So what exactly is this “sustainable” landscaping that everyone is talking about and what can it do for us?  Essentially, sustainable or “green” landscaping is landscaping that considers things like water conservation, the use of all natural resources and the selection of proper plants to beautify a piece of land while still making it work with the surrounding ecosystem.

In the beginning this may sound a tad complex but rest assured – it’s not.  There are countless things that we can try at home on your own.  Keep in mind these three mantras – Conserve, Design and Protect.

Conserve means conserving resources like water and using a composting bin to recycle natural yard waste into organic fertilizer.

Protect means preventing or reducing processes that degrade or pollute the environment and harm regenerative capacity of our ecosystems.

Design means designing your landscaping in harmony with the natural environment, and in a way that it enhances the sustainability features of your home.

For instance, if you are planning on redoing the landscaping in your yard, consider the placement of deciduous and evergreen trees.  If you plant deciduous (the type that has seasonal leaves) on the south and east sides of your home, you’ll be able to get shade during the summer while still keeping the sun’s heat and warmth during the winter, because the leaves will not block the sun light.  Evergreens (the type that always has leaves) that have been planted in the north and the west are particularly wonderful for protecting your home from harsh winds during those colder Bay Area months.

It’s always a great idea to consider the use of recycled materials for your green landscaping project. You’ll find that soil amendments and mulch fall under this category.  With wood becoming more and more expensive and increasingly depleted, we may want to consider making sure we can recycle plastic bender board.  Similarly, we can recycle broken up concrete into great flagstones, and recycled brick for paths and patios.  With a bit of imagination the options to recycle are limitless.

One of the most essential components to sustainable landscaping is of course the water irrigation concerns.  Did you know that most people over-water their lawns by 50%? Imagine the water savings if they all just adjusted their sprinkler systems.  My next door neighbor’s sprinklers are on day and night, spraying all over including our shared fence which is beginning to rot already.  Our cats love watching it though, for them this is pure entertainment.

When deciding what to put in a garden, it’s beneficial to think about how the water will flow and how we can best take advantage of the water that is around. Key things  here is install drip-irrigation and use only drought resistant and native plants.  This will assure that your deep watering needs are kept to a minimum.

Looking for a place to buy some eco friendly plants?  Check out the Santa Clara County  Web Page (http://www.valleywater.org) for more info and nursery locations.  Want to hear something really cool?  The District will give you up to $1000 dollars to take out your lawn and replace it with drought tolerant plants and $1000 to install water conserving irrigation system. According to their website, this rebate expires this June, so don’t snooze on the opportunity.

Another fantastic resource online is the Master Gardeners of Santa Clara website (http://www.mastergardeners.org). It’s jam packed with all sorts of magic tips, wonderful advice, and local events for gardening and sustainable landscaping enthusiasts.

Sustainable landscaping makes financial sense and is truly our way of saying thank you to that earth and soil that have fed so many generations before us.  Happy landscaping.

More on Green Homes:  http://SanJoseGreenHome.com

Rhetorical question, I know.

Edgewood Road — particularly between Alameda de las Pulgas & El Camino Real — boasts some of the coolest, full-of-character, historical, and BIG homes in the neighborhood (big in home size as well as lot size).  Owning a home on this slice of Edgewood Road is akin to reaching that “dee-luxe apartment, in the sky-high-high”.

But in today’s market, where are the buyers for these homes? Sure, they’re out there…somewhere.

The hard statistics to swallow for any home seller relate to how well your home is priced for THAT segment of the market, at THAT moment in time.  I’m not marginalizing at all the value of these high end homes — heck, if I had $3M+, I’d love to live in one of these mansions too.  But then again, a home’s true value is only what a buyer is willing (and able) to pay at that time of the market.

In 2009, in Redwood City, only 1 home sold above the $2.8M mark. It’s interesting to see how this compares with neighboring “high end” areas.

In 2009, here are how many homes sold that were OVER $3M in sale price:

• Woodside:         9 homes sold over $3M
• Portola Valley: 5 homes
• Hillsborough:   31 homes
• Atherton:           33 homes
• Los Altos:           9 homes
• Palo Alto:          14 homes

So as it stands now — looking purely at black and white market stats — we have a 3 year inventory of $3M homes in Edgewood Park.  Yes, there are still buyers willing to buy. They will only respond to properties that are aggressively priced and work with sellers who are flexible as to terms and conditions.  An even bigger surprise this year is that even more of the buyers are all cash buyers.  So, if you are a seller, price your property “to sell.”  If you are a buyer, this is the opportunity to get into the high-end at the price of a lifetime.

