I've been hearing various conflicting information on the home buyer's credit. Here are the exact details as published by NAR.  The main two things to note are that the credit is now available for people who already own a home, and you can close as late as July 1st 2010.

The renewed home buyer credit:

Who Qualifies for the Extended Credit?

• First-time home buyers who purchase homes between November 7, 2009 and April 30, 2010.
  
• Current home owners purchasing a home between November 7, 2009 and April 30, 2010, who have used the home being sold or vacated as a principal residence for five consecutive years within the last eight.

To qualify as a “first-time home buyer” the purchaser or his/her spouse may not have owned a residence during the three years prior to the purchase.
 

How Much Is Available?

The maximum allowable credit for first-time home buyers is $8,000.

The maximum allowable credit for current homeowners is $6,500.

How is a Buyer's Credit Amount Determined?

Each home buyer’s tax credit is determined by tow additional factors:

1. The price of the home.
2. The buyer's income.

Price

Under the Extended Home Buyer Tax Credit, credit may only be awarded on homes purchased for $800,000 or less.

Buyer Income

Under the Extended Home Buyer Tax Credit, which is effective on November 7, 2009,  single buyers with incomes up to $125,000 and married couples with incomes up to $225,000—may receive the maximum tax credit.

If the Buyer(s)’ Income Exceeds These Limits, Can He/She Still Get a Credit?

Yes, some buyers may still be eligible for the credit.

The credit decreases for buyers who earn between $125,000 and $145,000 for single buyers and between $225,000 and $245,000 for home buyers filing jointly. The amount of the tax credit decreases as his/her income approaches the maximum limit. Home buyers earning more than the maximum qualifying income—over $145,000 for singles and over $245,000 for couples are not eligible for the credit.

Can a Buyer Still Qualify If He/She Closes After April 30, 2010?

Under the Extended Home Buyer Tax Credit, as long as a written binding contract to purchase is in effect on April 30, 2010, the purchaser will have until July 1, 2010 to close. 

It's Thanksgiving, and what am I thankful for?

• This wondeful free country where people are not arressted and tortured for their beliefs as they are in 52 countries around the world, including Afghanistan.
• My beautiful wife, my wonderful 3 kids.
• Our church, our friends, our extended family.
• Our home in peaceful and beautiful Hawaii.
• God's blessing on my business, which has allowed me to be one of Hawaii's top 50 Realtors this year.
• I am most Thankful for the love of God.  He sent his Son to the Earth to pay for our sins on the cross. 

Give thanks with me this week!

I have a client currently buying this beautiful townhouse in Puu Alii in Kaneohe.  Listed for $539k, it has the most amazing mountain view, with a little bit of ocean view as well. 

With a nicely renovated kitchen featuring granite counters, this unit is in great condition.  Puu Alii is right in the heart of Kaneohe Town, which means you can walk to the Windward Mall and the huge Safeway center across the street.

This is one of my favorite complexes in Kaneohe because the buildings are nicely built and well kept, and they have attached garages, which is not all that common in Hawaii townhomes. It also has a couple nice pools and some tennis courts.

The best thing of course is location. Puu Alii in Kaneohe is just a few minutes from the H3 and the Pali, making it easy to commute to almost anywhere in Oahu.

Our scheduled close is in a couple weeks, and the buyer's are very excited about their beautiful new home.  Wouldn't you like to come home to that view everyday?  Last week I had about 10 minutes there by myself while I was waiting for them, and really enjoyed just sitting out on the lanai taking in the mountain and ocean views.  For a townhouse, it has the largest living room I've seen in a long time, at over 25 feet wide.  But the view is really what makes it a special place.  Sitting out there enjoying the Trade winds and the view, it's easy to picture living there for a long time.

One of the nation's largest seller's of children's clothing, Hannah Andersson, was in Hawaii last week shooting for their Spring 2010 catalog.  Two of my kids were chosen for the shoot.

They brought out 10 people for the shoot - photographers, makeup artists, producers, etc.  You may not think of this in terms of 'tourism' but consider that 10 people had to fly to Hawaii, stay at a nice hotel (Ihilani at Ko Olina,) eat 3 meals a day, and pay local models (inclduing my kids), etc.  I tried to estimate what they spent while they were here, and I stopped counting after about $10,000.

We love to see mainland companies coming to Hawaii to spend their money here!  It helps our economy so much and gives us great publicity. Think about all the hotel workers, cab drivers, restaraunt owners, et. al., who benefited from this one photo shoot. 

 While some people think of Oahu as mainly a tourist island, it's also a destination for businesses like this.  Movies, magazines, TV shows, and more, are constantly all over our island. From way back when "From here to Eternity" was filmed in Hawaii Kai, to LOST's current production, Hawaii is constantly in demand. Next week there are 24,000+ visitors coming to the Honolulu convention center, bringing more business to our island. Maybe some of them will buy some real estate? 

