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ROSWELL CHRISTMAS CONCERT Benefiting Children Around The World

Your Roswell Realtor is Proud to Share this Important Information with YOU!

Presbyterian Church, 755 Mimosa Blvd, Roswell GA, in their gorgeous 1,000 seat sanctuary. Concert begins at 7:30, and seating begins at 7:00. 100% of ticket proceeds benefit four different programs that focus on disadvantaged children, one in our city, one in our state, one national, and one international !!! Tickets are $10, and can be purchased in advance (770-993-6316) or at the door. The perfect music to get you in the Christmas spirit !!!

Call or Email me today for all of your Real Estate needs! Jodi Smith, East Cobb Realtor with Keller Williams Realty Consultants.  Helping you find Homes in East Cobb, Homes in Marietta, Homes in Roswell and Homes in Alpharetta.  CELL:  678-763-6025 or EMAIL: jodismith@kw.com

Improving Your FICO® Credit Score

Your East Cobb Realtor would like to share this important information with YOU!

Improving your FICO® credit score

It’s important to note that raising your FICO credit score is a bit like losing weight: It takes time and there is no quick fix. In fact, quick-fix efforts can backfire. The best advice is to manage credit responsibly over time. See how much money you can save by just following these tips and raising your credit score.

Payment History Tips

• Pay your bills on time.
  Delinquent payments and collections can have a major negative impact on your FICO score.
• If you have missed payments, get current and stay current.
  The longer you pay your bills on time, the better your credit score.
• Be aware that paying off a collection account will not remove it from your credit report.
  It will stay on your report for seven years.
• If you are having trouble making ends meet, contact your creditors or see a legitimate credit counselor.
  This won’t improve your credit score immediately, but if you can begin to manage your credit and pay on time, your score will get better over time.

Amounts Owed Tips

• Keep balances low on credit cards and other “revolving credit”.
  High outstanding debt can affect a credit score.
• Pay off debt rather than moving it around.
  The most effective way to improve your credit score in this area is by paying down your revolving credit. In fact, owing the same amount but having fewer open accounts may lower your score.
• Don’t close unused credit cards as a short-term strategy to raise your score.
• Don’t open a number of new credit cards that you don’t need, just to increase your available credit.
  This approach could backfire and actually lower your credit score.

Length of Credit History Tips

• If you have been managing credit for a short time, don’t open a lot of new accounts too rapidly.
  New accounts will lower your average account age, which will have a larger effect on your score if you don’t have a lot of other credit information. Also, rapid account buildup can look risky if you are a new credit user.

New Credit Tips

• Do your rate shopping for a given loan within a focused period of time.
  FICO scores distinguish between a search for a single loan and a search for many new credit lines, in part by the length of time over which inquiries occur.
• Re-establish your credit history if you have had problems.
  Opening new accounts responsibly and paying them off on time will raise your credit score in the long term.
• Note that it’s OK to request and check your own credit report.
  This won’t affect your score, as long as you order your credit report directly from the credit reporting agency or through an organization authorized to provide credit reports to consumers.

Types of Credit Use Tips

• Apply for and open new credit accounts only as needed.
  Don’t open accounts just to have a better credit mix – it probably won’t raise your credit score.
• Have credit cards – but manage them responsibly.
  In general, having credit cards and installment loans (and paying timely payments) will raise your credit score. Someone with no credit cards, for example, tends to be higher risk than someone who has managed credit cards responsibly.
• Note that closing an account doesn’t make it go away.
  A closed account will still show up on your credit report, and may be considered by the score.

Provided by Bank of America Senior Home Loan Consultants:

Kathy Vitali and Bragg Boyd

Call or Email me today for all of your Real Estate needs! Jodi Smith, East Cobb Realtor with Keller Williams Realty Consultants.  Helping you find Homes in East Cobb, Homes in Marietta, Homes in Roswell and Homes in Alpharetta.  CELL:  678-763-6025 or EMAIL: jodismith@kw.com

Georgia High School Writing Test Scores Show COBB STUDENTS TOP State

Your East Cobb Realtor would like to share this important information with YOU!

