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Do you know how to successfully navigate the current Florida real estate market? Do you know how to get the most for your money, and how to avoid unexpected costs? Have you researched the benefits of newly constructed homes vs. existing homes? Do you know how much home you can really afford?

Smart home buyers can answer each of these questions in the affirmative, and have thoroughly researched facts to back up their assertions. Smart home buyers take their time when preparing to purchase a new home. They do their homework, learn the real estate market, and know how to increase their chances of finding their perfect home. These preparations lead to better home buying experiences and help to ensure that you purchase the right home for your needs.

Increasing your home buying IQ

If you answered “no” to any of the questions listed above, there is no need to worry. It is easy to become a smart home buyer. It merely requires a bit of planning and preparation. Even first time buyers can greatly improve their home buying experience by taking a few simple steps. These steps are easy to follow, and best of all, require no monetary investment.

Get to know your finances

Before beginning your search for a new Florida home, you should thoroughly assess your financial situation. How much home can you really afford? Do you have good credit? Do you qualify for first-time home buyer incentives? Obtain a copy of your credit report, take stock of your monthly income vs. your monthly debt, and find a reputable lender. Once you have completed these initial steps, you will have a much better idea of what you can afford, and can begin the application process to obtain pre-approval for a loan.

Study the current housing market

The fastest way to learn about the housing market in your target area is to actually drive through each neighborhood of interest and take note of how many homes are on the market. If flyers are available outside homes you like, be sure and take one. These flyers often give information on square footage, number of rooms, amenities, and price. These important details will help you determine your target neighborhoods and give you an idea of where you may be able to find a great deal.

Interview local home builders

Some home buyers mistakenly assume that they can not afford a newly constructed home, so they eliminate home builders from their list before doing any research. The smart home buyer knows that newly constructed homes can be obtained at reasonable prices, and they offer the home buyer a level of security and peace of mind that existing homes can very rarely offer.

When you purchase a newly constructed home, you don’t have to budget for repair costs. You have more freedom to choose the type of home and decor you prefer, and home builders regularly offer specials which make a brand-new home much more affordable than you may think.

Choose an existing home with care

If you decide to purchase an existing home, knowing how to spot costly repair projects is a must. Study the effects of the Florida climate on an existing home, and be competent at recognizing signs of flood damage, wood rot, insect damage, outdated plumbing and electrical systems, and roof damage. If you find a home that appears sound, still proceed with the inspection process and have a professional confirm that no costly renovations will be required.

Finish at the head of the class

When it comes to purchasing a new home in Florida, preparation and research can and you time, money, and increase your odds of finding just the right home for you and your family. By obtaining a thorough knowledge of your finances, buying power, target neighborhood, and all of the housing options available to today’s home buyer before you begin your new home search will put you among the ranks of the smart home buyers.

Real Estate Palm Coast Fl – Tom Beaty a real estate broker and home builders in Palm Coast, Flagler and Volusia County. Visit: Real Estate Palm Coast Fl or Florida Home Builders

Purchasing a new Florida home can be a fun and exciting process. With numerous homes for sale in various price ranges, today’s real estate market is heavily skewed in favor of the buyer. Sellers are offering incredible incentives, Realtors are working harder than ever before to make their buyers happy, interest rates remain low, and banks are eager to lend money to responsible buyers with good credit.

Today’s Florida home buyer can take their time, explore target neighborhoods, and find the perfect home to suit their needs and their budget. It is, however, very difficult to find the perfect home if the buyer is not prepared. In fact, the primary focus of any Florida home buyer should be to learn as much as possible about the current housing market, and most importantly, about pitfalls the Florida home buyer may face.

Potential pitfall number one: Overestimating your budget

The very first step every Florida home buyer should take is to do a thorough analysis of their personal finances, and of all the costs associated with owning a home. This will help to determine how much home you can truly afford and eliminate any unpleasant surprises.

After taking stock of your monthly income, monthly debt, and credit rating, you should have a good idea of how much money you can allocate to a house payment. A few additional costs you may want to consider are insurance costs, taxes, and lender fees. This is a good time to find a mortgage lender and obtain pre-approval for a loan.

A pre-approval is a solid estimate of how much a bank is willing to lend, how many points (if any) they will add, and an estimate of the interest rate they are willing to offer. Once you have this, you can calculate monthly payments and insurance costs, and determine with reasonable certainty how much home you can afford.

