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Find or Refer a Contractor in Tyler

Real Estate Home Prices Up 4th Straight Month

November 24th, 2009

In Tyler TX we really have a unique situation compared to the rest of the country. We have seen the 4th straight month with rising home prices although the prices have not risen that dramatically. At least Tyler real estate is seeing a shift up instead of prices continuously going down like we have seen in cities like Detroit. One major issue is that a large majority of home owners owe more on their homes than what they are worth. We really want to get to the point where people have enough equity in their homes that if things got bad they could sell their homes without the need to foreclose on their house.

Everyone is familiar with those home flipping shows where people buy really bad rotting houses and fix them up for resell. Most people have gotten out of the home flipping business and many of these businesses are now remodelling houses in Tyler TX. A good way to build equity in your Tyler home is to have your kitchen or bathroom remodelled. We have had our kitchen remodelled and have plans in the works to get our bathrooms redone. When choosing a home remodelling company we looked around at several construction companies that could do the job. What we discovered was that a licensed home builder costs a lot more than a builder that is insured and bonded. You really only need a licensed by the state home builder if you plan on getting a home remodeling loan for $10,000 or above. Most home remodeling companies can have you pay $10,000 to one construction crew member and $10,000 to another if you were approaching $20,000 and still avoid the bank requirement for a licensed builder. This will save you a lot of money as an insured but not licensed builder will usually cost you a lot less for your remodeling project.

It all depends on which home remodeling company you pick as some may say all the right things, take your money, and than never return. You want to choose a company that has a history of doing quality work more than just a few times. Builders are notorious for opening up, taking money, and leaving half way through a project. One of the biggest scams has to do with construction companies running off with peoples money. They usually cannot even be charged with a crime if they did any work at all as they can claim that they completed part of the job and were only paid for part of the construction job.

The home remodeling company we used to increase equity in our Tyler house is R and R Home Creations. They can be reached at 1-903-574-0375. Josh Rucker is the owner and they specialize in kitchen and bathroom tile and back splash although can also do other things such as drywall, texturing, and painting. When picking a home remodeling company you want to hire someone based on their specialty. We have been very pleased with Josh Rucker and his crew. They have put together a tile job behind our wood burning furnace that is designed very well and is very sturdy. For instance, our stove weighs close to 1,000 pounds but they set the stove on bricks while at the same time making it appear the stove is sitting on ceramic tile. You cannot even tell that is what they did but it helps make the point that they have achieved a learning curve on tile work that only years of experience could teach someone.

When hiring a construction contractor to remodel your home we recommend following a few suggestions. It is ok if you get a building contractor to do a few extra things outside their specialty but when you go to far off what they are good at you end up with less quality work and spending the same you might have paid someone experienced in that line of work to do. We think it is a good idea to hire someone in the family or a friend to do expensive electrical work as hiring an electrician can really tack on a lot of extra cost to a remodeling project. Tile work is easy to do but once you get into more advanced design you are better off to let an experienced tile installer do the job.

Painting, drywall, and texturingis something that many professional contractors know how to do even if their specialty is something else. It is always good to price your painting and drywall work out witha few contractors until you find a good price. You always want to make sure they are good enough to not leave you high and dry as this could very easily happen if you are unfamiliar with the person. A website showing referals and jobs completed, yellowpageslisting, a newspaper ad, and other signs like these will give you knowledge if the business has been around awhile. Asking for a couple recent jobs that were completed along withthe peoples phone numbers can give you the confidence to go ahead with hiring a contractor. A Tyler TX building contractor that offers several choices and options for cabinets, drywall, painting, and so on will let you know if they are experienced in what they do. An experienced building contractor will have choices available for their niche building area because that is all they do. They will have likely done the same job in many different ways and will be able to offer more than one design and technique for completing a job. Someone that knows of only one way may not be the best choice unless their price is cheap and the job is something simple like painting a wall or framing something in.

Tax Credits For First Time Home Buyers in Tyler TX

November 23rd, 2009

First-Time Home Buyer Federal Tax Credit

For those who want to save a little money on your taxes this year and who would ALSO like to buy a house you can still get that $8,000 first time home buyers credit even though it was scheduled to expire November 30 2009. You now have quite a few months longer to qualify for the first time home buyers tax credit and this credit is a little different than the $7500 credit in 2008. In 2008 you could receive a $7500 tax credit but you have to pay it back over a 15 year time period. The tax credit going on now is free money you never have to pay back but it isn’t exactly free as some poor tax payer out their is paying for your welfare entitlement mindset which is why many of us feel a little anxious right now with the way this economy is going. The new law allows the credit to extend until April 30th 2010 and you must close on the house by June 30 2010. I recommend not putting off on buying your Tyler Texas home until the last minute.

The government considers you a first-time Tyler home buyer if you have not owned a home for at least three years before the date you settle on your new home. This credit will not work if you are buying investment property. You must be living in this home as your primary homestead or you will not be able to get this credit. If you want to try and get into the rental or vacation property business this credit will not be able to be applied for that purpose..

For first-time Tyler TX home buyers, the credit is 10% of the purchase price of the home, up to $8,000. So, if your house costs $80,000 or more, you can qualify for the maximum fedreal home buyers tax credit.

You do not have to repay this tax credit, as long as you live in your house for at least three years. If you sell or move out before three years, you have to repay the money as extra tax on your tax return for the year you sell or move.

If you are looking for a good real estate company in Tyler Texas we used Keller Williams and were very satisfied with their help in getting us into a house we liked at an affordable price.

