Dorothy Herman, Dottie, is the quintessential New York success story. In only two decades, she climbed to the pinnacle of the housing industry – CEO of Douglas Elliman, the #4 ranked real estate company in the United States.
Today, under her leadership, Douglas Elliman is New York’s largest residential brokerage, with over 3,800 real estate professionals and 675 employees working in more than 60 offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, the Hamptons and the North Fork, Westchester and Riverdale.
Dottie created a company that serves the customer’s every real estate need. In addition to leading New York’s largest residential real estate brokerage and rentals, she also controls a portfolio of real estate services, including commercial and retail leasing and sales, relocation and settling in services, new development consulting and also Manhattan’s largest residential property manager, Douglas Elliman Property Management, as well as PDE Title, and DE Capital Mortgage.
President and CEO of Miller Samuel, a leading real estate appraisal and consulting firm he co-founded in 1986. His firm provides appraisal services on roughly $5 billion worth of property per year in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, The Hamptons/North Fork, Northern New Jersey, Westchester County, NY and Fairfield County, CT. He is the co-founder of Miller Cicero, LLC, a commercial real estate advisory service covering the New York City metropolitan area. Jonathan is a state certified real estate appraiser in New York and Connecticut and he performs court testimony as an expert witness in local, state and federal courts. Jonathan authors of a series of market reports considered the "report of record" covering the New York metropolitan area that are relied on by the media, financial institutions as well as government agencies including the Federal Reserve, Internal Revenue Service, US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the NYC Office of Management and Budget and others. He also serves on the New York City Mayor's Economic Advisory Panel representing the residential real estate sector and has participated in studies on valuation issues with academic institutions including New York University, Princeton University, Columbia University and Baruch College. A well-regarded real estate prognosticator, Jonathan comments regularly on US and regional housing issues in the media including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, AP, Reuters, CNBC, CNN, ABC, Fox and others.
Jonathan was named the "Best Online Real Estate Expert" by Money Magazine and was recognized by Inman News as one of the top 25 most influential real estate bloggers in the US. His blog Matrix was voted one of the top five US real estate blogs. On his podcast The Housing Helix with Jonathan Miller he interviews a wide variety of housing experts.
Visit Jonathan's online resources:
Website at www.millersamuel.com
Blog at http://matrix.millersamuel.com
Podcast at www.thehousinghelix.com
Jerry M. Feeney, is a New York City attorney whose practice is focused on representing buyers and sellers of cooperative apartments, condominiums, and townhouses. He has offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island. Mr. Feeney graduated cum laude from Fordham University School of Law in 1995, where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif for his high academic achievements in the study of law. After graduating, he worked in the Division of Enforcement in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, prosecuting violators of the federal securities laws, and thereafter was an associate with the firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, practicing in the field of complex commercial and securities litigation. Subsequent to that, Mr. Feeney practiced commercial litigation and real estate law with the firm of Ingram Yuzek Carroll & Bertolotti, LLP, before leaving to start his own practice in 2003. Mr. Feeney has been quoted in such prominent publications as The New York Times, Details, New York Magazine, and The New York Law Journal.
Visit Jerry's website at www.jerryfeeney.com
Jan William Scheck has originated over two billion dollars in residential mortgages since 1984. His focus on personal attention, detail and integrity has helped him grow and maintain valuable relationships throughout the New York and tri-state residential real estate community. Jan earned a bachelor of science in finance and tax from The University of Florida in 1982. In 1983 he joined Chemical Bank’s management development program and completed their commercial credit training in 1984. He spent 20 years between 2 prestigious national mortgage lenders here in New York focused on mortgage lending to high net worth borrowers. From 2005 to present Jan took on management responsibility for 2 national mortgage lenders expanding their New York presence. Today, Jan manages DE Capital mortgage in New York. DE capital is a joint venture between the largest US mortgage lender, Wells Fargo and the tri-states largest real estate broker Prudential Douglas Elliman. In addition, Jan in the on-air mortgage expert on WOR Radio “Eye On Real Estate” radio show with host Dottie Herman. Visit Jan's website at www.decapitalmortgage.com
As promised, here are the links for each servicer as well as the official clearinghouse:
If you are filing a claim, borrowers will have to fill out a simple form. Go to www.