In a year in which we’re experiencing continued economic hardships, and since many of those hardships relate directly to home sales and foreclosures, I’m getting far more than usual.

Right out of the blocks, I tell them that I’m not a tax professional and that any questions that they have ought to be directed to their accountants and financial advisors. That said, I like to do all I can to help folks out, so I answer questions where I am able.

One of the most frequent questions I hear — and the one whose answer seems somewhat out of reach — pertains to short sales.

“I sold my house this year, but it was a short sale. Can the IRS or my state tax the forgiven debt?”

The answer is, “Yes. Yes, they can.” A better question is, “Will they?”

With regard to the Federal Government, the answer is “no”. In a move meant to encourage homeowners to work out alternatives to foreclosure, the Federal Government has placed a moratorium on the taxation of forgiven mortgage debt through 2012.

Many states have followed suit, but there are a great many who have not. One of the states in which the question has yet to be answered is California, a state that has been hit harder than most in this period of crisis, and also one whose economic woes far exceed that of any other.

While it may sound unfair, forgiven debt has always been treated as income and, until the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 was enacted, that income could (and would) be taxable.

At the time of this writing, Governor Schwarzenegger had not made a decision with regard to the state collecting taxes on forgiven debts, but in a state that is as cash-starved as California, there is a strong possibility that he’ll have no choice but to do so.

If you sold your home last year and that sale was a short sale, there are heady tax implications attached to it. It is imperative that you consult with your accountant or financial advisor, so that you can adequately prepare to meet the tax man, should he come a’calling.

CUPERTINO, SILICON VALLEY, USA  — Intero Real Estate Services (http://www.interorealestate.com), a leading U.S. real estate brokerage that has recently expanded its brand globally, as a franchisor, through Intero Franchise Services, Inc. and Intero International Franchise Services, LLC, announced today that its brokerage operation – based in California’s Silicon Valley – was profitable in 2009 despite persistent challenges in the housing sector. Intero was founded in 2002 and became one of the fastest growing companies in the history of U.S. real estate.

2009 was a challenging year in real estate. Intero executives attribute the company’s success in this environment to a long-term commitment to innovation that allowed Intero to realize efficiencies other companies were unprepared to leverage, seize opportunities before its competitors and retain productive agents and franchisees.

“Intero sprung from the cradle of innovation here in Silicon Valley, so doing things that are new, pursuing ideas that are different – it’s a spirit that is an integral part of our brand,” said Gino Blefari, Intero’s President and CEO. “While most in our industry remained static in old models which no longer worked, we decided to act – and that action is directly tied to our continued profitability.”

Bob Moles, Intero’s Chairman, added, “Increasing top line revenue growth in 2009 while at the same time growing our bottom line profit in this real estate environment, demonstrates convincingly that the Intero® brand, tools and systems are positioned to perform well even in down markets.”

Blefari offered several examples of initiatives driving Intero’s success, including:

Technology innovation: Intero aggressively pursued the mobile opportunity in 2009, resulting in greater consumer engagement and enhanced productivity for agents and franchisees. The 2009 Intero mobile initiative included a GPS-enabled listings service, a WAP (browser-based) mobile application, and a native iPhone application.

A pioneering new office model: While many real estate organizations continue to discuss a leaner, more attractive office model, the Intero Andare(sm) office concept experienced its third full year of operation. The Intero Andare office concept features a “cafe-style” workspace, a paperless work-flow and a high-tech, stylish appearance that permits brokerage operators to realize efficiencies while presenting a more compelling brand experience to consumers and agents.

An aggressive digital media strategy: Over the past three years Intero shifted 90% of its media spend from print to digital, increasing Web traffic and consumer and agent engagement. In 2009 the company accelerated this effort, launching a network of blogs, expanding its presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and launching a highly successful series of email newsletters.
“The Intero® brand, with its proven formula for rapid growth and sustained profitability, has been received extremely well by entrepreneurs around the world looking for a compelling business opportunity,” said Javier Parraga, President of Intero International Franchise Services, LLC. “Because of the innovative spirit that drives the company, we’ve been able to present a compelling picture that other, more traditional brands cannot.”

Concludes Blefari, “2009 was a difficult year in many ways, but served to validate our vision for a different kind of real estate organization guided by an innovative sensibility that produces results.”

About the Intero® brand

Founded in 2002 Intero Real Estate Services, Inc. has quickly become one of the premier real estate brands in the U.S. Today, the Intero® brand  has over 1,800 agents and 40 company owned and franchise offices covering California, Colorado, Nevada and Texas. The company is private and headquartered in California’s Silicon Valley.

There are some who say that we haven’t seen the worst of it yet (and we sincerely hope that’s not true).

