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Classified Ads: 237-200- SUNDAY 0 January 26 New Year M oven ileal im) - -- 4 1 V -- By ?'tr t Mr Homer Mr Bernstein Ms Molgard Andree Brooks As homeowners begin to prepare their 1991 tax returns they should take special note of new rules and forms if they have a home office if they have an annual income of more than $100000 or if they refinanced a mortgage last year Those who operate a business or profession for instance will have to disclose far more when calculating allowable office expenses on a new form being tied to Schedule home-base- Ms Hover Brings New Tax Rules THE NEW YORK TIMES Y Mr Eagar CI 1992 Mr Call F d C The homeowner with an adjusted gross income in excess of $100000 will face a change limiting the value of the deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes And anyone who refinanced a home in 1991 to take advantage of bargain-leve- l interest rates will discover that restrictions apply concerning the tax deductibility of costs associated with the refinancing Henry B Holmes a spokesman for the IRS said the new form for deductions No 8829 is being introduced "because a lot of mistakes were being made" But Paul Edwards of Santa Monica Calif of Working From Home a book series on home offices said the change was made because the number of taxdepayers filing for ductions rose from 6 million in 1980 to 22 million in 1990 Despite the added paperwork I time-honore- V" L4 r j — - f— j Mr Schneggen- - Mr Naccarato Ms Walker la: Ms Davies Ms Mr Carter Trujillo burger Randal Eagar vice president of Eagar & Co has been inagur-ate- d as 1992 president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors Mr Eagar holds Graduate Realtor Institute Certified Residential Specialist and Certified Residential Broker designations and is the author of several national e courses Linda Wolcott an agent with The Ramsy Group is first vice president James B Naccarato founder of Realtors is second vice presi- dent and Miriam McFadden principal broker of First Real r Estate Group is real-estat- Stevens-Naccarat- o screatary-trea-sure- Roberta Hover who has been industry for eight years has joined Veda Barrie Real Estate Paul Homer who has 16 years in real estate including seven years as a member of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors Million Dollar Club has joined the management staff active in the real-estat- e - - J Ms Lund Li American Title Co as a commercial escrow officer and Mark Schneggenburger who has been in real estate since 1978 has joined the residential sales staff of Champman-Richard- s and As- ri v home-offic- sociates New agents at Thayne Realty Inc include Nancy Davies Steve Strudevant Liz Trujillo and Gary Carter Li Mr Gunn James of Wardley Better Homes and B Hilea Walker home-offic- e C Champman-Richard- s and Associates Marsha Rogers Mansell and Assoicates and Anna Grace Bellis Sperry E L Sperry Group Realtors By Ed Van Herik accounted for an estimated $162 billion about 30 percent of mort- LOS ANGELES — Mortgage lenders are beefing up their staffs and working weekends to handle a flood of refinancing requests spawned by the lowest interest rates in nearly two decades In the Los Angeles-are- a city of Pasadena Countrywide Funding Corp is looking for 200 loan professionals — processors underwriters account executives and others with financial industry experience At BankAmerica Corp where a hiring freeze is in place officials are juggling the present staff to handle the crunch "We've transferred people from our consumer loan center and we've hired some temporary workers" said spokesman Tom Chapman The Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington said that the rush to refinance should generate about $400 billion in loans this year about 45 percent of all mortgage lending In 1991 refinancing 1 EJHvS gage loans "The lower interest rates are really having an effect now And while most of the increase in dollar volume can be attributed to refinancing activity we're seeing increases in other parts of the lending market too" said Donald L Cohn Dataquick's chief execu- tive While lending institutions acknowledge being swamped with refinancing requests some say they're reluctant to add employees "We don't know how long the rush is going to last so we're trying to handle it with current staff" said Mary Twigg a spokeswoman for Home Savings of America But she said that current employees are working more hours and they have added a few employees because of the flood of ap- plications At Glendale Federal Bank em ANSWER: Owning rental property is just like owning any other type of business: There's no guarantee of success But with a little you'll minimize the chance that you'll wind up with a "dead-beat- " tenant and maximize the chance that you'll make a tidy profit from your rental activities Have all your prospective tenants fill out a rental application You can usually buy these preprinted forms from stationery stores or business-supploutlets The rental application asks your prospects a lot of personal information ranging from how much they earn each month to how they spend their money Once you have narrowed your list of prospects down to two or three people who you think would be reliable tenants who can make their payments on time turn their applications over to a credit bureau recomrriended e by other landlords leg-wor- dle calls from its 10 branches located there said Ira Cohen a senior vice president If the East Coast office functions well ARCS will consider setting up a West Coast refinancing telemarketing center to handle ing coming calls Cohen said Lenders say their appraisers also are being deluged because of y refinancing activity and many institutions are farming out part of the appraisal work to overloaded independent contractors Michael E Hartman vice president of Western Federal Savings & Loan Association in the Los Angeles-area community of Marina del Rey said appraisals that normally would take two weeks tc complete are now taking four tc six weeks real-estat- ""N Ivory now offers the newest and Home Buyers Warranty to builders It's called "2-- 1 0" Home Buyers Warranty and provides coverage for workmanship and materials for one year — two years for — plumbing electrical and mechanical systems and ten years against structural defects This is in addition to regular manufacturers' warranties The "2-1Home Buyers Warranty becomes effective at the time you close on your new home and remains valid even if the home is sold Chances are you'll never need this kind of backup Ivory has never made a claim against its home