If you have been foreclosed on, contact the office of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman directly at (518) 474-7330. Or www.ag.ny.gov.
What are your legitimate real estate deductions? Mortgage? Renovations? Vacation homes?
You can only claim a tax loss on investment property. A loss on a personal residence is considered to be a nondeductible personal expense for federal income tax purposes.
If you're fortunate, the lender could decide to forgive some or all of the unpaid mortgage in a short sale,
But what happens tax-wise if the mortgage lender forecloses? Here is the general rule. Say your property is foreclosed (or transferred to the lender via a deed in lieu of foreclosure). When the mortgage debt exceeds the property's fair market value (FMV), the transaction is treated as a sale for a price equal to FMV. Naturally, the sale will trigger a tax gain if the FMV exceeds your tax basis in the home.
The important thing to understand here is that a real estate short sale or foreclosure can potentially result in a taxable gain and/or taxable DDI. That's the bad news. The good news is that you can probably exclude the gain from taxation, and you might be able to exclude some or all of the DDI too.
Please print:
http://www.smartmoney.com/taxes/income/taxes-when-you-sell-your-home-at-a-loss-21058/#printMode
http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=13107829
What to do if your house is losing money http://www.realtor.com/home-finance/real-estate/general/what-to-do-losing-money-on-home.aspx?source=web
What are your legitimate real estate deductions?
Here’s a handy guide for 9 pieces of paper you should be sure to round up as you prepare to file, in order to reap every penny of the tax rewards you’ve earned by virtue of owning a home.
- 1098. The meatiest 1. Mortgage Interest StatementtheIRS Formallows you to deduct real estate tax deduction on the books is one that 100
percent of the mortgage interest you paid in a year - including prepaid interest or points you might have paid at close of escrow, if you bought a home last year. By now, you should have received in the mail a Form 1098 from your mortgage lender that reports how much that interest totaled up to in 2011. If you itemize your taxes and claim a mortgage interest deduction, you must include this form with your tax form when you file.
(If you haven’t received yours yet, most lenders that have online account management services also post the form digitally in your secure account on the web. Just login like you would to make your monthly payment, and look for a notice that says you can now download your 2011 Form 1098.)
0. Property Tax Statements. In addition to deducting your mortgage interest, if you own a home you are eligible to deduct the property taxes you pay to your local city, county and/or state. You are not allowed to deduct some of the other miscellaneous expenses that some localities bundle up with the taxes they collect, like waste management and local assessments for things like street lighting, libraries and sidewalk construction. To get this deduction right, the best practice is to have your property tax statements at hand and make sure you’re only deducting what’s allowed.
If you bought your home this year, it’s highly possible that you might not even have received a property tax statement yet - if that’s the case, look to #3, below.
0. Uniform Settlement Statement (HUD-1). If you bought or sold a home last year, right after closing you should have received a form called the HUD-1 Settlement Statement (hint: it’s usually on legal-sized paper and contains an accounting of credits and debits for you and your home’s buyer or seller). That form documents a number of line items which might help you out at tax time, including prepaid interest, the prorated property taxes you paid at closing, and closing costs like original fees and discount points. Some states offer tax credits for buying a foreclosure; check with your tax pro to find out if any such credits apply to you. If so, this statement might be your ticket to lower taxes.
And here’s another handy hint - if you can’t find your copy, you might have gotten it on a disk - and you can always email your real estate or escrow agent for a
5 copy, as well.
0. Moving Expense Receipts. Moving expenses are tax deductible, if your move is closely related, both in time and in place, to the start of work at a new or changed job location and you meet the IRS’ time and distance tests. Long story short, your new home must be at least 50 miles farther from your new workplace than your old home was from your prior place of work, and you must work essentially full-time. So, if you bought or sold a home and moved in 2011, you’ll need to include receipts from expenses you incurred making the move (meals not included) in your tax prep paperwork.
0. Cancellation of Debt Statement - IRS Form 1099. Homeowners who lost a home to foreclosure, or divested of one by negotiating a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure with their lender might receive some version of Form 1099 from their lenders, charging them with income in the amount of the mortgage debt that has been cancelled. You see, if you borrow money from someone, then they cancel the debt, that money you originally borrowed becomes income in the eyes of the IRS - and income is, as you know, taxable.
