One man’s loss is another man’s gain. This is the case with Dallas home buyers who are interested in buying a home built by luxury home builder Toll Brothers.

Recently, Toll Brothers started offering a 3.99 percent fixed-rate mortgage for loans $417,000 or below for 30 years with no points.This rate is well below the national average of slightly less than 5 percent and lower than most other builders are offering.

The plan is to entice Dallas home buyers to get off the fence and sign on the dotted line, but it remains to be seen how many sales the lower interest rate will generate. 

A $400,000 30-year fixed rate loan at 3.99 percent versus a loan at 5% will save you $240 per month on your mortgage payment and save you a total of $86,382 in interest overall…quite a savings!

Other builders haven’t immediately followed suit, but “it’s definitely something that if they haven’t considered it already, they will,” said Brent Anderson, vice president of investor relations for Meritage Homes Corp., which doesn’t have a mortgage subsidiary.

Centex Corp. and Lennar Corp. have bought down mortgages, offering buyers 3.5 percent for the first two years. The rate then locks in at 4.5 percent.

Are you a Dallas home buyer wanting to take advantage of this opportunity? Please call me at 972-562-0896 and I will be happy to help you find the Toll Brothers home of your dreams.

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There has been much publicity about the first-time home buyers income-tax credit passed by Congress last fall. But how does this tax credit work and how will it help Dallas home buyers?
 
To qualify for the tax credit, the home buyer cannot have owned a home in the previous three years. The home must be a principal residence and purchased between April 9, 2008 and July 1, 2009.

The credit is equal to 10 percent of the purchase price, up to $7,500. Single taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) up to $75,000 and couples with MAGI up to $150,000 will qualify for full credit. Singles with MAGI up to $95,000 and couples with MAGI up to $170,000 will get a reduced amount. Those with higher incomes don’t qualify.

If the amount of tax a home buyer owes is less than the amount of the credit, they get to keep the difference in the form of an IRS refund.

There is the catch, however, the home buyer must begin to repay the credit in two years in increments of about $500 a year over a 15-year period for those who received the full credit

Home buyers who sell their home before the credit is repaid must pay off the loan with any profits. If they sell the home at a loss, the loan is forgiven. 

The tax credit is due to expire in mid-2009. The National Association of Realtors® is lobbying Congress to extend this date, as well as, make the credit available to all buyers and to eliminate the repayment requirement. 

If you are Dallas home buyer, the tax credit may be just what you need to give you the cash needed for a down payment or closing costs. You just need to plan the repayment into your budget. Texas offers numerous first-time home buyer loan programs you might want to consider. Visit TexasHomeCentral.com or give me a call. I am glad to discuss your options with you. 

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Dallas home buyers don’t buy a house thinking they will lose it to foreclosure farther down the road. But poor buying decisions lead to difficulty when you are ready to turn around and sell. What do I mean by this…making the bad decision to buy a home on a major road even though the price was a steal? Or foregoing a home inspection because the sellers seemed like nice people and said there were no problems with the house.

Many Dallas homes buyers study the market; ask questions, hire pros, yet even so, some are headed into foreclosure before the ink is dry on the deed.

Here are About.com’s 10 fool-proof ways you can, without meaning to, set yourself up to fail at home ownership:

1. Attending No Money Down Seminars
Start by calling that toll-free phone number to make a reservation. Then sit through a three-hour sales pitch for books, tapes, CDs and specially discounted services hawked by seminar gurus who most likely never bought or sold a piece of real estate in their lives but are getting rich off the backs of their naïve audience. Then go out and make dozens of lowball offers that get rejected until you find a seller who will carry all the financing at 18% interest with a 3-year balloon payment.

If you stop and think about it, if the tactics they teach at these seminars actually worked, every real estate agent in existence grabbing up the good deals and getting rich quick.
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President Bush signed into law this week The Housing and Economic Recovery Act. This is the most sweeping change to housing reform since the New Deal of 1934. It is designed to assist more Americans invest in home ownership and shore up the faltering housing and mortgage markets. Like any legislation, it comes with the good and the bad. I encourage you to write your Congressmen to see if we can get legislation to revoke some of the bad. For example, effective October 1, 2008, FHA will increase the minimum required down payment from 3% to 3.5% for Dallas home buyers. The legislation also calls for the elimination of seller down-payment assistance programs such as AmeriDream and Nehemiah by October 1, 2008.

As of July 14, 2008, upfront MIP premiums became risk-based on credit scores and the annual premium increased across the board. Instead of the original plan of making FHA loans more affordable for potential Dallas home buyers; the new legislation is doing the exact opposite and makes it more expensive.

Details of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act:
Here are some key provisions of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act that most affect Dallas home buyers:
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