Others have a shinier view, saying that the turnaround has been made and that we’re well on the way back.

I think it’s more prudent to take things more cautiously. To brace myself for setbacks, but to take heart in the great strides the real estate industry has made in the past year. Make no mistake, however, the recovery of this sector isn’t going to be instantaneous, no matter how badly we’d like it to be. The boom market by which we were spoiled lasted the better part of a decade, and it left a great deal of wreckage in its path.

That said, last week, Standard & Poor’s released its quarterly home price numbers. And what they show is encouraging. They show that, while it’s gradual and slow, recovery is, most certainly, taking place. For the seventh consecutive month, there was an improvement in pricing. Granted, this quarter’s increase was just three tenths of a percent, but it’s an increase all the same.

Substantial gains were seen in San Francisco, which saw a five percent gain, in San Diego and Dallas, each of which showed gains of three percent, and gains that were far above average in Washington, DC, Boston and Denver. Even cities that have been hit (and hit very hard) by the sagging real estate market, such as Las Vegas and Phoenix, saw increases, and that’s not something that’s happened for them in a very long time.

Even Warren Buffet, whom we all can agree knows a thing or two about money, seems to feel that we’ll have recovered from this slump by 2011. He said recently that while prices will remain below “bubble” levels, a more normalized market will be return by sometime next year.

We are, by no means, over every hurdle. We are not sprinting toward the finish line. But we are making progress. Slow and steady, to be sure, but progress. I take heart in that. I think that a measured recovery is the key to winning the race and standing on the podium, once and for all.

2009 was a year of transition for the remodeling and real estate. One would have thought that the costs for remodeling projects would have fallen, but that turns out to not be the case, although the rise was smaller than in previous years. On the other side of the coin, even though costs increased slightly, the value added of the projects dropped slightly. Of courses some of the difference could be the result of consumers sticking to projects that are “back to the basics”.

According to the report, for now, it looks like “Bling is not the thing.” The four-year Cost vs. Value trend toward smaller, low-maintenance projects and an emphasis on essentials over extras will likely continue to influence homeowners remodeling plans. Exterior improvements were more common, primarily because exterior improvements contribute to the overall look and feel of a building. In other words, in a market where there are more buyers than sellers “curb appeal is king.”

For the San Francisco Bay Area, improvements that increase a home’s value above the project’s cost included, adding a bedroom in the attic, a new deck, new entry doors, kitchen and bath remodels and window replacement.

The report provides data on a national, regional and local level for easy comparisons.

1. Homeowners Dues – are they too high?  too low?  High dues (in comparison to other similar properties in the area) could reduce your purchasing power and may indicate that the complex is playing “catch up” on deferred maintenance.  Unusually low dues may indicate that the association is under-budgeting for future maintenance and repairs – potentially resulting in a future “special” assessment.
2. HOA Financial Analysis – how are the budget and cash reserves for the Homeowner Association (HOA)?  Are there any special assessments in the recent past or in the near future?
3. HOA Documents – Carefully review the documents governing the Homeowners Association – including the CC&R’s  (Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions) as well as less formal documents like newsletters.  Consider hiring a real estate attorney to review these documents.  Newsletters may indicate potential issues that could become litigation or special assessments in the future.
4. Exterior condition – do you like what the outside of the complex looks like?  If the landscaping, parking lot, or pool looks like a “fixer upper” – it may not be easy to convince your new neighbors to agree and fund the changes.
5. Parking – how’s the parking in the complex – not only for you – but also for your guests?   If guest parking is limited to “street parking” – check out its availability at a peak “at home” times like Sunday evenings.
6. Floor plan – does the layout of the condo work for you?  Unlike a single family home – you won’t be able to “bump out” the dining room 4 feet to make room for Grandma’s china hutch.
7. Who are Your Neighbors? Two vital stats that may affect your ability to get financing are the percentage of owner occupants in the complex as well as the number of units in foreclosure.
8. Size of the Complex – Is the complex too small, too big, or just right?  This is a matter of personal taste.  Very small complexes with only a few units may demand more of your time and money to manage.  Very large complexes may feel impersonal, be more complex to manage, and always seem to have several competing properties on the market (which may affect your future resale).
9. Location, Location, Location – and finally – where is the condo or townhouse located?   Consider both the macro location – where in the Bay Area do you want to live – as well as the specific location of a given complex (commuter route, shopping nearby, schools).
   

For one thing, there are two different credits with which to be concerned: the original First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, and the extended Homebuyer Tax Credit. Each has different rules, each has its own set of quirks and foibles.

First, let’s recap who’s eligible to claim the credits in the first place.