0. Utility statements for home office. For the average everyday homeowner who works at their employer’s place of business, utilities are not deductible (sorry!). But if there is a part of your home that is “regularly and exclusively” used for business, you might be able to claim that portion of your home as a home office, and deduct some portion of your home utilities and costs of painting and repairs, as a result.Talk with your tax provider about what expenses are allowable to be claimed under your home office deduction, and whether or not you should take it.
0. Income and Expense statements from rental properties. Some of you have elevated the art of home ownership to a business! If you are a landlord, your tax situation is more complicated than that of the average bear; you’ll need to have complete income and expense statements when you put your tax returns together. It might actually behoove you to consult with a tax professional to make sure you are appropriately depreciating the property over time and not taking deductions that will expose you to the risk of audits, as well as to begin cultivating a long-term tax strategy for your real estate portfolio.
0. Contractor receipts from energy efficient home improvements. Under the Nonbusiness Energy Tax Credit, homeowners who have made improvements to their homes that fall within a list of energy efficient upgrades might be eligible to claim tax credits. If, during 2011, you installed energy efficient improvements such as insulation, new dual-paned windows and furnaces, you might be eligible for a tax credit of 10 percent of the cost of these upgrades, up to $500 - only $200 of which may be used to offset the cost of windows.
0. Mortgage Credit Certificate (MCC). If you own a home you bought in the last few years using a Mortgage Credit Certificate issued by a local
6 housing authority, that Certificate may entitle you to a pretty hefty tax credit, based on a percentage of the mortgage interest you paid - on top of your mortgage interest deduction. MCCs apply as long as you live in the home and have a mortgage on it, but they only apply to defray taxes you actually owe - you can’t use them to get a refund. In any event, your mortgage credit certificate, if you have one, is a must-have document as you start putting your tax prep plan in play.
No matter what your tax situation is, if you own a home, it absolutely cannot hurt to get some professional help and advice to make sure you maximize your deductions, while minimizing your exposure to audit. And you should always consult with a tax attorney or certified public accountant regarding your tax liabilities and implications when you buy, sell, short sell or lose a home to foreclosure.
QUESTION: What is your tax liability When You Sell Your Home at a Loss?
You can only claim a tax loss on investment property. A loss on a personal residence is considered to be a nondeductible personal expense for federal income tax purposes.
If you're fortunate, the lender could decide to forgive some or all of the unpaid mortgage in a short sale,
But what happens tax-wise if the mortgage lender forecloses? Here is the general rule. Say your property is foreclosed (or transferred to the lender via a deed in lieu of foreclosure). When the mortgage debt exceeds the property's fair market value (FMV), the transaction is treated as a sale for a price equal to FMV. Naturally, the sale will trigger a tax gain if the FMV exceeds your tax basis in the home.
The important thing to understand here is that a real estate short sale or foreclosure can potentially result in a taxable gain and/or taxable DDI. That's the bad news. The good news is that you can probably exclude the gain from taxation, and you might be able to exclude some or all of the DDI too.
7 http://www.smartmoney.com/taxes/income/taxes-when-you-sell- your-home-at-a-loss-21058/#printMode
QUESTION: Do you have to pay real estate taxes on condominiums? If so, how is it calculated?
Also: Can you deduct interest paid for a mortgage on a co-op?
Why a condo? There are lots of reasons that a condo might be a better fit than an apartment or single home, and money is surely one of them. According to The Real Estate Journal, condo prices tend to appreciate at a slower rate than single-family dwellings, making them a more affordable choice in markets where prices are on the rise. And, compared to renting an apartment, because you actually own your condo, you can take advantage of tax deductions such as the interest on your mortgage. (To learn more, read The Mortgage Interest Tax Deduction.)
Conversely, it's important to remember that the purchase price isn't the only thing to consider when you're buying a condo. Most co-ops and condos have monthly fees for upkeep of the common property (these can be costly) and, unlike renting an apartment, you'll have to pay property taxes, too. (To learn more, readFive Tricks For Lowering Your Property Tax.)
Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/07/buy-condo.asp#ixzz1qPy5gYt1
IS THERE A TAX ABATEMENT PROGRAM?
In New York there is a tax abatement program. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/property/ property_tax_reduc_coop_condo.shtml
