REALTORS® and the Qualified Business Deduction Rule by Tony Smith, Wanda Smith & Associates
February 14, 2019
Unless you’re new to planet Earth, you are aware that tax-time is just around the corner (if you are new to planet Earth, Welcome! Tax time is just around the corner. Please recycle and always tip your server). In January of 2017, a new law regarding business deductions took effect. It’s known as The Qualified Business Deduction ...
Emotional Intelligence and Real Estate
January 15, 2019
The following article appeared in INMAN. The original article can be found here: https://www.inman.com/2019/01/14/connect-the-speakers-marc-brackett-on-emotional-intelligence-and-real-estate/Connect the Speakers: Marc Brackett on emotional intelligence and real estateWhat you need to know about emotional intelligence and how it helps rule your worldBYINMANStaff Writer You’ve probably heard of the concept of emotional intelligence before — but if you’ve brushed ...
7 Important Things Home Sellers Often Forget to Do
November 15, 2018
The following is a copy of an article that originally appeared on realtor.com, written by Jennifer O'Neill. The link to the original is: https://www.realtor.com/advice/sell/7-things-home-sellers-forget/***When you’re selling your home there’s so much to do: find a Realtor®, do touch-ups, get that balky air conditioner fixed, look into staging... It’s no wonder that sometimes ...
Mortgage Rates Jump to 7-Year High
October 15, 2018
The following is an article from REALTOR Magazine.The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hasn’t averaged this high since 2011, as it inches closer to the 5 percent threshold.“Rising rates paired with high and escalating home prices is putting downward pressure on purchase demand,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “While the monthly payment ...
Storm and Hurricane Preparedness for Homeowners
September 13, 2018
The following is an a well-written, fairly comprehensive article by PETRO Home Services on preparing your home (and occupants) for storms and hurricanes. The original article can be found on the web at: https://www.petro.com/resource-center/storm-and-hurricane-preparedness-for-homeowners Storm and Hurricane Preparedness for Homeowners Hurricane season along the Eastern and Mid-Atlantic seaboard traditionally starts on June 1 and continues through November ...
Adapting Terry Watson’s “Three Sheets” for the HUD Sales Process by Tony Smith, Wanda Smith & Associates
August 15, 2018
In last month’s blog post, I talked about the great Terry Watson’s “Three Sheets” for a real estate transaction. The sheets are a wonderful tool for agents to communicate with buyers and sellers and convey things we, as agents, already know and take as a given, that our buyers and sellers might not know or understand. ...
Terry Watson's Three Sheets
July 12, 2018
By Tony Smith, Wanda Smith & AssociatesRecently, I was honored to attend a Leadership Conference & Training at the National Association of REALTORS® headquarters in Chicago. It was a remarkable and intense few days with lots of meaningful and useful information, both on being a leader and being a REALTOR®. One of the most memorable (and amazing) speakers was ...
NAID Recertification/SAMS-1111 Changes by Tony Smith, Wanda Smith & Associates
June 14, 2018
Almost everybody has done it. And if you’re not one of the broker’s who has done it, you’re probably one of the brokers who came awfully close. I’m talking about letting your NAID certification lapse.OOPS!It happens. I think as an industry we’ve gotten so used to reminders and notifications, when we ...
Insurable, Insurable w/Escrow, Uninsurable...What's the Difference?
May 16, 2018
Recently I was teaching our Continuing Education course, Keys to Selling HUD Homes, when a student asked me about the term "Uninsurable" in relation to a HUD home they had seen on hudhomestore.com. They wanted to know if that meant the buyer would be unable to get homeowner's insurance on their new home. Of course the ...
Understanding the Good Neighbor Next Door Lottery
April 13, 2018
When most of us hear the word “Lottery,” we start mentally spending the $100 million dollars we’ll get if we win. Though, not going to lie, I still have the occasional disturbing dream leftover from reading Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery” when I was a junior in high school decades ago. The Hunger ...
Marketing HUD Homes for Your Business Even When You're Not the LLB!
March 15, 2018
Being a HUD Local Listing Broker is both a privilege and an honor; it's something that a lot of real estate agents aspire to, but unfortunately, because of limited inventory not everyone can be a HUD LLB. That's the bad news. Here's the good news: Even if you are not a HUD Local Listing Broker, ...
Marketing HUD Homes for Your Business Even When You're Not the LLB!
March 15, 2018
Being a HUD Local Listing Broker is both a privilege and an honor; it's something that a lot of real estate agents aspire to, but unfortunately, because of limited inventory not everyone can be a HUD LLB. That's the bad news. Here's the good news: Even if you are not a HUD Local Listing Broker, ...
Beyond Experience
February 15, 2018
I've been in the real estate business for over 35 years: new construction, residential resale, some land, a lot of REO properties. In all honesty, I'm not bragging nor exaggerating when I say all of those years, all of those transactions have given me a lot of experience. Coupled with my ongoing efforts to educate myself about ...
The Tax Bill and The Mortgage Interest Deduction
January 15, 2018
While we always want to see changes in the market and governmental policy that make homeownership more attractive, the changes to the Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID) in the recent tax bill probably (hopefully) won't negatively impact the majority of homeowners. What are the changes and how do they impact you? The MID will be capped ...
Home Buying 101: 203k Your Way from Deplorable to Adorable
December 14, 2017
In a blog a few months ago, I talked a little about what FHA Uninsurable means, and the financing options for the FHA Uninsurable (UI) home. One such option is an FHA 203(k). Right now, in our market, inventory is so low that "ugly" houses that would have taken months to sell a few years ago are ...
The Equifax Breach and Your Housing Future
November 21, 2017
Unless you've been living under a particularly uniformed rock, you've heard about the massive data breach that Equifax announced on September 7, 2017. The vital information of over 143 million American consumers was exposed to hackers. The information exposed was indeed vital; it included names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some cases, ...