Ninety-four percent of Cobb County 11th graders met or exceeded standards on the 2009 Georgia High School Writing Test. Cobb students’ average scale score of 224 remains higher than average scale scores for metropolitan Atlanta and Georgia. The scale used to measure achievement ranges from 100 to 350, with a score of 200 as “meets expectations,” and 250 as “exceeds expectations.” Administered in September to 7,496 students, the writing test requires students to write a persuasive paper on an assigned topic in a limited time window. The assessment is the part of the Georgia High School Graduation Test, a requirement for all students pursuing a high school diploma.

Cobb’s population of Students with Disabilities (SWD) and English Language Learners (ELL) also performed well on the writing test. The percentage of Cobb’s Students with Disabilities meeting or exceeding expectations was 75 percent, compared to just 62 percent of their peers statewide (see Table III). Sixty-nine percent of ELL students tested in the district met or exceeded expectations, compared to sixty-six percent across the state.

Individual schools across the district fared well on the writing test. At 13 of the district’s 17 high schools, 90 percent or more of the students met or exceeded expectations. Seven schools – Allatoona, Harrison, Hillgrove, Kell, Lassiter, Pope and Walton - led all others with 95 percent or more of students scoring at or above expectations, with Lassiter and Pope students topping the district at 98 percent meeting or exceeding expectations.

The Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) domains, or broad themes, covered by the writing test include Ideas, Organization, Style, and Convention. The Ideas domain measures the degree to which the writer establishes a controlling idea and elaborates the main points with examples, illustrations, facts or details. In the Organization domain, students are assessed on their ability to arrange ideas in a clear order consistent with the persuasive genre. Style points are awarded based on the writer’s ability to control language and engage the reader. The Conventions domain measures the degree to which the writer demonstrates control of sentence formation, usage, and mechanics. Test scores are ranked on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is the lowest and 5 is the highest. In each domain, Cobb 11th graders scored higher than their peers across the state. Three of the high schools across the district had domain scores that were consistently higher than averages for both the district, metro area and state.

Superintendent Fred Sanderson said, “Writing is an essential skill for high school and beyond. We are pleased that these scores reflect the competitive ability of our students, especially for our special populations.”

In March 2010, Cobb 11th graders will be assessed on the language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science portions of the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT).

For more information, click here.

Call or Email me today for all of your Real Estate needs! Jodi Smith, East Cobb Realtor with Keller Williams Realty Consultants.  Helping you find Homes in East Cobb, Homes in Marietta, Homes in Roswell and Homes in Alpharetta.  CELL:  678-763-6025 or EMAIL: jodismith@kw.com

Obama Signs Home Buyer Tax Credit

President Barack Obama, this morning, signed legislation that extends a first time home buyer tax credit and extends a smaller tax credit to move-up and other buyers.

The extension and expansion of the popular home buyers tax credit gives both new and move-up buyers a tax incentive to buy a home until at least April 30, 2010, longer for military personnel.

The new law extends the existing credit for first-time homebuyers, worth up to $8,000, through April 30, 2010.

A new credit of up to $6,500 is available to qualifying existing homeowners who buy a new primary residence (or have one built) by April 30, 2010, if they owned their existing home for five consecutive years over the last eight years.  Second homes don’t qualify.

Home buyers have to repay the credit if they live in their primary residence less than 36 months and are not members of the military.

The new rule also raises the qualifying income limits to $125,000 for single taxpayers and $225,000 for joint taxpayers, from the current $75,000 and $150,000.

The maximum allowed home purchase price is $800,000.

Both first-time home buyers and others must close escrow by June 30, 2010.

Military personnel, deployed overseas for a minimum of 90 days in 2008 or 2009, would have until April 30, 2011 to claim the tax credit.

Buyers can claim the credit on their 2009 taxes, even if the purchase is made in 2010 by filing an amended return. Buyers who don’t owe taxes can have the credit refunded to them.

More information is available from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), including a question and answer page.

That’s all good news for the housing market.

The National Association of Realtors says as many as 400,000 resale transactions (1.2 million for both new and resale homes) were completed specifically because of the first-time home buyer tax credit, since it began, and that put a dent in the housing inventory.

Home sales also add property and sales tax revenues to the coffers of local governments as reduced inventory helps boost prices and home values.

