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Good News Friday Podcast Week 30(4 Minutes and 2 Seconds)
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Good News Friday Podcast Week 30Posted at 05:46 PM in Week 30 - "How's The Market?" | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Posted at 05:26 PM in Week 29 - "Our Thoughts Become Our Reality" | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Good News Friday Podcast Week 28(Click The Play Button To Listen To The Podcast)
Good News Friday Podcast Week 27Posted at 10:23 AM in Week 27 - "You're Upside Down and Don't Know What To Do? New Legislation May Help!" | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Good News Friday Podcast Week 25Posted at 08:21 AM in Week 26 - "Good News Friday Alert - Information You NEED to Know!" | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Good News Friday Podcast Week 25Posted at 10:59 AM in Week 25-"10 Thought Provoking Questions For The New Year | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Good News Friday Podcast Week 24Posted at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Good News Friday Podcast Week 23Hello and Welcome back to Good News Friday! Today is Friday December 4th, 2009. My name is Bruce Karasik.
Did you ever wish you could look into the future? Well, here is a glimpse of what could happen very quickly if the Federal Reserve Board does not change it current course. As I record this podcast, interest rates are at or near all time lows. The 30 year fixed, 15 year fixed, and 5/1 ARM have never been lower. However rates are artificially low. One of the reasons for these low rates on home loans is that the Federal Reserve Board under the direction of Ben Bernanke have been purchasing Mortgage Backed Securites and lending money to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The Federal Reserve put programs in place where they were to buy up to $1.25 trillion in these securities and lend up to $175 billion to Freddie and Fannie. In the Federal Reserve Board’s November 4th 2009 Statement, it indicated that it planned to gradually slow down the amount of these purchases in the first quarter of 2010 and end the programs all together by April 30, 2010.
So what does this mean to YOU the homeowner or the homebuyer? Most analysts are saying that this will mean interest rates for mortgages will start to rise as the Fed slows the pace of these purchases. If you are planning to refinance your home, NOW is the time to call me. If you are planning on moving by either buying a new home or selling your existing house, NOW is the time to call me. The potential changes that will start during the first quarter of 2010 will have an effect on your pocketbook and I don’t want my clients to miss out on the opportunities that exist today. Remember we still have the first time home buyer credit of $8,000 until April 30th 2010, and we also have a $6,500 tax credit for homeowners who have been in their home for at least 5 years until April 30th. As your Real Estate and Mortgage Consultant I am strongly advising you to schedule a consultation with me to discuss how this may affect your plans for 2010 and beyond. During this consultation I will ask you some thought provoking questions to help us determine what you should do next.
Now more than ever it is important to contact a real professional to get the best advice. So call me or email and I will be happy to talk with you about the most current information about the Real Estate and Mortgage market and how it can affect you. Our goal is to save you money when you buy your home this year or refinance at the new lower rates.
The key to success is having the right advisors and consultants in place so you can have the right strategy. As your trusted Real Estate consultants and advisors, we at The Karasik Team work in our unique ability. My unique ability is consulting, negotiating and overseeing the transaction details. We take a customized approach and enable our clients to make informed decisions to accumulate wealth through Real Estate. In addition, we at Karasik and Associates, Mortgage Consultants, can help you come up with a strategy to determine whether this is the right time for you to buy your first home or to refinance your existing home.
We continue to believe that homeownership will remain the best avenue for American families to secure their financial future. I look forward to our continuing dialog and we invite your feedback. Please feel free to email me at Bruce@TheKarasikTeam.com, call me at my office at 805-267-0366, or you can post your responses on our blog at www.GoodNewsFriday.com.
The Good News Friday Podcast brings you good news and positive developments in the Real Estate Market, Mortgage Market, in our economy and our country. If you miss any podcast, we have archived all or our past shows so you can listen to them at any time by going to www.goodnewsfriday.com. So we do have some good news to be grateful for. And so, my friends, I wish you and your families a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous week. And that’s it for now. I’ll see you back here next week for another episode of Good News Friday!
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Good News Friday Podcast Week 22Hello and Welcome back to Good News Friday! Today is Friday November 20th, 2009. My name is Bruce Karasik.
Here is a story with a happy ending. We are currently working with a wonderful single Mom trying to buy her first home. She came to our office to see if we could help her. We had about a one hour initial consultation with her and asked her some thought provoking questions. She told us was most important to her. She was currently living with her parents in the area but really wanted to be on her own with her kids. She had been divorced years before and although she has a wonderful relationship with her parents, she really wanted to be on her own. I pre-qualified her for a loan and told her we could certainly help her. We also explained in detail to her how the new tax credit will help her, and how much she could afford. Her parents were even willing to help her with a down payment.
We found her a lovely home in the area, and did our inspection. What we discovered was that the deck/balcony outside the master bedroom upstairs needed to be replaced and since a prior owner had made changes to the deck’s materials, the home owner’ association would not pay for the repair. The repair was going to cost almost $15,000 and there was no way my client could pay that much money. The other issue was that this was a short sale and so the seller had no money to make the repairs. My client told me she really wanted this house so I went to work.
The first thing we did was to begin to negotiate with the bank. The good news was that we were successful and received a $15,000 price reduction to pay for the new deck. We also negotiated with the seller also contributed money to make other repairs. But we were not done.