Potential pitfall number two: Realtor remorse

A Realtor can, quite literally, make or break your Florida home buying experience. This is why it is so important to take your time when selecting a Realtor. Ask friends and family members for recommendations, or at the very least, visit several agencies before making your final selection. It is very important to find a Realtor who listens carefully to determine what type of house you are looking for, and the price range which best suits your budget.

If a Realtor immediately pushes you toward a home outside your price range, does not thoroughly answer all of your questions, or simply gives you the feeling that they are not truly listening to what you want, move on. If there is anything about an agency or agent that makes you feel uncomfortable, trust that feeling and continue your search elsewhere.

Potential pitfall number three: Hefty repair costs
Failure to take repair costs into account when purchasing a home can lead to serious problems for the Florida home buyer. If you decide to purchase a home that is at the top of your price range, you should be reasonably certain that the home will not require any major repairs. The Florida climate can be brutal on homes, which means that a thorough home inspection is of vital importance before any home purchase.

Home inspections can be costly, so learning about potentially expensive repairs and how to spot potential issues in a home can save money by eliminating prospects from your list before they ever reach the inspection process. A few things to look for are cracked foundations, rotted wood, outdated plumbing and electrical systems, and signs of mold or flood damage. Also consider that if you purchase a newly-constructed home, there is no need to worry about repair costs. Everything is brand-new, and most builders offer a home warranty.

Finding the perfect home

The preceding list is by no means exhaustive, and there are many other ways in which a Florida home buyer can prepare themselves to purchase a new home. These are simply a few of the major pitfalls you can avoid as a Florida home buyer, and the suggestions will help you to better navigate the Florida housing market. By making these simple preparations and taking a few necessary precautions, you will be well on your way to finding your perfect Florida home.

Real Estate Palm Coast Fl – Tom Beaty a real estate broker and home builders in Palm Coast, Flagler and Volusia County. Visit: Real Estate Palm Coast Fl or Florida Home Builders

People talk about running the numbers before buying an investment property, but before doing that we need to discover what are the numbers and how do you get accurate numbers. Running the wrong numbers can make the difference of making $500 or losing $1000 per month. In this article we will go through the costs and factors to consider to make your investments successful.

RENTAL INCOME

Rental income is not as straight-forward as it seems. Sometimes properties are under-rented and sometimes properties are over-rented, so be sure to find out the market rents when you consider a property. When we bought our first fourplex, we looked at comparable leases and realized our rents were too high, so instead of assuming we would continue to receive $3600 of rental income, we had to be realistic and assume it was more like $3200.

MORTGAGE INTEREST

A huge cost is mortgage interest. You should definitely sort out the details of your loan options and get an idea of current rates before running the numbers. It could make or break a deal. If you are getting a duplex or a house, the loans are generally similar to other home loan programs. Triplexes and fourplexes tend to have higher rates, and commercial is a whole other ballgame. One thing to consider is to put more down because the more you put down, the less your loan will be, which means less monthly interest to pay. Another consideration is the type of loan. We usually recommend for people to get a fixed rate mortgage these days because the current ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) rates are not all that much lower than fixed rates.

Basically, just get educated about the loan options and run the numbers with them. Oh, and also, do not just take advice from one mortgage person. The best way to get educated is to talk to a variety of mortgage brokers and banks to find your best solution; not all loan places have the same programs.

TAXES

People frequently use the taxes from the year when they purchased the property, assuming the taxes will stay the same. Taxes change every year. Taxes can go up drastically after a purchase. For example, an owner occupied property usually has tax breaks, so unless you intend to owner occupy too, your taxes will go up.

Also, the county appraisal that your taxes are based on could go up after your purchase. For example, if you buy a property for 100,000 but the tax appraisal last year was for 50,000, don’t count on it remaining at 50,000. In fact, I have seen cases where a year after a property was purchased the tax assessor increased the appraisal value to the purchase price. The safest approach is to look at the tax rate and the purchase price to determine your future taxes.

VACANCY COST

For some reason people tend to forget to take into account vacancy rate. Even when looking to invest in a desirable rental area, it’s best to always take into account at least an 8-10% vacancy rate. Do some investigation, look at your market and find statistics on the average vacancy rate.

TENANT TURNOVER COST

We have personally found the biggest surprise to be the expense of tenant turnover. This includes advertising for a new tenant, cleaning, repainting, replacing carpet, etc. If you expect to have high tenant turnover, like next to a college campus, anticipate this to be a significant cost.

INSURANCE COST

Insurance on investment properties are typically higher than owner occupied, single family properties. So get an insurance quote on the property instead of basing your expected insurance off of the insurance bill for your house. You also should purchase liability insurance which can be expensive.

