The Ideal Time to Buy

If you have been mulling over the idea of buying a house, you might want to stop mulling and start looking. We have discussed this in several past blog articles, and I hope I am preaching to the converted.

Now is the ideal time to buy a house. I am not mincing words because truly, there is no better time. Why am I so firm about this? For three reasons. One, the interest rate on mortgages is at a historic low. It’s been more than thirty years since we’ve seen interest rates this low. Obviously, this means that your monthly mortgage payments will be less as well, appreciably so. A house mortgage is good debt because a house is an investment which will appreciate over time. Granted, there times like these as well, but for the most part, houses gain value.

Two, the goverment is offering a first-time buyer tax credit worth up to $7.500 if you buy a house by July 1, 2009. If you are part of a married couple and buying a house together, you can get up to $15,000 in tax credit. The credit acts as a zero-interest loan as you have to repay the money over the years, but there is no interest. If you bought a new home after April 9, 2008, you also will want to look into this tax credit. The government is ready to place this money into your hands if you are ready to buy your first new home. Here is a website that comprehensively laws out the tax credit program.

Three, house prices are lower than they have been in the past several years. This is only logical in difficult economic times, and these are difficult straits, indeed. People are worried about their personal economy and don’t necessarily want to take risks on a big investment–even if it will benefit them in the end.

I feel so strongly about this that I am going to keep saying it. If you have any thoughts of buying a house within the next year or two, then time is really of the essence. This trifecta of perfect reasons to buy a house will not last forever.  Now is the time to act.  If you or anyone you know is thinking of buying a house, call me at (952) 915-2252 or e-mail me at  Steven@StevenHong.com so I can talk about it with you.

Top 10 Real Estate Agent Fears when Showing Houses

Which house is it?

10. Getting into a car accident on the way to a showing.

9. Running out of gas with a client in the car.

8. Getting lost on the way to meet clients at a house.

7. Not being able to distinguish one house from another.

6. Discovering that the house isn’t quite as the buyers imagined.

5. Finding no key in the lock box.

4. Using the bathroom, and find out that the water was turned off.

3. Setting off the house alarm and having the police show up.

2. Walking in on people that are sleeping, or using the bathroom, or that are naked.

1. Standing on a deck, opening the lock box, and dropping the key and watching it fall through the slats of the deck rendering it impossible to reach.

Not Exactly What I Had in Mind!

Microsoft Outlook 2007 Slow Problem Resolved

I’ve been dealing with a slow Outlook 2007 for about a year now. By slow, here’s what I mean: when clicking on Send/Receive, the process takes perhaps 4-5 minutes to download 75 messages totalling about 400k. I have high speed internet, and have spent much time troubleshooting Outlook. My PST file size is 300MB, not large by any means.

Looking online, I found several people touting the virtues of: reducing pst file size, turning off RSS feeds, turning off add-ins, compacting, cleaning, updating service packs, autotuninglevel, safe mode, or turn off indexing, but none of these did anything to help my problem.

What did solve my problem? The skinny answer? Delete Sent Items. I send lots of attachments, mostly pdf documents, or photos. By getting rid of any e-mails in the sent items folder that were larger than 500k, Outlook immediately sped up. Now the approx 75 messages at approximately 400k takes 15 seconds!! That’s a healthy improvement.

Now, I just archive the sent folder once in a while, or I delete sent items with attachments, and outlook is very happy.

How You Search For Your Dream Home

How do people search for a new home?  I am a tech person, so I use technology for almost everything.  However, I realize that many people may not want three different maps of the houses on their wish list, nor want to look through a hundred ‘just for you’ houses that really may or may not just be for them.  They think in terms of how a house will support and bolster their way of life, and that is not something that the internet can measure.

If you are passionate about gardening, the backyard of your potential home is going to be very important to you.  If you love to cook, then you most likely want a kitchen that is updated, roomy, and has all the newest gadgets.  Likewise, if you are an inveterate reader, you’d probably like a sun room with plenty of natural light.

This is where I come in.  During our first interview, I sit down with you so we can converse at length as to what you want in a home.  Once you tell me what is and isn’t important to you, I can set you up in our automated search system using your specific criteria.  With this system, I can send you targeted homes on a daily basis.  You can leave me notes, and I can respond to them so we are constantly in touch about the status of your search for the perfect house.  If your needs change, you can just post a note, and I will adjust accordingly.  Nothing could be easier, and my clients are raving about it.  It’s a great non-tech tech site that just about everybody will love.

First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

It’s a great time to buy a Minneapolis house.  I know, I’ve said this several times before, but I really want to emphasize the point.  Interest rates are at an all-time low, and even better, the government wants to help first-time home buyers with a tax credit.  Here’s the deal.

If you have bought a new home on or after April 9, 2008, or are thinking of buying a new one, you have until July 1, 2009 to make your purchase if you want to qualify for the tax credit.  A first-time homebuyer is defined as someone who has not purchased a primary residential home in the past three years.  If you are married and are applying for the tax credit, then the ownership histories of both spouses are taken into account. 

You apply for the credit when you file your taxes, and the maximum credit for an individual is $7,500–$15,000 for a couple.  First, the money pays off your taxes, then you get, in hand, the remainder of the money.  Most people pay off their taxes, so if that’s you, you get the full amount.

You get the money in hand now, but it will have to be repaid to the government over a period of years.  Yes, it acts like a 0% interest-loan, but it’s a tax credit because it’s affixed to your taxes.  In a nutshell, you get 10% of the purchase price with a cap at $7,500 for individuals and $15,000 for married couples. 

This is just the bare-bones basics.  If you have questions or want to read more in depth, visit the website, http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com, for a more comprehensive view of the program.  Take a look and see if it’s time to buy your first home!