Federal Income Tax Credit For Longtime Homeowners

This credit is available to qualifying home buyers who sign a binding contract by April 30, 2010, and who close on a new home between Nov. 7, 2009, and June 30, 2010. To qualify, you must have continuously owned and lived in a home for at least five of the eight years leading up to the purchase of a new home.

If you have owned and lived in your current home for at least five years, for example, you can qualify. If you bought the home you’re living in now less than five years ago, however, you won’t qualify.

The credit is 10% of the purchase price, up to $6,500. As with the first-time-buyer credit, this one is available only for the purchase of a principal residence, not a vacation home or rental property. And if you sell the place or move out within three years, you have to pay back the credit on your tax return for the year you sell or move. Homes that cost more than $800,000 are ineligible for the credit.

Income-eligibility rules are the same as for the first-time-buyer credit. The right to claim the credit disappears as adjusted gross income rises between $125,000 and $145,000 on a single return and between $225,000 and $245,000 for married couples filing joint returns.

To get your tax credit you’ll need to file a Form 5405 to claim the credit and include a copy of your settlement statement (such as the HUD 1 form) to prove that you bought the house. The settlement statement was not required for deals that closed before Nov. 7.

Dove Tree Apartment Tyler Texas

October 27th, 2009

Dovetree Apartments in Tyler TX
There are many different apartment complexes in Tyler Texas, but I have had the most personal experience at the Dove Tree apartment complex. I was first attracted to the complex because of the location and price. One advice that I would give to anyone looking for an apartment is to get the complaints that were made to the police department.

As my new family and I looked for an apartment we wanted a safe place for a good price. I found Dove Tree apartment. It looked great and could give us the apartment that we wanted right away. It was right in the middle of town. The apartment was just a couple miles from the mall and grocery stores. As a bonus, the apartment had a pool and a great work out room. Our neighbors were, nice, yet interesting, to say the least. We did not have any problems with the people around and we lived a couple miles from my work. It seemed great.

After a couple months after living there the roof began to leak. We called maintenance. It took about two weeks of annoying dripping throughout the night and several frustrating phone calls for someone to come take a look at our bathroom ceiling. Finally a man came in the middle of the day and vacuumed out a metal crawl space from where water was dripping into the four buckets we had in the middle of our bathroom floor. That idea stopped the unbearable dripping for only a couple days. A few more weeks past and several more phone calls before they decided to come again. I would think that if one thing was not working that they would try to do something else. But again the maintenance vacuumed out the water and went onto the next thing. I was very frustrated after fighting with this for months, and the entire time we lived there it never was completely fix.

Apartments have so many hidden secrets. Even though we had a six month lease we had to tell the management that we were leaving about four months before we were going to move out or they would charge us an outrageous fee. This bothered me, because if you get a six month lease, obviously your intentions are to move out in six months. I met one young lady who did not realize this rule and went to tell them a couple weeks before she left, they told her that she had to pay for the next month and some ridiculous fee that did not completely make sense.

The apartment selection is huge in the Tyler area, do not sale yourself short. Make sure the maintenance is quick and do not forget to read the small print.

Tyler Real Estate Companies

September 13th, 2009

In the city of Tyler most people have found that the real estate market is huge in this town. I am really overwhelmed at the amount of real estate agents and agencies we have here. Driving through the Mansions, Cascades, Fairmont, Eagles Bluff, Hollytree and other starter-castle neighborhoods you start to realize we have a lot of health care, oil and gas, small business owners and law professionals that make a good chunk of change in Tyler Texas.

I find myself asking just how many people in Tyler are there that can afford a $500,000 house as our city seems almost overrun with them. It could just be my mindset of seeing this home price tag as way over the top for most people but I continue to ask this question. Well I am glad there are people in our town that can buy a home at this price as it is one of the many components of our healthy economy.

When I moved back to Tyler I did not know anyone personally that was a Tyler Texas real estate agent. I simply called a few numbers on some Tyler Texas Real Estate for sale signs and picked me one. I got lucky because my real estate agent was very helpful and easy to get in contact with. She worked with Keller Williams Realty in Tyler although it appears she has relocated to the Dallas Fort Worth area.

One issue I discovered while searching for a home in Tyler was that some people were trying to sell their home in South Tyler where Old Grande Boulevard was being extended. The issue was that these very ugly large electricity lines and poles were erected right outside their back yards. The road construction would be extending a well trafficked road practically in their backyards.

Some of these Tyler homes came down in price as the year progressed. A few homes were simply taken off the market and the owners chose to lease the home instead. I recently drove down through this neighborhood and pretty much all of these houses that were for sale have been sold at a discount or are now being leased. Looking at the Old Grande Boulevard construction I noticed the nice Rose Rudman sidewalk trails have been extended to border behind these houses with a decent grassy border before the road begins. The road isn’t that wide and it takes away from the eyesore of the electric poles and wires.

To me, this neighborhood near Andy’s Frozen Custard and Old Grande represents a good deal. If you want a nice area of town at a price you can afford you may find one of these owners will let it go much cheaper than a house just down the road. We used Keller Williams Realty and had a very good experience with them. Because our Tyler TX realtor continued to answer our questions, negotiate price, and meet us at different properties we feel confident in recommending Keller to potential East Texas home buyers. If you are relocating to Tyler give Keller Williams a call and see what they can do for you. You can also check out all of Tyler’s real estate agents and companies by visting our Real Estate category.

If you do buy a house in Tyler we would like to recommend Huey Keeney as your home closing Tyler Texas lawyer. Huey has been doing this for years and will get you setup very fast and efficient. His office is great to make the closing arrangements for your home purchase and he goes over everything in fine detail.

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