If you purchased a home between January 1, 2009 and November 6, 2009, you may be eligible for the Homebuyer Tax Credit, as it originally stood.

To qualify, you (the buyer) must not have owned a home for three years prior to your purchase. Your new home must be your primary residence, meaning you can’t use it for a vacation home or an investment property — you actually have to live there. The maximum allowable credit is equal to 10% of the purchase price, up to $8,000. Single buyers with incomes up to $75,000 per year or married couples with incomes of up to $150,000 are eligible.

That’s pretty clear. When it comes to the extended tax credit, things are a bit hazier.

If you purchased (or if you intend to purchase) a home between November 7, 2009 and April 30, 2010, you may qualify for the extended Homebuyer Tax Credit.

If you are a first-time homebuyer (meaning that you hadn’t owned home for at least three years prior to your purchase) OR a current homeowner who had lived in a house as a primary residence for five years in a row out of the last eight, you may qualify.

For first-time homebuyers, the maximum allowable credit is $8000. For current homeowners, the maximum credit is $6,500. As with the original credit, the buyer’s eligibility depends on the price of the home (this may not exceed $800,000) and his income. For the extended credit, income levels were increased to $125,000 for single buyers and to $225,000 for married couples. Even if your income exceeds these levels, check with your tax professional to see if you might qualify for a portion of the credit.

As long as there is a contract to purchase in place prior to April 30, 2010, and so long as that transaction is closed before July 1, 2010, buyers can claim the credit on their 2009 income tax returns.

In all cases, buyers will need IRS Form 5405, as well as a fully-executed HUD-1 statement from the property closing.

As always, be sure to consult your tax professional for any questions that you may have on matters such as these. The tax credit won’t be around forever; be sure to take advantage if you’re able!

When it comes to your home, there is plenty of documentation of which you need to keep track when it comes time to file your annual return. For those of you filing “standard” income tax returns, this is all fairly clear and straightforward.

With the current real estate climate, however, there are scores situations, like having lost a home to foreclosure, or staring personal bankruptcy in the face, in which many never thought they’d find themselves. Situations like these can make filing taxes a bit trickier.

There’s one circumstance in particular on which I’d like to focus today:

Short sales.

If you’ve gone through the short sale process (where you can no longer afford the payments on your home, but your lender allows you to sell the home at loss, rather than go through with foreclosure), then you know it’s long, it’s arduous, and it’s one in which things have the potential to be very murky.

When completing the reams and reams of paperwork required by your lender to complete the short sale process, it’s likely that you signed a promissory note, or other like document, granting the lender the right to take action against you to collect the deficient amount. This is pretty standard. It’s possible, though, that you also got a copy of a document with the heading 1099-C, which the lender has filed with the IRS, indicating that the unpaid portion of the loan has been canceled. This is a trigger for the IRS to assess taxes against the forgiven debt.

Wait. What?

“How is that possible?” you might ask. Good question. It doesn’t stand to reason that a lender can pursue you for unpaid debt and that the IRS can assess taxes, as well. Logic would dictate that one or the other is reasonable, but not both.

Keep copies of everything having to do with anything related to the transaction.

If you signed paperwork indicating that the lender can take collection action against you, but you’ve also received a 1099-C for the uncollected debt, you’ll have plenty of documented proof to show the IRS that you don’t owe taxes on that amount. Similarly, if there is nothing in your sale paperwork that gives the bank the right to collect the debt, nor is there any other reference to it, the 1099-C will serve as evidence should the bank, at some point, decide to take action against you.

They can’t have it both ways.

I’m not a tax professional. I’m not certified to give that sort of advice. But I can advise you to seek the counsel of a tax professional, so that negotiating the maze of tax ramifications that come with a short sale is made somewhat easier.

For additional information you can also download IRS Publication 4681 from the IRS website at www.IRS.gov

Besides counting all residents, the 2010 Census population totals also determine which states gain or lose representation in Congress and how more than $400 billion of federal funding is spent each year on infrastructure and services like hospitals, job training centers, schools, senior centers, public works projects, and emergency services. How California will be affected by the 2010 Census will surely be an anticipated result of this survey.

All responses are confidential, by law, and cannot be shared with any other government agency such as the FBI, the IRS, welfare and immigration.

History:
The first census was taken in 1790 to determine the number of seats for each state in the House of Representatives. This census also provided a better understanding of where people lived and helped to establish settlement patterns as the nation grew. In 1902 the Census Bureau was established. Besides gathering population data every 10 years which is constitutionally mandated, the Census Bureau administers more than 200 surveys annually including the Current Population Survey and economic censuses every five years.

For more information on the 2010 Census, log onto www.2010census.gov.