Do you know a 55+ looking for a great deal?  Check out this 2BR/2BA updated 1993 Home in Arbor Grove MHP.  Large Fenced Yard w/shed, deck and covered parking/patio. Updated Kitchen & Bath.  Large Walk-In Shower w/grab bars.

Easy in & out at Mission near Barker Rd in Greenacres.  Three – Five minutes from I90 and very quiet.

Jodie Carpine
REALTOR®, ABR, AHWD, ePro, GRI
Fine Homes International℠ Specialist
Cell/Text Msg: (509) 951-3009
Jodie@JodieCarpine.com
JodieCarpine.com

• Formal Living Room & Dining Room
• Family Room, 3 BR / 2.5 Bath
• Double Sided Gas Fireplace
• Granite Counters
• Washer & Dryer & All Kitchen Appliances Included
• Instant/Tankless Hot water
• Water Softener & Reverse Osmosis System
• Gas Heat & Hot Water ~ Central Air Conditioning
• Huge Private Park-Like Yard on a Corner Lot
• Located between Trentwood Elementary & East Valley Middle School
• Finished Garage ~ Newer Concrete Driveway
• Maintenance Free Steel Siding
• Newer Hi-E Gas Furnace
• Room to Expand in Unfinished Basement
• Move-In Ready ~ Not Short Sale ~ Not Bank Owned
• Call for Appointment

6610 S Springview St. ~ Eagle Ridge ~ Cheney Schools

Featuring

• 4 Bedroom
• 3.5 Baths
• Office
• Bonus Room
• Great Room
• Family Room w/ wine room & wet bar
• Exercise Room
• 3520 Finished SF
• Heated Garage w/ 220 elec panel
• Stainless Appliances

Better than new, Immaculate home, Great Landscaping, Front and Back Sprinkler Systems, Window Treatments and many extras not found in New Construction. 4 Bedrooms plus Office, Bonus Room and two Family Rooms! Garage has 220 panel and gas heater! Instant hot water in Kitchen. Minutes to Downtown Spokane, Cheney, EWU, Gonzaga, Hospitals & Fairchild AFB.

Comfort & Elegance

• Place a large pot of flowers on each side of the front door.
• Keep the grass trimmed and the yard free of clutter.
• Make sure those front windows sparkle.
• Does the trim need a new coat of paint?

• Find a few brightly colored pillows for the bed or sofa.
• Add throw rugs for accent
• Use light or bright colors

• Kitchens & Baths must be sparkling
• Buy new towels, put them out each day before you leave.
• Keep that toilet lid CLOSED… please
• De-Clutter

Need more ideas?  Go to the Open Houses near you.  You may look at your home in a new light.  (pun intended)

It must be SPRING IN SPOKANE! The birds are singing, trees and grass are looking green. Best of all? The buyers have come out from their winter (plus) slumber!

Four offers in two days on two short sale listings. I am exhausted and clearly out of shape! It doesn’t help that one of the banks changed their forms and process last week which has me chasing my tail, or that the other bank is bound and determined to send me to the funny farm. Then of course there are the sellers, feeling lost, confused, frustrated, angry and scared.

I dream of a future filled with “traditional” home sales.  You remember… the kind where the home has appreciated and the sellers get to make their own decisions AND a profit!

Being swamped is a WONDERFUL feeling, however, and buyers we have missed you!  I look forward to meeting with you at my next open house!

Scenario 1.  Agent Smith sent me an email about his broker’s open that was totally out of my normal selling area.  Rather than opting out I just blocked his emails.  It was quick and efficient.  Two months later Agent Smith sent me a inquiry on a property I had listed that could have resulted in a full price sale for my seller.  I never saw it.  It was in my spam folder.  The property sold at 90% of list price.

Scenario 2.  Agent Jones was sending me an email every time she listed a property.  Hello, I use Paragon and have my buyers on Auto-Emails.  This was a waste of my time.  I followed the unsubscribe process at the bottom of one of her emails.  At the office meeting a few weeks later another agent was bragging about the awesome deal he had gotten for one of his buyers.  It was the house my buyer wanted, but was already contingent when my buyer and I got out there.  This agent had looked at the spam I blocked and had his buyer out right away to see the property.

How much time do we really spend deleting unnecessary emails?  Two minutes a day?  Three?  Five?  Is deleting them by hand a better business practice so that you don’t miss anything important?  It is your call!

You’ve Got Spam: How to “Can” Unwanted Email

CAN-SPAM defines a “commercial electronic mail message” as “any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service (including content on an Internet website operated for a commercial purpose).”   It exempts “transactional or relationship messages.”

Each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $16,000, and more than one person may be held responsible for violations. For example, both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that originated the message may be legally responsible.

Q. Does this mean I cannot send an email to all agents letting them know about my new listing or Brokers Opens?

A. No, the bill permits e-mail marketers to send unsolicited commercial e-mail as long as it adheres to 3 basic types of compliance defined in the CAN-SPAM Act: (1) unsubscribe (2) content and (3) sending behavior compliance.

1. Don’t use false or misleading header information – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.
2. Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
3. Identify the message as an ad. You must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
4. Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address.
5. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you.
6. Honor opt-out requests promptly. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days. Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list.
7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf.