So regardless of the swings of tourism, we still see plenty of visitors every year. Mahalo all you people who come to visit Hawaii, on business or vacation!

I guess at this point, the Rail program is about as hard to stop as an oncoming train, but today the Honolulu Advertiser reported that "Tax collections needed to build Honolulu's planned $5.5 billion elevated rail transit line fell 30 percent in October from a year earlier. The total collected — $8.9 million — was the lowest amount since February 2007, when just $2.2 million was collected during the second month after the excise tax surcharge was enacted."

If a person put their business or family in a position to spend money they didn't have with no prospect of being able to pay it back, we would call them stupid.  In the case of the Rail program, we call that - government. 

The explanation from City officials seems almost like sarcasm - They "have said that they expect lower transit tax collections to be offset by lower construction costs and a future economic rebound. The city also plans to rely on increased federal funding — including diverting $305 million in federal money intended for TheBus — to help make up for the lower-than-anticipated tax revenue."

I'm sure at least a couple hundred people will ride the Rail everyday.  Sure, that's worth $5billion of taxpayer money, isn't it?

Some very nice clients of mine are buying this beautiful home in Ocean Pointe. 

 Listed for $699,900, it has over 2700sqft and 5 bedrooms.  Built in 2006, it feels almost new!

We viewed all the homes in the Ewa Beach area with over 2100 sqft and under $700k, and this house was by far the nicest of them all.  Much of that was due to the $70k in upgrades which the seller had spent on closet systems, a built in office system, upgraded kitchen cabinets and appliances, and tile floors. 

This home feels new, but is priced better than the developer's smaller models! We went and viewed those models only to find that they were not even close to as nice as this home. 

If all goes well we close next month. December will be a very busy month for me, as I expect to have 5-7 closings between now and Jan 1st. For some reason there are always a lot of closings around Christmas. hopefully I'll get a vacation in January, but I'm very glad to have the business!

Looks like the first time home buyer's credit will be modified and extended.

According to CNN, First-time buyers could continue to claim up to $8,000. But existing homeowners who have lived in their home for five years could receive up to $6,500 if they trade up to a larger principal residence.

* The full credit would be limited to buyers who earn less than $125,000 a year and for married couples with annual incomes up to $225,000.

* The credit could only be used for homes selling for $800,000 or less.

* Contracts must be signed by April 30, 2010 and sales must close by June 30.

That's good news for home buyers and the market, bad news for our children and grandchildren who will be paying that debt back in the form of super high taxes and inflation.

This past weekend I had 4 different clients looking at 16 homes in Kailua and Kaneohe, and 2 properties Mililani.  I drove over 500 miles in 3 days, on an island only 50 miles wide. Good thing I have a nice comfortable ride.

Most of the homes on the Windward side were just ok, with a few nice standouts. This kitchen was at the nicest house we viewed, a 1993 home in Kailue Bluffs for $1.1million.  Very nicely done with black granite, self closing drawers, pendant lighting, Bosch dishwasher, and more.  This is how a kitchen should look for over $1mil.

This is a great house and though my clients aren't ready to buy it today, I'm sure somebody will buy it soon.

I'm writing an offer for one of those clients today, and working on others to come soon.  The main things I came away with after this busy weekend are that 1) there are plenty of buyers if your home shows well, and 2) there are not enough homes for sale that actually do show well.

This beautiful home in Hawaii Kai was listed as a short sale in late July for $700k.  It was just approved as a short sale for $786k by Indymac bank.  Fortunately we had 8 offers all well over asking.  It took just under 90 days to get the approval, which isn't too bad. We are opening escrow today and hope to close in November.  

A few things I learned from this short sale:

• Short sales can and do close. I just closed another one last week. (See previous posts.)
• Put together a really good short sale application package, with the loan number on every page, a detailed hardship letter with pictures, and send it with a nice cover letter.
• Communicate with buyers often so they don't cancel before the approval.
• Indymac has really good short sale dept customer service. Call them and you'll see.
• Make sure to send a hard copy of the short sale package. Don't just fax it, they'll lose pages, especially since the packages are about 75 pages.
• Pricing a house low can often get you multiple offers above asking. This is just a lesson that applies to all real estate.

It took some serious work and it was a nail biting experience, but we got this 5 bedroom, 2600+ sqft home closed today for $600k.  It's in the Woodbridge tract of Ewa Gentry. A great house built just a few years ago.  It was in great condition except the carpet upstairs, which is being replaced now.

With the seller in a hurry to get the house sold and the buyer under the gun to move out of temporary housing, we worked hard to get the lender's approval on the short sale quickly.  We also had to get an appraisal recertified from a contract that was cancelled by a previous buyer. 

This beautiful house sat vacant for months until my clients closed today. Believe it or not, the house started out at over $700k more than 1 year ago. It was on the verge of being foreclosed, but is now the home of a very happy family with 3 beautiful little girls. They took the risk of trying to buy a pre-foreclosure and it has paid off big time!

Congrats Jon and Sandy on your new home!