Taxes and Tax Information

Whenever you own a piece of land, you will be taxed for it. Whether it is commercial property or residential property, there is still a tax to pay, whether it is for a village, town, city, county, or state. Most residential private property taxes are handled on the local level, going no higher than the county. Depending on the nature of the business, it may be handled by a variety of entities, including state and federal agencies. Each specific area and state has its own way of levying property taxes.

This article is intended as real estate for beginners and will focus on property taxes as they relate to residential private property. Your Credit Union financial advisor can also provide a good deal of valuable information; call today to schedule your free consultation.

How property taxes are used. Each locale uses the revenue earned from property taxes for different purposes. It can be anything from road repairs and utility upkeep to firefighter salaries and emergency response. Most areas, however, use the money received from property taxes for school districts. Taxes are levied and then distributed to schools in a district according to the amount of money received from property taxes. This often puts homeowners in a bind, as most of them want quality education for children, but are reluctant to vote to pass measures that will result in a property tax increase.

How property taxes are determined. Before buying a home, it is important for real estate beginners to understand how the amount you pay in property taxes is decided upon. Everyone pays a different amount, depending upon how much a home is worth. The tax rate for an area is the same throughout that area, but due to varying home values, the property tax you pay may be a little higher or lower than your neighbors.

If the property tax rate in your area is 9 percent, and your home is assessed at 250,000 dollars, your yearly property tax would be 22,500 dollars. If your neighbor’s home were only assessed at 235,000 dollars, he or she would pay 21,150 dollars in taxes per year. Many areas have specified periods of time required for a new assessment. Most places require a new assessment every five to seven years. This means that your taxes could go up or down as your property value changes.

What goes into a property assessment? There are some guidelines assessors use when determining the value of your home. By being acquainted with these, you will be more likely to understand why your home has been given a certain value. Here are the most common benchmarks taken into consideration when determining a home’s value.

• Sale price of similar properties in the area: the assessor will know how much other homes in your immediate area are selling for, and will assess your house to reflect the value of the neighborhood.

• Property’s historical value: records of the property’s value through the years will help the assessor determine whether the home’s value keeps with current trends, and whether the home increases in value over time as a general rule.

• Cost of replacing the property: it is possible to determine how much the materials to replace the property, or to add improvements to increase value, would cost. This can figure into the value of the property.

• Potential value of the property if it is used to make money: many people use their property as income through rental or sale, and this value can be used to help the assessor decide how much he or she should value your property for.

Disputing an assessment. Because home values are subjective, it is possible to dispute a value. You can speak with neighbors and realtors to discover what homes in the area are valued at. Recent home buyers and sellers can give you a good idea of what others are paying in property taxes. Visit your tax board or the local tax assessment office to find out what the procedures are for dispute an assessment you feel is unfair.

Paying your property taxes. As a real estate beginner, you want to be sure that you are paying the taxes on your property. There are a number of ways to do this, including paying to the tax commission quarterly or yearly. However, the simplest way to pay your taxes is to have them integrated into your home loan. They can be added to your monthly mortgage payment, making it a relatively hassle-free way to make sure everything is taken care of.

With a little savvy, even a real estate beginner can have a good handle on what it takes to get a fair value assessment and know the ins and outs of paying property taxes.

Nicole Soltau is the President and Founder of CreditUnionRate.com.
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So how do you find the best foreclosures. Its not easy as the business is very competitive, especially in this current crazy real estate boom.
Firstly you must be methodical as well as diverse. Deals are all over the place. It is recommended you specialize in an area that you are familar with.

Secondly how do you find inventory?. There are many companies that offer foreclosure lists. You will find them on the web or through a title company. Be careful to locate fresh leads. In other words you need fresh daily leads on Defaulted and Trustee sale properties. If you purchase information that is outdated you may not succeed as the property may sell, be re-instated or refinanced prior to your endeavors to contact the current owner.

Thirdly, defaults, these are loan defaulted properties. The owners of the properties have not paid in 3 months and have been notified that their property could be sold at public auction if they do not re-instate their loan. You are endeavoring to purchase the property prior to Trustee sale. Once you have located a property, made contact with the owner you now need to contact your escrow and/or title company for comparable sales and vesting information. It is important that not only you know what the property is worth BUT more importantly you are going to speak with the OWNER.Vesting will tell you this vital info. After you have satisfied yourself that a possible purchase exists you may request a prelimanry title report that will give you all the information on outstanding loans , liens ,judgements and court actions against the property
Fourthly. How to make contact with the owner. This can be done via mailers, phone calls and the most important,DOOR KNOCK.
Meeting the owner is the beginning of the ‘close’. This is where they will begin to trust you. NO TRUST NO DEAL. Your offer must be a combination of price, accommodation,(helping to move them on), empathy, immediate assistance to support their dire needs. You will see the true picture by the DOOR KNOCK’.