MAINTENANCE COSTS

This is by far the most difficult number to estimate. It depends on the property, whether you fix some of the problems yourself or hire outside help, and random luck. So we can’t give you a hard and fast number but we can look into different factors to take into account.

**Property Type – When you evaluate different properties remember to take into account the type of property. If it’s brick you won’t have to paint or worry about wood root. Decks need constant maintenance. A property with wood or concrete floors will be easier to clean and will not have to be replaced when a tenant moves out. Just think about the aspects of the property and their maintenance costs.

**Property Size – A smaller property is easier to maintain than a larger property. For instance, say there are two properties for sale for 200,000 and each have a combined rent of 2000. A property with 2 units and a total of 1000 square feet will be cheaper to maintain than a property with 6 units and 3000 square feet. The larger property will be more expensive to maintain when you are replacing the larger roof, painting the interior walls, etc. Also, more units mean more money spent on advertising, make-readies, and more appliances to repair.

**Property Location – Consider your proximity to the property. If you buy a property 30 miles away, over the course of a year you can spend a decent amount of gas money driving back and forth.

**Your personal management style – How often will you do maintenance work yourself vs hiring help? For instance, when a unit needs painting will you paint the rooms or hire a painter? Hiring professionals is definitely more expensive, but you have to be realistic about how much you will personally do, especially if you are looking at a lot of units.

UTILITY COSTS

Be sure to check what the tenants pay for and what the owner pays for. This includes all the utilities and lawn maintenance. In addition, there may be owner expenses like parking lot lights and trash bin service.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COSTS

If you are going to hire a property management company, definitely get their rates. We personally choose properties that we can manage ourselves.

SUMMING THE NUMBERS

Once you add all the numbers up, you often find the property has 0 cash flow or even negative cash flow. This doesn’t necessarily mean you should not purchase the property. There are positive tax benefits to rental properties and depending on your situation, a property with technically 0 cash flow could still put more money in your pocket due to tax benefits. Also, if you think the property is going to appreciate in the future, a zero or negative cash flow property could still be appealing.

The point here is that if you are buying a property with zero or negative cash flow, it’s best to know beforehand instead of after the property has been purchased.

Located in Austin Texas Austin Real Estate offers potential investors with advice and expertise about the Austin Real Estate market. Their website offers a free Home Search of the Austin MLS along with description of the different downtown Austin Condos

In view relevant of the provisions, which include the US Canada-US tax treaty of 1995, Canadian residents (not those who fit US resident criteria) buying property in the US must do their tax planning accordingly.

US income tax, estate tax and various other laws treat foreign nationals on different footings depending on whether they have a US resident or non-resident status. US laws lay down certain criteria to ascertain resident/non-resident status.

A citizen of Canada is subjected to two tests to determine his/her residence status for tax purposes.

One- if he holds a US green card he is treated as a lawful permanent US resident. His presence /absence in the US is not considered. And

Two- If he had a substantial presence in the US he is treated as a US resident. This means being present in the US for 183 days in the preceding three years in the following manner.

. If he has been present in the US for at least thirty days during the current calendar year

. If the sum of the number of his US days in the current financial year, 1/3rd of US days in the first preceding year and one sixth of US days in the second preceding year equals or exceeds 183 days.

Factors like inability to leave the US due to ill health or being present as part of a govt. delegation and certain other exceptions are taken into account while calculating the total of 183 days mentioned above. Even when substantial presence is established, meeting certain other additional criteria may still attach a non-resident status to a Canadian citizen.

A US resident alien is treated more or less similarly as a US citizen for tax purposes. He has to file tax returns and pay taxes on income received from all sources in the US and/or anywhere in the world. The resident status entitles him to all the deductions, personal exemptions and other benefits available to US citizens while computing taxable income.

A non-resident on the other hand, subject to certain exceptions, usually has to pay tax on income he receives from US sources only. In addition, his non-resident status and limited tax exposure make much less of exemptions and deductions available to him as compared to his resident counterpart.

When a Canadian resident buys a condo in Florida or other real property located anywhere in the US and rents it out, there is a withholding tax of 30% applicable on the rent. This means that the tenant is liable to withhold 30% of the rent and pay it to the IRS. By filing a US tax return and paying tax on the net rental income, the 30% gross withholding tax can be avoided.

There may be significant expenses such as maintenance; property management expenses, mortgage interest, property taxes etc. that can reduce the taxable amount considerably, and the resulting tax at marginal rates can be substantially lower. Once the net rental system is elected, it usually cannot be revoked. The Canadian property owner needs to provide the tenant with form IRS 4224 to avoid deduction of 30% withholding tax.

