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The Home Buyer Tax Credit Marriage Penalty -- An Update by Joseph Rand
As you know, the staff at Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty created the leading online resource for information on the Home Buyer Tax Credit at HomeBuyerTaxCredit.com.  On that site, we've been leading a campaign for Congress to address the "Marriage Penalty" in the Home Buyer Tax Credit, particularly to amend the legislation to fix a technical drafting error that prevents a married couple from claiming the credit when one spouse is eligible as a first-time home buyer and the other as a long-time homeowner.

We just put an update on the Home Buyer Tax Credit Blog, including the following:

If you want to get involved, join our Facebook Cause to End the Marriage Penalty, which is now up to 250 members.  We’re not exactly “Farmville,” but it’s something….

Rates are going up. What does that mean for you? by Joseph Rand
We're starting to see increasing news coverage of the upcoming interest rate increases.  Rates right now are hovering at 5%, which is about as low as they have been at any time in this low-rate decade, and much lower than they were even two years ago (when we talked about "historically low interest rates). But they're about to go up.Essentially, the Federal Reserve has been keeping interest rates low through a campaign of buying mortgage-bac ...Read More

BHG Real Estate iPhone App is available by Joseph Rand
We just wanted to alert all our readers that our partner Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate has come out with an extremely well-reviewed iPhone application called the Better Homes and Gardens Home Selection Assistant. Here's what Brian Boero of the well-regarded industry blog 1000wattblog.com had to say about the app: The [BHGRE] brand, which is just over a year old, has a strong lifestyle vibe. From their perspective, real estate is more ...Read More

STAR Tax Relief Applications Due by Joseph Rand
Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty agents often get questions about the applicability of the “STAR Exemption” to taxes.  To help answer your questions about the STAR program, we’ve compiled this short list of Frequently Asked Questions. Most importantly, we want to highlight that if you purchased a home in the last year, your STAR application is probably due at the end of February. What is the STAR exemption? “STAR” an acronym for the Ne ...Read More

Congratulations Greg Rand and Marsha Rand! by Joseph Rand
We usually use this space to discuss real estate market issues, but we would be remiss to not congratulate Greg Rand and Marsha Rand on cover stories this week.Greg is on the cover page this week on RIS Media's Real Estate Magazine, the leading magazine covering the real estate industry.  He's on the page with Sherry Chris, the President of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate and Kevin Levent of Better Homes and Gardens Metro Brok ...Read More

Home Buyer Tax Credit 100-day Countdown by Joseph Rand
I was on the Channel 11 WPIX evening news last night with Jim Watkins, talking about our new site homebuyertaxcredit.com and going over the eligibility requirements for the tax credit.  One thing jumped out at me by the end.  We've quickly gone from a tax credit that was extended to great fanfare in November, to a tax credit that only has 100 days of effectiveness left.To claim the credit, you need to be in contract by April 30, 20 ...Read More

End the Marriage Penalty in the Home Buyer Tax Credit. by Joseph Rand
Today, we've published an op-ed in the Journal News calling for the elimination of the "Marriage Penalty" in the Home Buyer Tax Credit.  As we developed the HomeBuyerTaxCredit.com consumer resource site, we discovered that married couples are treated differently from unmarried couples.  Essentially, for married couples, both spouses have to both be eligible, and to be eligible for the SAME credit, in order to claim a tax credit.Wha ...Read More

IRS Issues New Forms for the Home Buyer Tax Credit by Joseph Rand
This past Friday, the IRS finally issued the Form 5405 that taxpayers need to claim the Home Buyer Tax Credit for their 2009 tax year return in April. This was important, because many taxpayers who wanted to claim the credit were waiting on the form.  The IRS also warned that people should expect delays in the procesing of their returns, since the IRS is going to be reviewing claims for the tax credit.We have full coverage for the IRS docume ...Read More

Announcing HomeBuyerTaxCredit.com by Joseph Rand
We wanted to share with you the news that Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty has launched a new national website called HomeBuyerTaxCredit.com, which is the best national resource site for information about the Home Buyer Tax Credit. At a time when the national franchise brands have actual misinformation on their sites about the tax credit, we're proud to have the most comprehensive and comprehensible resource site in the country. We took all ...Read More

Tips for Sellers on the Tax Credit Deadlines by Joseph Rand
We just posted a list of Seven Tips for buyerson how to make sure they meet the Home Buyer Tax Credit deadlines: April 30 to be in contract, June 30 to be closed.   We wanted, though, to make a special advisory for buyers who want to take advantage of the “step-up” tax credit, and who are selling their current home. As you know, the Home Buyer Tax Creditis available to both first-time home buyers and “step-up” buyers who are long-time home ...Read More

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So what's going on in Westchester and the Hudson Valley? Traditionally, real estate brokers were always the people to ask about what was happening in a particular community, since brokers are intimately involved in the places they live and work. We love our communities we love the villages, the towns, the schools, the restaurants, the parks, the people! And we know what's going on, because we're connected to the people and places in the communities we serve. So we want The Rand Blog to be your resource for real estate and community information. We'll be posting our own analysis of the local real estate market, based on our expertise and experience in these markets, and we'll also be posting information and analysis of local events and happenings. Westchester and the Hudson Valley is Rand Country!

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