Tracy’s LA Real Estate

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced that they are temporarily suspending foreclosures and evictions during the holiday season in an effort to keep people from losing their homes, said an article in the Washington Post by Zachary Goldfarb.

The companies said they are taking the step so they can include more people in a newly announced program to change the terms of troubled mortgages to make them more affordable.

The mortgage finance giants, seized by the government in early September, have been under pressure by lawmakers and housing advocates to take bolder steps to fight foreclosures. As the owners or backers of trillions of dollars of mortgages, the companies have an unrivaled ability to shape the home loan market and help people with distressed mortgages.

Last week, the companies said they would enact a program to restructure mortgages for borrowers who are falling behind in their payments. That effort would seek to help homeowners who haven’t paid their loans for three months but whose homes had not been foreclosed upon yet. In a foreclosure, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac seizes control of a home and, usually, tries to sell it.

The foreclosure freeze announced November 21 will extend the mortgage modification program to those who have been declared in default and are at immediate risk of being forced from their homes. The companies said as many as 16,000 borrowers could benefit.

Foreclosures and evictions will be stopped from Nov. 26 to Jan. 9. Happy Holidays!

TAX TIPS FOR ARTISTS AND OTHER SELF-EMPLOYED PEOPLE

Tax Tips class offers important information that all artists

should be knowledgeable about. Learn how to take advantage of various

deductions, understanding self-employment, and much more!

Tax Tips Specifically for Artists

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This timely three-hour workshop provides important information for

anyone who is self-employed, but is especially geared towards

artists, writers, performers, and dancers. Topics to be covered

include, but are not limited to: Being an employee vs. being self-

employed, Having a Hobby vs. Having a Business, How to keep records

to protect yourself in case of an audit, The difference between

expenses for employees an those for self-employed people,

Understanding self-employment taxes and taking advantage of various

deductions including entertainment, research, automobile and other

expenses unique to artists. Everyone attending will be provided with

a wealth of written information to take with them, including some

guidelines on how to keep good records and a listing of current

websites that are resources for those in business for themselves.

NOTE: This class does not cover tax issues for non-profit organizations.

Stephen Benjamin, a CPA whose clients include actors, writers,

artists and other people in the entertainment industry, will teach

this class. Mr. Benjamin is also an entertainer in his own right and

makes the workshop fun as well as informative. He even has prizes to

give out to some lucky attendees!

Date: Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Time: 6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Location: Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, 244 S. San

Pedro Street, in Little Tokyo near Downtown Los Angeles

Cost: $40 (Non Member) / $35 (BOA/CCI Members)

If you would like to register, please visit http://www.cciarts.org/register.htm

November  18, 2008 Today’s Eagle Rock Market

Inventory in Eagle Rock hasn’t varied much in terms of number of active listings this whole year. Today there are 45 homes on the active market, 14 of them short sales, 4 REOs, and 33 regular sales including trust or probate sales that don’t require court confirmation. Since November 1, 4 have gone into escrow including 2 short sales, 1 REO and 1 regular sale while 4 more have closed escrow including 1 short sale, 2 REOs, and 1 regular sale. Prices are interesting: what is closing escrow is much lower in average price ($411,500) than actives ($568,500) or pendings ($565,725), but the actives and pendings are close in average price. I have to say that the most surprising sale to me is the short sale that actually closed escrow on Townsend, since most short sales have not ever closed. Let’s see with the 2 that just went pending if they ever actually close. Perhaps banks are actually beginning to work with people to negotiate these, we’ll see. This sample is too small to really tell. But really noteworthy is the fact that 3 of the 4 closed sales sold for more than their list prices. Hello, this is a pricing strategy that works!

Help for Homeowners

As I was canvassing the neighborhood last week, I encountered a couple of people who said they were “upside down” in their mortgages, had tried to contact their lenders with no luck, and didn’t know what else to do. Here at last is real information with phone numbers, websites, and rules gathered by the   California Association of Realtors. The website is http://www.car.org/legal/mortgage-workout-programs/ .

Mortgage Workout Programs for Homeowners

The following information is intended for REALTORS® and homeowners seeking information on existing mortgage workout programs.  In general, the loan modification programs on the chart (see link below) and consumer information sheets (see links below) are intended for primary residences only.

For an informational chart on existing mortgage workout programs, click here. The chart is a compilation of programs offered by the larger lenders and government entities. If a specific lender or loan servicer is not on the chart, homeowners may wish to contact the lender or loan servicer to determine if a workout program is available.

For consumer information sheets containing detailed information on specific programs that REALTORS® can share with their clients, please click on the appropriate link below.

^.  HOPE For Homeowners (H4H)

^.  Countrywide Financial (Bank of America)

^.  Citigroup, CitiMortgage

^.  JP Morgan Chase & Co.

^.  IndyMac Federal Bank, FDIC

^.  Federal Government Loan Modification  (Participants include: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Federal Home Loan Banks, Hope Now participants, Department of the Treasury, Federal Housing Administration and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and Wells Fargo.)