When a Canadian resident sells any property that he owns within the US, the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act-1980(FIRPTA) mandates a 10% withholding tax on the gross sale price. However, it is possible to offset this tax against US income tax payable on any capital gain on the sale. A refund can be claimed if the withholding tax is above the tax liability.

This provision is subject to two exceptions.

a) When the property is sold for less than $300000 and the purchaser intends to use it for his principle residence for at least 50% of the time for the next two years he pays the full price to the seller instead of withholding 10% to remit to the IRS.

b) When the seller obtains a withholding certificate from the IRS stating that US tax liability is expected to be less than ten percent of the sale price. The amount of tax to be withheld, if any, would be mentioned on the certificate.

When a Canadian resident breathes his last owning property in the US, federal estate tax is imposed, which can range from 18 to 45% in 2007. Under article XXIX B of the Canada-US tax treaty, unified credit can be applied to reduce or eliminate estate taxes.

Sacramento CPA firms offers Estate Tax Planning to individuals and businesses. We have former IRS auditors who know the system to make sure you only get the best advice. Discover a bevy or articles at : http://www.april15.com.

Mallorca or Maiorica meaning Major Island as it was previously known has been a sort after tourist destination for many years, being one of the first places in Spain to offer package holidays as the popularity for holidaying abroad became affordable to all.

Mallorca is the biggest of the Balearic Islands boasting long warm summer days of 10 hours sunshine, tranquil pure blue waters perfect for water sports and snorkelling and being in the Mediterranean the water temperature for the peak season months is extremely enticing too, the coastline is a mixture of fine white sands, with coves to explore and secluded beaches which seem to be undiscovered, because of such great qualities Mallorca is not only a perfect holiday destination it has also become a prime location to buy property.

The main language of Mallorca is Catalan, but it has a slightly different dialect to the Catalan spoken further North. Spanish is also spoken on Mallorca, with the residents having a limited knowledge of both German and English mainly due to the tourist trade that Mallorca for many years has been host to.

The Balearic Islands like so many other destinations in and around Spain are seeing a real increase in the amount of foreigners wanting to take up residence. The Mallorca property market is no exception, real estate in Mallorca has become a big business but how do you go about finding the right estate agent for you?

Mallorca property ranges from apartments on the coast to luxury mansions in the more rural settings, villas, fincas, town houses and property developments. Offering such a wide range of property, scenery, and weather it is no wonder that so many people have chosen to make the move, two of the popular regions are Puerto Pollensa and Alcudia due to the beaches, people and locations.

To find the right accommodation whether for relocation, investment property, holiday home or a piece of paradise to retire to, estate agents are the best place to start, you can commence your search of property both for sale or to rent on the internet these days with direct contact via telephone or email with the agents.

Some estate agents will offer more services than just the property aspect, especially if you have no experience in buying abroad; it is often wise to find out whether anyone speaks English too. Finding the right representation such as fiscal advice to guide through the local property taxes, CGT, IHT with a Spanish qualified tax consultancy, they can even suggest an English speaking lawyer to take care of the legal process for you, not forgetting providing an after sales service to make sure that everything is perfect upon and after completion of sale.

You may have other ideas and wish to set up a business, most property agents also have business premises to buy or rent, some being freehold but the majority are leasehold. If you are wishing to relocate setting up business might well be part of you relocation plan?

For those who have a specific idea of what they want, the opportunities to build your own villa are endless; with a wide range of plots of land in various locations the possibilities are endless. In order to do this though there are still a number of legalities which have to be covered, this too can be handled by established agents. Nowadays Mallorca property agents can offer off plan villas or complete services to oversee building projects, often helping you to find an architect to draw your tailor made plans, helping you design a Mallorca property specifically to your requirements, again provide lawyers to take care of the legal jargon and then provide you with a complete project management package, which oversees the whole project from plans to completion of building.

It does help to shop around, finding out a little bit more about the individual property agents will give you an insight of the services they provide, whether there will be a communication problem due to language barriers or if they provide translation or English speaking representatives to help, also the diversity of property available is often a good sign too the more property on offer generally is a good indication that their services are trusted. If you can find a reputable Mallorca Property agent offering all of the above, you are another step closer to realising your dream.

Shaun Parker researches how easy it is to find a Mallorca Property Agent you can trust, how easy is it to purchase property or build your own villa, negotiating the Spanish legal process to achieve your goal.