Kelly Clarkson to entertain at Nashville Convention

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Our Company provided transaction management system is up and running. Sign up at Dotloop.com and when prompted for your area code use 78232. Choose our Company name from the list and you are one step closer to a better way to do real estate. Dotloop has all of the form, including our company forms, and has digital signing capability.

Big Week for Helen Griffith

Big week for our new agent Helen Griffith. She got her first transaction into escrow and watched her son Ryan play in the Texas High School Coaches Association's All-Star Football Game. Ryan graduated this year from Smithson Valley High. Congratulations Helen!

Golf Tourney

The annual Prudential Don Johnson golf tournament took place at River Crossing Golf Club in beautiful Spring Branch. The winners trophy moved to our Canyon Lake Office after several years in New Braunfels. Here is Bernie's miraculous closest to the hole shot. Thanks to Dianne, our gracious host.

Bernie's Birthday

Thanks again to everyone for the special surprise birthday lunch at Los Barrios. I was truly surprised! Great job. It was great to see everyone there and special thanks to all the organizers. You guys are all great. Thanks again!

More Pics from Canyon Lake Chamber BBQ

Canyon Lake Chamber BBQ

Canyon Lake BBQ Info

Everyone is invited. PDJC has entered in the cookoff and our theme is the Dukes of Hazzard. Friday we will have a party with food and beer. I will be doing a seafood boil and there will be chicken kabobs....mmmmmmm good! Saturday is the cook-off and the show begins. Bernie is Boss Hawg. Joe is Sheriff Rosco P. Orosco. Brad and Brian are the Duke brothers. We have a special Daisy Duke courtesy of Dionne. Ryan is the Sheriff's deputy and Jack Feise is Uncle Jesse. Get your pictures taken with the General Robert E Lee (well at least our version)...enjoy the skit and we will be giving Jet Ski rides to our friends. We will have crawfish races and photo opps. Here are two maps.

We are on space 17 on the map.

Guadalupe River Front Tour of Homes - Saturday

Bulverde Office Signs

San Antonio added to Improving Markets Index

TWO TEXAS CITIES ADDED TO IMPROVING MARKETS INDEX

WASHINGTON (National Association of Home Builders) – The latest Improving Markets Index (IMI), released last week by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), shows significant improvement in 99 housing markets in the United States.

The index, which identifies metropolitan areas with at least six consecutive months of improvements in housing permits, home prices and employment, now has 12 Texas cities, including newcomers Austin and San Antonio.

Other Texas cities making the list are Amarillo, College Station, Dallas, Laredo, Longview, McAllen, Midland, Odessa, Tyler and Victoria.

NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe believes the improvements are significant.
“The bottom line is that roughly one quarter of all U.S. metropolitan areas are showing signs that their housing markets have turned the corner, which is a very positive development," he said.

The latest IMI is available at the NAHB website.

Bulverde Office

I just wanted to give everyone an update on what is happening with Bulverde. We have authorization for our satellite office in Bulverde and we are under lease. We have around 1100 square feet of space. The copier is in place and we are waiting on internet service and phones. The building and street signage have been ordered and should be in place in the next several weeks. On June 28th, there will be a ribbon cutting ceremony and we will have a big barbeque to celebrate.

The initial plan is not to man the office with permanent staff and to grow the service center to eventually be a regular office. Since I live very close to the new office, Betty and I can assist in keeping the office supplied. It is my plan to spend time in the office several partial mornings each week and afternoons once a week. I may increase my time at the office based on how things develop. With sufficient revenue, our initial goal will be to place a staff person to assist with the clerical needs of the office. Overall management plans will be based on the office growing to the point that the office needs its own dedicated manager and our goal would to be to hire from within based on recruiting ability and management skills.

The office consists of a large entry, which will be divided into a reception area, a conference area, and two large offices. The office on the left will have four desks assigned to full-time multi-million dollar producing agents. The other office will have six desks and will be flex space. Agents will use available desks that will be set-up with computers. Another office in entrance area may be set-up for the mortgage business or additional conference space.

We are currently considering placing an in-house mortgage professional from Hill Country Lending.

Relocation Award!!

Congratulations to our relocation team of agents and our staff, Donna Phillips and Nancy Skovly. At the 2012 Prudential Convention Orlando, Prudential Don Johnson won 2nd place in the North American Performance Award for Relocation Inventory in recognition of outstanding results in direct home selling cosgs, BMA variance, days on markekt and performance improvement. 2nd place among thousands of companies!!! Wow!!!