Mortgage loan modifications typically are handled on a case-by-case basis. Homeowners having difficulty meeting their mortgage obligation or interested in finding out more about a loan modification program should start by contacting their lender. Prior to calling a lender or loan servicer, homeowners should have the following information available:

^.  Loan number

^.  Income information and documentation

^.  Most recent mortgage statement

^.  Bank statements

^.  Letter demonstrating financial hardship

If you want help with this, if you can’t access the website or the links, call or email me and I’ll either email or snail mail you the relevant information. NOTE: It is illegal for people to charge you a fee upfront for helping you. I am offering information as a public service only. The fewer foreclosures in our neighborhood, the better the neighbor will stay.

This is an important project that promotes compassion, connection, and understanding world-wide. In this new era of hope, I hope that you will watch, then think about and contribute in any way you can. And please spread the word:

Dear TEDizens,

We urge you to take a moment to watch a short video that went live on the web today. Beautifully filmed and edited by TEDster Jesse Dylan and his team at Form TV, it might just be the most inspiring thing you see this week.

That video, and this website mark the launch of an inspiring global endeavor to celebrate compassion and to promote a new collaboration between the world’s religions. What we’re doing, starting today, is to begin writing the Charter for Compassion that Karen Armstrong called for earlier this year when she made her TED Prize wish. And the exhilarating twist here is that the writing won’t be done behind closed doors. It will be done by you… and perhaps millions of others around the world. Because we’re using special collaborative web tools created by the geniuses at Kluster to enable this be truly a charter “created by the world for the world”.

Later this week millions of Muslims, Christians, and Jews will be sent an email inviting them to come to the site and offer their choice of words, in their own language, to help create a charter capable of inspiring the world to focus on what the great religions share, as opposed to what divides them. Already people are responding to this amazing idea with passion and excitement. The goal is to obtain all input from global participants within the next four weeks, select the best contributions with the help of a council of religious “sages”, and conduct a major launch of the finished document in 2009.

We’d love you, the TED community, who saw the birth of this idea in March, to be among the first to contribute.

The two things you can do to help now:

1. Help us write the Charter! The first writing phase begins now with the Preamble, a concise explanation of why the Charter is necessary and urgent.

2. Send out the ask to everyone in your network. We want this to be a truly global and diverse document that represents all of our voices.

A very exciting day for the TED Prize. We are honored to have you on this journey with us.

Thank you to all of you who have helped get us this far! And a special thank you to Kluster who have put so much into building this site.
Charter for Compassion

Many of us are dealing with the fact that our real estate is worth less than it was. Good news! For those of us who own property that is worth less than its current assessed value, we can apply for a temporary tax reduction. In 1978, California voters passed Proposition 8, which allowed for this. All the details can be seen at http://assessor.lacounty.gov. Here’s the press release from the Assessor: pressrelease_5-27-081

Note that we are talking about the assessed value, which you can see on your Annual Property Tax Information Statement at the bottom of the upper portion, not an appraised value or the fact that it might be worth less than what you currently owe on the property. Also, the property value is assessed as of January 1, 2008. Note that the biggest reduction in value in many areas has happened since that time, so the tax reduction may not be nearly as much as you might hope for or imagine. I asked someone who works for the Assessor if we can file again next year for a further decline in value even if we get one this year, and I was told yes. So don’t despair, but you’ll have to be patient, because you may not see much of a reduction until next year.

If you purchased a single family home or condominium between July 1, 2004, and June 30, 2007, you were already evaluated for a tax reduction and were notified in October if you qualified for one. If you don’t agree with the findings, you can appeal. Start the process by calling your local Assessor’s District Office. You have to file an appeal by November 30, so you’d better get on this.

If you purchased your real property before or after those times, or you own something other than a single family home or condo, you can download the Decline-in-Value form from the Assessor’s website, http://assessor.lacounty.gov or from right here: decline-in-value-form. An application can be requested by calling 888-807-2111.  You have until December 31, 2008, to file the form.

To establish the value of your property, you can search on the Assessor’s website, or as a public service, you can contact me and I will help you if I can. Be sure to read the press release on the Assessor’s website, they warn of people who charge hundreds of dollars to help you. Now I’m not going to fill out the form for you—that’s your responsibility, but even the Assessor says it’s really easy.

I have a new listing at 4823 Brayton Place, Eagle Rock, 90041. Listed for $499,000, this is a 1985 built, 3 bedroom, 2 full bath home with a separate studio over the garage and a bonus finished space under the main house. There is deferred maintenance, lots of steps, and good bones. Located on a cul-de-sac just across from the Eagle Rock Community Garden at Lanark Park, this is a huge opportunity for the buyer on a limited budget to buy into Eagle Rock and have a good amount of space for under $500,000. There are tree-top views, a huge deck great for entertaining, a secluded location, and easy access to everywhere. You are just over the Pasadena border, close to Eagle Rock’s post office, the Eagle Rock Scenic Hiking Trail and the Neutra-designed Eagle Rock Recreation Center. We’re holding this open on Tuesday, November 4, from 9:30-1, and the sellers do not want weekend open houses, so hurry on by, then go vote.

Listed for $499,000