Fifth. The DEAL. So you have come this far WOW, You have made entry into the house, inspected and the seller likes you and wants to do business, the deal is fair, the docs are ready to sign. You have previously contacted your escrow/title company and/or attorney and they have guaranteed that you have all the right docs ready to be notarized. RIGHT! CONGRATULATIONS your in the real estate foreclosure business.

A final tip, make sure the seller /client MOVES OUT,
the old saying ‘POSSESSION IS 9/10ths of the law’ still holds. Have the escorw company hold funds until the property is vacant.

When the movers truck is full, house empty, seller off the property and you have the keys. Release the funds. NOW YOU REALLY OWN THE HOUSE.
Sixth.Trustee Sale properties. If the owner has not re-instated the property prior to the trustee sale date (5 days prior to sale in California) then the property will sell at the nominated court house steps on the date and time posted by the trustee. If you are successful in being the highest bidder you will receive a Grant Deed to the property. This is a popular hassle free way to buy foreclosures as you do not have to deal with the owners and possible associated problems. But of course if ITS EASIER THEN EVERYONE WILL BE AT THE TRUSTEE SALE.

Good luck

For further Info and advise go to; http://www.homeowneresaa.org.614

Peter M Smyth ,a licensed Californian Real Estate and Mortgage Broker. Peter has been involved in the real estate, mortgage lending and distressed property sale business for over 20 years.
He has successfully purchased & sold propeties on four continents. Australia, Asia, Europe and North America
email bigboythai@hotmail.com for advise and business opportunity.

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Understand the tax consequences of flipping houses, rehabbing houses, and how to defer taxes with the 1031 Exchange before you get into real estate investing. Problems arise when real estate investors don’t follow federal and state tax laws. This is why you need professional advice. Although I am not a tax advisor, here are some common mistakes beginning real estate investors make by not understanding tax liabilities:

Flipping Houses

The reason flipping houses is a mistake for some beginners is that they don’t know the income tax consequences. One problem with flipping houses, or selling too many properties too quickly, the IRS could say that your real estate business is your trade, subject to ordinary income and self-employment taxes.

Self-employment tax, a social security and Medicare tax primarily for individuals who work for themselves, is similar to the social security and Medicare taxes withheld from the paycheck of most employees. The self-employment tax rate costs you 15.3% of your profits. (However, this may provide retirement benefits.)

Rehabbing Houses

Another common mistake that beginning investors make is selling a property after holding it for almost a year. Some rehabbers work part time on a fixer and take six months to get the house ready. Add on two months to sell with a 60 day closing, and they’re up to ten months. To take advantage of the low 15% capital-gains tax rate, you must keep the investment property for at least a year before selling. If you sell before a year, your tax rate, the usual capital gains rate of 35%, could eat up a significant amount of your profits.

If you’re rehabbing houses, be patient. You could save thousands in taxes by holding your property just a few more weeks.

1031 Exchange

However, the Internal Revenue Code provides real estate investors away to defer capital gains taxes indefinitely. Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code provides a tax-free exchange. Also known as a “like-kind” exchange, this code allows you to sell a business or investment property and defer capital-gains taxes by immediately reinvesting the gains into a similar piece of property. The key, replacing a business or investment with similar property, means that no gain gets paid to the investor. Any profit taken out of escrow gets taxed. This means that beginning investors might take out a portion of the profit after they carefully explore their tax liabilities. In other words, talk to an accountant and find out what your tax would be according to your current usual income. Many business owners take advantage of this because they have many business deductions.

The big mistake beginning real estate investors make doing a 1031 tax-free exchange, taking possession of the profits, voids the tax deferment. You must declare the sale of your property to be a part of a 1031 exchange before you sell the property. Then you have the money placed in a trust account held by an intermediary until you purchase the new investment property. You have 45 days to identify a replacement property and 180 days to close on the new investment. You can’t purchase a primary residence or a vacation home with funds from an investment property and defer taxes in a 1031 exchange.

The best advice for beginning real estate investors:
Talk to an accountant.

Would you be better off making extra money, even if you must pay taxes?

© 2005 Jeanette J. Fisher.

Jeanette Fisher teaches beginning real estate investors her system to make more money fixing houses with Design Psychology. For a free ebook “Design Psychology for Selling Houses,” see http://doghousetodollhousefordollars.com/

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