The complaints we receive generally fall under items 5 & 6 above.  For more complete information visit http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business

Stay tuned for the Other Side Of The Coin…

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  Schedule A Form: 6 Home Deduction Traps

  Get an “A” on your Schedule A Form: Dodge these tax deduction pitfalls to save time, money, and an IRS investigation. Read

By: G. M. Filisko

Published: January 5, 2012

Don’t rouse the IRS or pay more taxes than necessary — know the score on each home tax deduction and credit.

Sin #1: Deducting the wrong year for property taxes

You take a tax deduction for property taxes in the year you (or the holder of your escrow account) actually paid them. Some taxing authorities work a year behind — that is, you’re not billed for 2011 property taxes until 2012. But that’s irrelevant to the feds.

Enter on your federal forms whatever amount you actually paid in 2011, no matter what the date is on your tax bill. Dave Hampton, CPA, tax manager at the Cincinnati accounting firm of Burke & Schindler, has seen home owners confuse payments for different years and claim the incorrect amount.

Sin #2: Confusing escrow amount for actual taxes paid

If your lender escrows funds to pay your property taxes, don’t just deduct the amount escrowed, says Bob Meighan, CPA and vice president at TurboTax in San Diego. The regular amount you pay into your escrow account each month to cover property taxes is probably a little more or a little less than your property tax bill. Your lender will adjust the amount every year or so to realign the two.

For example, your tax bill might be $1,200, but your lender may have collected $1,100 or $1,300 in escrow over the year. Deduct only $1,200. Your lender will send you an official statement listing the actual taxes paid. Use that. Don’t just add up 12 months of escrow property tax payments.

Sin #3: Deducting points paid to refinance

Deduct points you paid your lender to secure your mortgage in full for the year you bought your home. However, when you refinance, says Meighan, you must deduct points over the life of your new loan. If you paid $2,000 in points to refinance into a 15-year mortgage, your tax deduction is $133 per year.

Sin #4: Failing to deduct private mortgage insurance

Lenders require home buyers with a down payment of less than 20% to purchase private mortgage insurance (PMI). Avoid the common mistake of forgetting to deduct your PMI payments. However, note the deduction begins to phase out once your adjusted gross income reaches $100,000 and disappears entirely when your AGI surpasses $109,000. Also, unless Congress acts to extend the PMI deduction again, 2011 is the last tax year for which you can take this deduction.

Sin #5: Misjudging the home office tax deduction

This deduction may not be as good as it seems. It’s complicated, often doesn’t amount to much of a deduction, has to be recaptured if you turn a profit when you sell your home, and can pique the IRS’s interest in your return. Hampton’s advice: Claim it only if it’s worth those drawbacks. If so, here’s what to know about what you can write off.

Sin #6: Missing the first-time home buyer tax credit

While the original home buyer tax credit deadline passed in April 2010 (and isn’t available in 2012), military families and some government workers on assignment outside the U.S. were given an extension until April 30, 2011, to get a home under contract and take advantage of up to $8,000 in tax credits for first-time buyers and $6,500 in credits for repeat buyers.

It applies to any individual (and, if married, the individual’s spouse) who serves on qualified official extended duty service outside of the United States for at least 90 days during the period beginning after Dec. 31, 2008, and ending before May 1, 2010.

Sin #7: Failing to track home-related expenses

If the IRS comes a-knockin’, don’t be scrambling to compile your records. Many people forget to track home office and home maintenance and repair expenses, says Meighan. File away documents as you go. For example, save each manufacturer’s certification statement for energy tax credits, insurance company statements for PMI, and lender or government statements to confirm property taxes paid.

Sin #8: Forgetting to keep track of capital gains

If you sold your main home last year, don’t forget to pay capital gains taxes on any profit. However, you can exclude $250,000 (or $500,000 if you’re a married couple) of any profits from taxes. So if you bought a home for $100,000 and sold it for $400,000, your capital gains are $300,000. If you’re single, you owe taxes on $50,000 of gains. However, there are minimum time limits for holding property to take advantage of the exclusions, and other details. Consult IRS Publication 523.

Sin #9: Filing incorrectly for energy tax credits

If you made any eligible improvement, fill out Form 5695. Part I, which covers the 30%/$1,500 credit for such items as insulation and windows, is fairly straightforward. But Part II, which covers the 30%/no-limit items such as geothermal heat pumps, can be incredibly complex and involves crosschecking with half a dozen other IRS forms. Read the instructions carefully.

Sin #10: Claiming too much for the mortgage interest tax deduction

You can deduct mortgage interest only up to $1 million of mortgage debt, says Meighan. If you have $1.2 million in mortgage debt, for example, deduct only the mortgage interest attributable to the first $1 million.

This article provides general information about tax laws and consequences, but shouldn’t be relied upon by readers as tax or legal advice applicable to particular transactions or circumstances. Consult a tax professional for such advice; tax laws may vary by jurisdiction.

Visit HouseLogic.com for more articles like this. Reprinted from HouseLogic.com with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.

Read more: http://members.houselogic.com/reprint-rights/#ixzz1mIs7WJCs