Selling Your Home For Less Than You Owe?

If you NEED to sell your home and in the current market you owe more money than you can possibly sell it for, I know your pain. I personally own a home that is "upside down" and in this epidose I share what I'm doing to make it happen.

For more information about this particular home CLICK HERE.

You can search all the homes available in Wilmington, Carolina Beach, Wrightsville Beach, Hampstead and Leland NC at www.BuddyBlake.com

Fall Garden Cleanup Starts This Weekend

It’s been a long year in the garden-not just for you, but for your plants. They are yawning and settling down to rest until spring. With a little help from you now, your garden will be set up for a good start next year.

It helps to understand that your garden probably contains three general types of plants.

Annuals, such as petunias and marigolds, live their whole lives in one season. They bloom until a hard frost kills them. Most herbs and vegetables also are annuals.

Trees and shrubs live for many years, as long as they are of species that are hardy in your region’s winters.

Perennials, such as coneflowers, black-eyed Susans and daylilies, have a root system that lives for years, though their flowers, stems and leaves shrivel up and die each fall. Lawn grass is perennial too. Here’s the tricky part: In places like Chicago, spring-with its sudden warm spells followed by sharp, killing freezes-is more treacherous for plants than winter. Brief warm-ups can trick plants into sprouting before it’s really safe. So we want to keep the soil good and cold and the plants dormant until the danger of a freeze is past.

Your tasks:

Rake leaves: Left on the lawn, they will cut off sunlight to the grass and trap moisture, encouraging fungus diseases. But don’t discard them if you have a place to start a compost pile. Shredded and broken down for a few months, they are prime organic matter to improve your soil.

Spread it if you got it. If you already have a pile, spread finished compost on perennial or vegetable beds or on the lawn to enrich the soil and make room for the new crop of leaves. Half-finished compost should go back in the pile with the leaves as well as spent annual, perennial and vegetable plants.

Weed. Weeds may die when frost hits, but their seeds survive. So pull all you see and discard them in the landscape waste, not the compost-seeds may not break down and you could spread them all over your garden.

Tidy up. Any plant you suspect might be diseased should go in the landscape waste-including diseased tree and shrub leaves. Otherwise, removing the stalks and foliage of perennials is a matter of taste: Cut them down if you are the neat type, or leave them if you like the look. Most people leave ornamental grasses standing.

Clear out the vegetable garden. Put diseased plants in the landscape waste and the rest in the compost. Dig composted manure or other organic matter into the vegetable bed so by spring planting time it will be nicely broken down in the soil.

Prepare to mulch. After the ground freezes spread a 1- to 2-inch layer of shredded hardwood, shredded leaves or other organic mulch over perennial beds and the root zones of trees and shrubs to insulate the soil and keep it safely cold in early spring. But by the time the soil freezes-usually around Christmas-most places will be sold out of mulch, so buy it now and stockpile it. (Keep it in the garage or cover it with a tarp so it doesn’t get wet and freeze solid.) One of the best mulches is free: leaves, if they are shredded so they don’t pack down to a waterproof mat. for more info about wilmington nc real estate visit http://www.buddyblake.com

Resist pruning. Pruning trees or shrubs now might stimulate tender young growth that would die of cold. Wait to prune deciduous trees and shrubs that need shaping until late January or early February, when the plants are thoroughly dormant.

Water. As dead as they look, trees, shrubs and perennials are alive all winter and they need water in their systems to survive.

So keep watering until the ground freezes. Evergreens and trees or shrubs that have been planted within the last two years are especially vulnerable to dying of thirst before spring.

How to Stage a Home For a Quick Sale and High Sales Price

Want to know a secret about lowering your gas use, eliminating commute time, reducing business overhead, cutting back on your carbon footprint, and increasing tax write-offs?

Legally?

More and more California cities, including Los Angeles, have passed special zoning laws that permit tenants to live and work at the same address. And unlike most at-home workers, live/work tenants can meet with clients, staff on-site employees, and apply for business licenses at their home addresses. Best of all, they can work from home and write off more of their expenses. Perhaps most importantly, they can control their own destiny by owning the space.

“Sure, a person can telecommute and spend some time working at home instead of the office, but this is something different,” said Lawrence Johnson, an accountant with Lawrence Johnson and Associates who uses the live/work solution to reduce business costs and taxes for some of his clients.

Under the City of Los Angeles zoning ordinance, qualifying professionals can apply favorable tax and zoning laws that allow them to legally combine their living and working spaces.

“The principal tax advantage of a live/work unit is that it is generally much easier to substantiate regular and business use of the business space if challenged by the IRS,” said Keith R. Gercken, a tax attorney and partner with Sheppard Mullin Richter and Hampton, LLP. “The live/work unit also tends to be helpful in validating certain other requirements for taking a home office deduction, such as the fact that the office space is the taxpayer’s principal place of business or that it is used to meet with clients.”

Consider Josh, a graphic designer whose company just purchased a two-story loft zoned as an “artist’s loft” in Los Angeles. Josh lives on the second floor of his loft; the first floor is entirely dedicated to his business. This means that Josh’s subchapter “S” graphic design corporation shoulders a big bulk of the mortgage payment. It works like this:

After meeting with a tax professional, Josh determined that his corporation can buy the entire space and rent the upstairs back to himself as an individual. His company is an “S” corporation, but the law also applies to “C” corps, partnerships, and limited liability companies. His company, in turn, deducts as legitimate business expenses all of the property taxes, interest payments, insurance, association dues, improvements, depreciation, and other expenses. Josh’s company then leases a portion of the space back to him individually for residential purposes.