Pre-Listing Presentation Template on Media Center

Here is a pre-listing presentation I prepared which is shared on the media center. You can easily modify it on the media center.

The following language must be on any CMA or BPO prepared

“THIS IS A BROKER PRICE OPINION OR COMPARATIVE MARKET ANALYSIS AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AN APPRAISAL. In making any decision that relies upon my work, you should know that I have not followed the guidelines for development of an appraisal or analysis contained in the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice of the Appraisal Foundation."

Lock Box Exchange

I know everyone has been told repeatedly, but today (September 28) is the deadline for exchanging and returning the grey lockboxes.

Each office has a list of the lockboxes on their listings and based on that list we collected the new blue lockboxes. SABOR has a strict deadline for the return of all the grey lockboxes. Anything not returned will be charged to me at $75 plus tax.

All lockboxes not received in our office by close of business today must be charged to the agents who have not returned the boxes because if they are not returned, they are charged to my credit card.

Canyon Lake Freedom Walk on 9/11 Slideshow

Click Here for slideshow

All Sellers Disclosures Must be Updated

On September 1st, the a new sellers disclosure went into effect. After a call into the TAR legal hotline, the word is that unless you were under contract prior to September 1st, all listed properties should have the revised sellers disclosure. Here is a report from TAR.

Explanation of Sept. 1, 2011, changes to TAR Seller’s
Disclosure Notice (form 1406)
Through various pieces of legislation, the Texas Legislature made three changes to the
required Seller’s Disclosure Notice. Here are the three additional questions sellers must
answer:
• Whether the property receives liquid propane gas and whether that LP gas is
community (captive) or on property
• Whether the property has a single blockable main drain in pool/hot tub/spa. This
notice must also include a statement that a single blockable main drain may cause
a suction entrapment for an individual
• Whether the property has any rainwater harvesting system connected to the
property’s public water supply that is able to be used for indoor potable purposes
Use of the revised form is mandatory as of Sept. 1, 2011.

Sellers must begin giving the updated notice to buyers Sept. 1; however, you should immediately use the revised notice to avoid having to obtain an updated notice from the seller if the listing does not go under contract before Sept. 1. The updated form is available on TexasRealtors.com and through zipForm.

False Reports on 3.8 Real Estate Transfer Tax

There are incorrect stories being circulated about a real estate transfer tax or sales tax that came about with the new health care law.

The fact is that on certain high income individuals with net investment income an additional 3.8% tax on the net investment income that exceeds $250,000 of adjusted gross income to the extent there may be net investment income.

Since the gain on the sale of a home for a married couple must exceed $500,000 before any becomes "net investment income" and is taxable - only to the extent that the gain on the sale of a home exceeds the $500,000 and pushes your family adjusted gross income over $250,000 would the tax be imposed.

For single individuals, the income level is $200,000 and the gain on the sale of a home non-taxable limit is $250,000.

If you did have a taxable gain on the sale of a home it would be a capital gain and taxed at substantially lower rate than earned income anyway.

As you can see, the rumors about a transfer tax which, which most people look at as a sales tax are incorrect. A correct example of a transfer tax would be if you sold your car. In that case, the entire proceeds on the sale of a car are subject to a sales tax - not just the profits.

Here is an example of the law as I understand it. Assume a couple makes $200,000 a year of adjusted gross income which includes $20,000 of dividends, interest, and net capital gains. However, they sell their home for a million dollars. They bought the home for $300,000 twenty years earlier and spent $50,000 on putting in a new pool and spent $20,000 for a new roof and another $20,000 for a new A/C system and other landscaping and capital repairs. So their basis in the home is $390,000. When they sold their home they paid $60,000 commission and another $20,000 of closing costs. So, their net proceeds from the sale was ($1,000,000 minus $60,000 minus $20,000) $920,000. Consequently their gain on the sale is ($920,000 minus $380,000)$530,000. Since their gain is $30,000 more than the tax free $500,000 gain for the sale of their home - that amount would be added into net investment income.

In our couples case, their adjusted gross commission income was $200,000 and if you add in the $30,000 of net investment income from the home sale - they still do not exceed the $250,000 threshold over which net investment income becomes taxable at 3.8percent. So,there would be no tax.

A true transfer tax is a sales tax. Gain has nothing to do with it. This is not a transfer tax.