Archive for March, 2008

The ABCs of Real Estate Taxes

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008
Many people think about buying and selling property without thinking about real estate taxes. Before you buy property you should be sure that you look into the taxes. Depending on where you live, your taxes may be very low, very high, or somewhere in the middle. Every homeowner will pay different amounts of real estate taxes because they are based on the actual value of your home.When you buy property you can expect to pay property taxes, you may pay taxes for the development that you live in, and you will probably pay school taxes. All of these taxes can range from a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars each year based on the percentage of tax that you pay on the value of your home as well as on the worth of your home. For instance, you are going to pay more tax if you have a million dollar home when you live in the same area as someone who has a home that is worth $115,000 home. When you buy property you have to consider taxes as they will affect whether or not you can afford any given home.

If you want to sell property you need to take into consideration who will be able to afford the taxes. Many individuals that are selling their homes have to reduce the actual price of the home to accommodate for the fact that the real estate taxes in their area are so high. This is a drawback of living in an area where property taxes are very high. It can be hard to sell house when a seller wants to get top dollar for their home when they live in a high tax area, and generally the homeowner will have to drop the price or wait for the right buyer to come along, and in a buyer’s market this can take quite awhile!

If you are thinking of buying a house and you are afraid of how you will afford your real estate taxes each year, you should consider that your taxes can be paid out all year long. Most home buyers choose to have money put into an escrow all year long so that they don’t have to come up with a lump sum of money at the end of the year. Instead a dollar amount is added to your mortgage payment each month and that money is set aside in the escrow account. This money is then saved until tax time and the escrow management company pays out the taxes when the time comes, making it more affordable for you to pay your taxes and afford your home.

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Art Investment Funds

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Those interested in investing may consider art only investment funds. These funds deal with canvas art and are motivated by the high selling prices for some pieces of art. For example, Monet paintings can sell for millions of dollars. So can Klimt paintings. And, Picasso’s “Boy with a Pipe” painting recently sold for over one hundred million dollars.  With numbers this high the art investment funds look like a pretty safe bet and a lot less stale than other funds.  These funds are only a couple years old although similar funds were started practically a hundred years ago in France. They were pretty successful so commerce finally caught up with the idea again and implemented it. It really is quite interesting and it allows those middle class individuals with an interest in art to actually invest in it, where before art was reserved more for the wealthy who had money to spare. Anyone who is interested in investing in a fund but would like something that is a little more interesting than a warehouse store or restaurant should consider art investment funds. They are sound investments and more fun!

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