L warranty policy But w ith over 30000 components - Mini in a new home you won't want to take any chances So don't leave it to chance Leave your home and worries to Ivory It's just one more reason Ivory Homes is Utah's Number (ke Home Builder percentage of time when the rooms are being used for business in addition tc the area The best way to calculate total square footage say the experts is to measure each room and add the figures Form 8829 will also require detailed reporting of the full amount being spent on mortgage interest taxes insurance repairs and utilities and may not permit certain deductions to be taken simply as a percentage of the whole as in the past Block tant to recommend claiming deductions suggesting they became "red flags" for an audit "But with so many more people doing so it's no longer a home-offic- e problem" Edwards said Moreover he says the new form will make it even less profitable for the IRS to single out these returns because there will be less opportunity for inflated estimates Even renters working at home he said should find some advantages in filling out the new real-estat- require more precisely separating the value attributable to land from the dwelling since land can never be depreciated Grossman recommends getting a written estimate of land value from a agent Having such documentation in your tax records said Grossman would provide confirmation in an audit of a rationale for the figure Finally Form 8829 requires calculations that will make it more difficult to avoid the limit on deductions that apply if certain minimum income levels have not been attained But Block noted that any disqualified deductions can be added onto next year's expenses pre-existi- home-base- e said The form also asks for the calculations used in reaching the figure given for depreciation This will form Form 8829 requires homeowners to gather information they may never have needed before But Julian Block a tax attorney in Larchmont NY and author of The Homeowner's Tax Guide reminded taxpayers that this does not mean rules have changed To take any deductions he said the area or room must still have been used exclusively for business The only exceptions are areas used for storing inventory or if the business is day care In those instances normal household activities like watching TV and dining can also take place in the rooms The new form will ask the taxpayer for precise calculations of the square footage used for busi DEAR MR MYERS: My husband and I recently agreed to buy a new home We'd like to keep the home we currently live in and rent it out but neither of us has ever been a landlord before We have no idea how to go about finding a good tenant How can I find a renter who will pay his bills on time? Mrs AJ Levittown Pa ployees are coming in on Saturday and Sundays to handle the load ARCS Mortgage Co — based in the Los Angeles-are- a city of Cala-basa- s — is setting up a telemarketing office on the East Coast to hanmortgage-refinancin- ness in relation to the square footprovidage of the home Day-car- e ers will have to allocate the real-estat- d e home-offic- e Check Prospective Tenant's Background To Improve Chances for Rental Profits have been awarded Certified Residential Specialist designations by the Residential Sales Council of the Realtors National Marketing Institute and Gregg Gunn Consolidated Realty Group has been designated a member of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors Surge in Refinancing Requests Continues THE NEW YORK TIMES e or Naccarato Realtors Gardens Alan Bernstein formerly of OHK Financial Services has joined Gump & Ayers' Salt Lake City office as a realtor associate and Donna Molgard has joined the firm's Ogden office as a realtor associate In other moves Gregory J Call has joined Maple Hills Realty as an associate realtor along with his assistants Donna and Marge Pozzouli formerly with Caldwell Banker Cindy A Lund formerly of Price Development Co has joined First d Edwards said it is more important than ever to take the deductions since they are now less likely to trigger an audit In the past certain accountants had been reluc- k accept or reject our offer on the spot The sellers declined and haven't made a counteroffer Should we have given them more time? to think things over? Mr RL Schaumburg 111 Je" f David Myers ANSWER: i j— " Yes You wouldn't want to be forced to make an decision to sell your home to somebody else so you can't really expect someone else to do it either About Real -- —I Estate t" agents or firms in your area For a small fee the bureau will check the tenant's credit history and will usually verify his current salary with his employer Also contact each prospect's previous landlord to see how reliable the tenant has been in past rental situations Obviously you can feel a lot more comfortable renting the home out to someone who has a long history of paying his rent on time than you could leasing the place to someone who was constantly late with the rent check and "trashed" the place before moving out property-manageme- nt In most parts of the country it's common practice to give a seller between 24 and 72 hours to weigh a purchase offer before the offer expires Maybe your agent was a little too anxious to collect a sales commissionor maybe the agent thought that giving the sellers an immediate deadline would save time and force them to accept your offer right away Either way the strategy didn't work If you still want the house consider making a new offer that's slightly higher than the bid you originally made And whether you offer to purchase the same house or a different one tell your agent that you'd like to give the seller at least a day to think it over DEAR MR MYERS: We've been looking for a new house for the past two or three months We finally found one we like and made an offer to buy it However our agent insisted that our offer be accepted "upon presentation" — meaning that the sellers had to decide whether to ""Ni Readers can send their letters directly to David Myers at PO Box 2960 Culver Citv CA 90231-296- If Wif"m If I Utah's Number One Home Builder 531-77- 00 - Ivory Homes' Model Home 0" -rf J fV Rancho Estates 1700No800 Wsst Ofem Timpview Estates Southmoore Park Strawberry Place 3700 No- Prove 200 East 1150 East 9800 South Sandy 7S00 South 2800 West West jordan 9 0 jl t i Centers: - t Buttercup Village Bennlon Pines - n-- - ' ' WOTA Sandy ' ?3mi Smith 1400 Fast !"UlrHNt Bennon tJYifi Snh Suncrest Wt Westpointe WKl Smith W10 West Valley 900 N Redwood Rd Sat! Lake City 0 n Model Home Hours: 1- -7 Weekdays 10-- 6 Saturdays 2-- 3 Sundays |
