgage representative for more on VA financing.

     

Bob Douglas can be reached at (850-596-4714). Prudential Shimmering Sands Realty is an independently owned and operated member of BRER Affiliates Inc. Used under license with no other affiliation with Prudential.  Equal Housing Opportunity.