We were able to find a contractor to perform the $15,000 repair for only $5,000. So our client had all her repairs paid for by the seller, the bank paid for the replacement of the deck and our client pocketed another $10,000 on the savings we negotiated with the new contractor. In addition our client will be receiving an $8,000 tax credit from the IRS that will go right into her savings. Now she is moving toward closing and being in her new home for the holidays. She was thrilled and now wants to tell everyone about how we helped her. Any agent can open up a door and show a buyer a home, but our experience, negotiating skills and our personal interest in our clients makes all the difference. You see, it is what we do after we find you a home that is sometimes is just as important as finding you the right home.
I would be happy to discuss your unique situation with you to determine how we can help you. I have heard it said, that you don’t know how much I know, until you know how much I care.”
Now more than ever it is important to contact a real professional to get the best advice. So call me or email and I will be happy to talk with you about the most current information about the Real Estate and Mortgage market and how it can affect you. Our goal is to save you money when you buy your home this year or refinance at the new lower rates.
The key to success is having the right advisors and consultants in place so you can have the right strategy. As your trusted Real Estate consultants and advisors, we at The Karasik Team work in our unique ability. My unique ability is consulting, negotiating and overseeing the transaction details. We take a customized approach and enable our clients to make informed decisions to accumulate wealth through Real Estate. In addition, we at Karasik and Associates, Mortgage Consultants, can help you come up with a strategy to determine whether this is the right time for you to buy your first home or to refinance your existing home.
We continue to believe that homeownership will remain the best avenue for American families to secure their financial future. I look forward to our continuing dialog and we invite your feedback. Please feel free to email me at Bruce@TheKarasikTeam.com, call me at my office at 805-267-0366, or you can post your responses on our blog at www.GoodNewsFriday.com.
The Good News Friday Podcast brings you good news and positive developments in the Real Estate Market, Mortgage Market, in our economy and our country. If you miss any podcast, we have archived all or our past shows so you can listen to them at any time by going to www.goodnewsfriday.com.
So we do have some good news to be grateful for. And so, my friends, I wish you and your families a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous week. And that’s it for now. I’ll see you back here next week for another episode of Good News Friday!
Posted at 09:17 AM in Week 22-How We Helped a Single Mom Save $10,000 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Good News Friday Podcast
Week 21(4 Minutes and 50 Seconds)
Hello and Welcome back to Good News Friday! Today is Friday November 13th, 2009. My name is Bruce Karasik.
A new federal law has just been passed that extends the tax credit for first time homebuyers through June 30th, 2010. There are some important changes to the previous bill that both first time homebuyers and existing homeowners need to understand. Prior to this current bill only first time homebuyers qualified for the credit. This new bill not only provides an $8,000 tax credit to first time homebuyers but also provides for a $6,500 tax credit to existing homeowners who have lived in their home for five consecutive years and sell that home to buy another home.
Here is how the new bill works:
There is a Deadline
In order to qualify for the credit all contracts need to be in effect no later than April 30, 2010 and close no later than June 30, 2010
Higher Income Caps in Effect
The income limits for single tax payers have been increased from $75,000 to a new limit of $125,000. The income limit for married couples has been increased from $150,000 to a new limit of $225,000. There is a partial credit available up to $20,000 over these new limits.
The maximum purchase price must not exceed $800,000
The tax credit is not repayable as long as the home qualifying remains the primary residence of the buyer for 36 months. To qualify for the first time homebuyer tax credit the buyer must not have owned a primary residence in the last 36 months. To qualify as an existing homebuyer you must have lived in your home for 5 consecutive years during the last 8 years.
I would be happy to discuss your unique situation with you to determine how this new legislation can help you. The timing of the tax credits and very low interest rates could create a golden opportunity for you to buy your next home and save thousands of dollars.
Now more than ever it is important to contact a real professional to get the best advice. So call me or email and I will be happy to talk with you about the most current information about the Real Estate and Mortgage market and how it can affect you. Our goal is to save you money when you buy your home this year or refinance at the new lower rates.
The key to success is having the right advisors and consultants in place so you can have the right strategy. As your trusted Real Estate consultants and advisors, we at The Karasik Team work in our unique ability. My unique ability is consulting, negotiating and overseeing the transaction details. We take a customized approach and enable our clients to make informed decisions to accumulate wealth through Real Estate. In addition, we at Karasik and Associates, Mortgage Consultants, can help you come up with a strategy to determine whether this is the right time for you to buy your first home or to refinance your existing home.
We continue to believe that homeownership will remain the best avenue for American families to secure their financial future. I look forward to our continuing dialog and we invite your feedback. Please feel free to email me at Bruce@TheKarasikTeam.com, call me at my office at 805-267-0366, or you can post your responses on our blog at www.GoodNewsFriday.com.
The Good News Friday Podcast brings you good news and positive developments in the Real Estate Market, Mortgage Market, in our economy and our country. If you miss any podcast, we have archived all or our past shows so you can listen to them at any time by going to www.GoodNewsFriday.com.
So we do have some good news to be grateful for. And so, my friends, I wish you and your families a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous week. And that’s it for now. I’ll see you back here next week for another episode of Good News Friday!
Posted at 12:03 AM in Week 21-"Tax Credit Extended for First Time Homebuyers and Current Homeowners" | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)