Fortunately, the tax credit also has been available at a time when often have been below 5 percent.

Fortunately, the first-time home buyer tax credit’s availability has coincided with mortgage rates often hanging below 5 percent, according to Jeff Howard, CEO of Erate.com.

As the Nov. 30 tax credit deadline neared, reports from the Commerce Department, revealed new home sales slipped 3.6 percent in September and were down 7.8 percent from September 2008.

Tax credit history

As part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, Congress first created a $7,500 first-time home buyer tax credit for those who purchased a home between April 8, 2008, and July 1, 2009.

Later, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Congress extended the credit and raised it to an $8,000 tax credit for those who purchased homes by the current Nov. 30, 2009 expiration date.

By October 9, 2009, more than 1.2 million tax returns had claimed about $8.5 billion in the refundable tax credit, for both new and resale homes – according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

A TIGTA audit also revealed last month that nearly 90,000 taxpayers — including nearly 600 children — may have fraudulently enjoyed the credit, hoodwinking the government out of more than $600 million.

The new legislation includes provisions to stifle fraud after the Internal Revenue Service identified 167 suspected criminal schemes and opened nearly 107,000 examinations of potential civil violations of the first-time homebuyer tax credit.

Cheating the IRS is a federal felony that comes with a fine of up to $250,000 and three years in a federal pen, or both.

To combat fraud, a HUD-1 Settlement Statement will have to be attached to the tax return to secure the credit.

Source: Broderick Perkins, operates the Silicon Valley-based DeadlineNews Group digital news service. Get the feed from the Deadline Newsroom

Call or Email me today for all of your Real Estate needs! Jodi Smith, East Cobb Realtor with Keller Williams Realty Consultants.  Helping you find Homes in East Cobb, Homes in Marietta, Homes in Roswell and Homes in Alpharetta.  CELL:  678-763-6025 or EMAIL: jodismith@kw.com

It’s a Great Time To Buy!

Motivated sellers, builders offering deep discounts and incentives, historically low mortgage rates, plenty of inventory and fierce competition for qualified borrowers –it’s actually a great time to be buying a house. If your credit score is good, you’re in an even better position to negotiate the loan on the home of your dreams this spring.

Spring has always been a popular time to buy a new home. More people put their homes on the market when the weather is warm, and a wealth of inventory is available. With winter thawing into distant memory, home shoppers are ready for a fresh start in a new house. Buying a home in spring will help new homeowners ensure they move their families during the summer, and not at the beginning or in the middle of the school year.
With plenty of housing opportunities and low interest rates currently available, it pays to ensure you’re in a position of power when you go home shopping this spring. Here are some simple tips for ensuring you’re in the driver’s seat when buying a house:

Know Your Credit Score

You may not be able to control the economy, but your credit score is a financial reality you do have control over. The higher your score, the more likely you are to be able to negotiate lower interest rates when mortgage hunting.

Before you look at a single house, find out what your credit score is. Sites like FreeCreditReport.com give you access to your free credit report — which will show potential lenders your payment history and help them decide if you’re a good or even great credit risk. Through the Web site, you can also get your credit score from Experian, one of the three top credit bureaus lenders turn to when evaluating the credit-worthiness of potential borrowers.

The better your score, the better your chances of scoring a great loan, so take steps to improve your score, such as paying off credit cards quickly, paying bills on time and minimizing your use of revolving credit. Errors can occur and if you find some on your credit report, work directly with the credit bureaus to have them corrected.

Know the Playing Field

Once you’re confident you have a powerful credit score, research the market where you’re interested in buying. In addition to considering the quality of schools, proximity to work, entertainment and amenities a neighborhood has to offer; consider the number of foreclosures in an area and how much home values have dipped in the past year.

Is the neighborhood you’re interested in poised to regain value quickly when the real estate market rebounds? Recovery speed could be an important consideration if you plan to stay in the home only a few years. If you’re in the home for the long haul, you may be less concerned about how quickly home values in the neighborhood will improve.

This spring can be a great time to start fresh in a new home. To ensure you’re well-positioned to take advantage of the great housing deals, visit www.FreeCreditReport.com first to learn about your free credit report.

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