Realtors, Home Owners and Tax Payers across the country and here in Wisconsin, have benefited from the donations made by all Realtors across the country. This is a glimpse of some of the good things made possible in 2009 with the use of our National Realtor Association RPAC donations in 2009, as posted by our local Board of Realtors.
Legislation Passed:
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$8000 Home Buyer Tax Credit for primary residence that does not require repayment.
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Banks permanently restricted from entering the real estate business.
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Extended the current limit on property tax increases for municipalities and counties for another two years
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A state budget that included no increase in the general income tax rate; no general sales tax rate hike, no sales tax on commissions.
Legislation Defeated:
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Restriction of the mortgage interest deduction as proposed by President Obama.
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Proposed doubling of the real estate transfer tax that would cost your sellers hundreds of dollars on the sale of their home.
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A proposal to change the definition of "agricultural land" for purposes of use-value assessments to exclude any land that was platted or zoned for residential, commercial or industrial use. This would have greatly increased housing costs to buyers and carrying costs for owners.
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A budget proposal to completely repeal Wisconsin's tax break on capital gains (60%), costing investors $485 million over two years.
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The governor's proposal to force a defendant, who is as little as 1% at fault in a lawsuit, to pay up to 100% of the damages if the other defendants are unable to pay. This would have involved REALTORS® in never-ending lawsuits. ("Joint and Several" provision).
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A $15.2 billion plan to provide a state government run universal healthcare plan, with a 4% employee payroll tax and a 10.5% employer tax.
2 items I am particularly please about are banks being restricted from entering the Realty Business and also stopping a hike in the transfer taxes paid when selling a home.
Are you searching for homes to buy in Viroqua or Vernon County Wisconsin
call Mary Strang therteam.com RE/MAX Hill Country Realty 608-606-2999
About the author:
Mary Strang is the Broker-owner of RE/MAX Hill Country Realty located in Viroqua, WI. Home to Organic farming, a small rural city population of about 4000 and a great place to live! Copyright © 2009 by Mary Strang. All rights reserved... " Legislative REPORT CARD " the blog post was written by Mary Strang is believed accurate but may not be guaranteed.
Time is running out for the new home buyers...
The Interior: As in most houses of the era, built approximately around 1930, the first room one enters is the living room. It is a pleasant surprise; it's much larger, spacious and open than you might expect. Besides the spacious living room, the main floor has 4 good size rooms; a galley style kitchen with room for a dinette set and adjoining the kitchen is a formal dining room both located at the middle of the home. There is a main floor master bedroom and hall bath. The open staircase leads to two good size bedrooms on the second level. Both of these bedrooms have hardwood floors and coved ceilings. At the rear of the home you can take the stairway to the basement or access the one car attached garage. The laundry area is located in the basement. In the past, the basement was partially finished off into a rec-room but is in poor condition and it is in need of a full tear out of the existing partitions. The home is being sold "AS-IS".
The price range went from a low of $52,400 to a high of $285,000. What do you get for the money? At the low end of the price range is a 2-bedroom 1-bath REO in Viroqua, which is a fixer upper 2-story home. The listing remarks say: DON'T MISS OUT ON THE OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE THIS VALUE PRICED 2 BR/1 BATH BUNGALOW IN CENTRAL VIROQUA. BRING YOUR IDEAS & UPDATE THE KITCHEN & BATH. HARDWOODS, FORMAL DR, LARGE YARD, FULL BASEMENT, NATURAL GAS FURNACE & MORE. PROPERTY SOLD ''AS IS'' PRE-APPROVAL LETTER & EARNEST $ REQUIRED W/ OFFER. ALLOW TIME FOR RESPONSE. COMMISSION SUBJECT TO BANK APPROVAL.
Here is one for the anything can happen in Real Estate book. We have a home listed, receive an offer and we are waiting for our sellers to stop by on Friday to present the offer. From the prior phone conversation it sounded likely, that these sellers would be accepting this offer. If nothing else, it was more than likely, a modest counter offer could be the out come; seems like a simple deal.