Josh has pulled the rabbit out of a hat-a very productive and legal rabbit. for more information about wilmington nc real estate visit http://www.buddyblake.com

Working from home, and subsequently deducting rent isn’t new, but the newly zoned live/work spaces are. These new legal zones have created a platform whereby workers can more easily establish that their homes have designated areas carved out solely for business. Unlike a telecommuter who works from home, work/live businesses are not required to allocate business expenses on a per-square-foot basis. Owners have the ability to fully deduct expenses.

Traditional home-based businesses do a poor job of keeping their business spaces entirely separate from their workspaces. Guest rooms are converted into office spaces, which might also store hide-a-beds for out-of-town guests; dens are allocated to at-home businesses, though family members relax on the couch watching television in the evening hours.

“The live/work spaces have created a more distinct line between home and work,” said Trent David, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Beverly Hills. “A strength coach can turn the first floor into a conditioning room, reserving the upstairs for living.”

In addition to addressing the IRS’s concerns, live/work spaces also alleviate a top complaint of at-home workers. Often, home offices begin growing, eventually spilling into an entire home. Workers have a hard time separating their personal life from their professional life.

“I felt like I could never get away from work,” said Ben Baven, one of Trent David’s clients. Baven owned a traditional home-based business before David helped him buy a downtown loft. “My loft draws a clear distinction: one floor is reserved for work, the other for my home.”

Because live/work spaces are always located in commercially zoned areas, structures have built-in workspaces that clearly distinguish them from the living quarters.

It gets even better. The U.S. Small Business Administration allows lenders to provide up to 90 percent of the purchase price to qualifying businesses with at least 51 percent of the space dedicated to business. The program provides great common sense qualifications considering income from a variety of sources that includes the historical business income, pro forma business income, spousal income, salaried income, and alternative incomes.

The SBA loan program allows companies to acquire a loan with only 10 percent down, a payment that can be made by either the company or individual. The loan, up to $2 million, can be fixed-rate or variable, depending on the borrower’s choice. And when it comes time to sell, the live-work spaces are generally eligible for a tax-deferred exchange under IRS code 1031. This provision provides favorable tax options, avoiding the dollar gain limitations and occupancy restrictions imposed on typical residences.

“In today’s economic climate, this is something any qualifying small business owner should consider,” said Karen Crosby, a private mortgage banker with Wells Fargo.

Qualifying professions include, but are not limited to:

Accountants
Architects
Artists and artisans
Attorneys
Computer software and multimedia-related professionals
Consultants
Engineers
Fashion, graphic, interior, and other designers
Health and fitness professionals
Insurance, real estate, and travel agents
Marketing, advertising, and public relations professionals
Photographers

Rather than buying or leasing separate spaces for living and working, combining the two is a cost-efficient, lifestyle-efficient alternative. In dollar-to-dollar comparisons, a combined live-work unit generally will save a tremendous amount of money even before considering the significant tax advantages, gasoline savings, and thirty-second commute. Being in a community of like-minded people will only enhance the opportunities. for more information visit http://www.buddyblake.com

“When you layer in the quality of life, the live-work experience is unbeatable,” said David.

How to Stage a Home For a Quick Sale and High Sales Price

Nov. 1, 2008-Staging is all the rage across America right now. Whether you are selling a home or simply re-decorating, staging has simple principles that most people fail to grasp.

Most people cannot stage their own home. Their sentimental attraction to too many pieces will not allow them to minimize the space. A cute picture of their family together combined with a vase that they got at their wedding, though priceless to them, simply clutters the appearance of the room. visit http://www.buddyblake.com for more info.

Staging is about clearing a room to show floor space. This means that the furniture needs to be off the wall. When was the last time that you visited a home and found that the couches were off the wall and pictures were on the wall? This is a huge part of staging.

True, staging does not care about groupings of like items. Staging incorporates sizes; the high, medium and low aspect of decorating and uses three or five items in each grouping.

Staging does not add a convenience table next to a chair; it minimizes the amount of furniture in a room, not adds. It is more important that the spacing be correct more than thinking of the living function of the room like having a table to put a drinking glass or magazine on.

Staging decorates every table for its function as if you are having a party now. Outdoor tables are set for dinner, game tables have games in action and tea sets are ready to go.

Fresh flowers are preferred instead of fake flowers, white towels are used instead of colored by preference, beds have way too many pillows and music is soft or jazzy instead of rock music. Also keep the TVs off.

Many times a professional stager will be able to use your furnishings. There is a misnomer that says that stagers bring things to your home and it costs a fortune. This is simply not true.

Staging has played a huge role in getting homes sold quickly and for more money. The goal of staging is to make your home appeal to the broadest range of buyers by eliminating any offensive items or groupings of decorations that would detract a buyer’s attention. You want the buyer instead to be focused on the house and its elements that have attracted them to it.

Staging is a must for serious sellers. Don’t be fooled that you can do it yourself. Hire a professional.

Wilmington NC Real Estate

I just posted the latest contract and listing data for Wilmington nc real estate. For more information visit http://www.buddyblake.com