Explaining 4 Real Estate Issues and How they will Affect You and your Property

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with DEEB Realty, contact me at (402) 491-0100 or email andy@godeeb.com. 

Today I wanted to talk about some issues that we're working on at a local, state, and national level that will impact the real estate industry as well as your day to day business.

Debt Forgiveness Bill: This is a big topic right now in Washington. This bill was enacted a few years ago when we were experiencing a lot of short sales and foreclosures. In a short sale, the client had to sell a property for less than what it was actually worth because a mortgage could not be paid off. With this new bill, the amount of indebted money that was forgiven was not treated as income, so it was not taxable. Before this bill, the amount of debt was treated as income and was being taxed.

--This was helpful to people going through foreclosures because it eliminated the extra taxes that they could not afford. 

--However, this bill expired in 2013 and congress has yet to reenact it. This is why it's important to respond to your mortgage broker's calls to help get this bill passed into legislation again.  

Flood Insurance Bill: This was just passed through the Senate and is expected to be enacted into law quite soon. This has been on the docket for a few years now, and it should help more people obtain Flood Insurance. It will also put a cap on how much Flood Insurance can increase from year to year. In the long term this should allow for more people to buy and sell real estate in flood zones.

Acknowledgement of Homestead Properties: This is one we've been working on for a few years and the legislation has finally been written on a state level. We initially thought we had our chance to eliminate the notarization on purchase agreements for homestead properties, which is a very old, antiquated law. However, there was some unforeseen opposition and there were some other bills that took precedent over this one. Unfortunately, we may have to wait until next year to get this one passed, but we're still working on this one at the state level to get this passed. 

--Once this bill is passed, you will no longer have to print out your documents and get them notarized. Instead, you can have a more seamless, paperless transaction. The hope here is to make real estate transactions more efficient.

Pocket Listings: This is an extremely hot topic right now in national, state, and local associations. If you are doing pocket listings, just make sure you're using them correctly. You should be utilizing pocket listings for the benefit of the client and not for the promise of increased compensation. The concern is that we're inhibiting the property from realizing the highest possible monetary gain, and this would be in opposition towards the spirit of cooperation that we as realtors have to acknowledge. Sometimes realtors have alternative motives for selling these properties, and we want to curb this type of activity as much as possible. 

Hopefully this information has been helpful to you. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about what I have just talked about or if you would like to reach out to me for any other reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.

You can call me at (402) 491-0100 or email me at Andy@GoDeeb.com