This is a grand example of educated humor.

Part of rebuilding New Orleans caused residents often to be challenged with the task of tracing home titles back potentially hundreds of years.. With a community rich with history stretching back over two centuries, houses have been passed along through generations of family, sometimes making it quite difficult to establish ownership. Here’s a great letter an attorney wrote to the FHA on behalf of a client:

You have to love this lawyer…….

A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client. He was told the loan would be granted if he could prove satisfactory title to a parcel of property being offered as collateral. The title to the property dated back to 1803, which took the lawyer three months to track down. After sending the information to the FHA, he received the following reply.

(Actual reply from FHA):
“Upon review of your letter adjoining your client’s loan application, we note that the request is supported by an Abstract of Title. While we compliment the able manner in which you have prepared and presented the application, we must point out that you have only cleared title to the proposed collateral property back to 1803. Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the title back to its origin.”

Annoyed, the lawyer responded as follows:
(Actual response):
“Your letter regarding title in Case No.189156 has been received. I note that you wish to have title extended further than the 206 years covered by the present application.
I was unaware that any educated person in this country, particularly those working in the property area, would not know that Louisiana was purchased by the United States from France , in 1803 the year of origin identified in our application. For the edification of uninformed FHA bureaucrats, the title to the land prior to U.S. ownership was obtained from France , which had acquired it by Right of Conquest from Spain . The land came into the possession of Spain by Right of Discovery made in the year 1492 by a sea captain named Christopher Columbus, who had been granted the privilege of seeking a new route to India by the Spanish monarch, Queen Isabella.
The good Queen Isabella, being a pious woman and almost as careful about titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the Pope before she sold her jewels to finance Columbus’s expedition…Now the Pope, as I’m sure you may know, is the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God, it is commonly accepted, created this world. Therefore, I believe it is safe to presume that God also made that part of the world called Louisiana . God, therefore, would be the owner of origin and His origins date back to before the beginning of time, the world as we know it, and the FHA. I hope you find God’s original claim to be satisfactory. Now, may we have our loan?”

The loan was immediately approved.

And you want Government running health care?

Just recently we have stumbled upon this great little quiant community located right off of Galm Road across from the large Silver Oaks subdivision that is divided up by Centex Homes and Ryland Homes.  We have a buyer that has just purchased a very gorgeous 1295 sq. ft home in the Pueblo floorplan that is built by Castle Rock Homes.

Castle Rock homes and Wall Homes used to be the two home builders in this gated community, but Wall Homes had about 12 lots left and have since sold them off to D.R. Horton to finish out.  Castle Rock however is still holding very strong and is designing this community to look like a footprint of custom homes with their unique stone and brick heavy elevations that almost seem to make these homes look luxurious and of higher end.  The price ranges start from $139′s base to the higher $199′s.

The floorplans are as followes:

Plan: Pueblo
Square Feet: 1,291
Base Price: $139,990

Plan: Cherokee
Square Feet: 1,420
Base Price: $146,990

Plan: Mohican
Square Feet: 1,582
Base Price: $149,990

Plan: Inca
Square Feet: 1,706
Base Price: $159,990

Plan: Mohawk
Square Feet: 1,803
Base Price: $167,990

Plan: Chippewa
Square Feet: 1,946
Base Price: $171,990

Plan: Navajo
Square Feet: 2,065
Base Price: $177,990

Plan: Mayan
Square Feet: 2,298
Base Price: $182,990

Plan: Seminole
Square Feet: 2,545
Base Price: $187,990

Plan: Dakota
Square Feet: 2,843
Base Price: $199,990

In my opinion, this community looks like it’s laid out just right.  Government Canyon State Park is right next door and is packed with all things to do and the hiking and bike trails are just phenominal whether you’re an avid mountain biker or a casual hiker.  Also, this gated community will have a Community restroom and pavilion center with a nice pool and an athletic field equipped for all types of sports including soccer as the goals are out there currently.

If you would like to know more about this lovely community, I highly suggest that you give me a call or shoot me an e-mail and I’ll be more than happy to get you the latest and greatest as far as what specs are currently available for immeidate move-in and of course what GREAT incentives Castle Rock is currently giving to qualified buyers!

Talk to you soon.

Josh

So I have been with Sprint for several years and my wife for even longer.  We’ve had great customer service from them and been pretty impressed with their signal stress and coverage as it’s been fairly clear where ever we have had to go around San Antonio and of course all the other cities we’ve visited on vacation and business.  With that being said, while the Iphone has been taking the world by storm and little ol’ AT&T has had it exclusively in their grasp, I was very tempted to move over from Sprint for as long as I had been with them just to be one of those “iphone addicts”.  Not so fast…. I couldn’t just abandon Sprint after all the great service and reasonable pricing i’ve received from them, so I looked into the supposed Iphone killer, the Palm Pre.  Well, without going to much into the whole “pre vs. iphone” debate, I’ll get to the reason for my post.

After having purchased my Pre aboout 2 monts ago at the local Best Buy off of Culebra and 1604 located in the booming part of San Antonio mostly known as Alamo Ranch; I had 2 weeks of pure frustration with my pre and was beginning to doubt it’s hailed supremacy over the iphone and started wondering why I actually bought this small hunk of plastic.  The phone would shut off without any reason several times (it actually does take a LONG time to power up which can be frustrating).  Then last Saturday at one of my open houses on our new listing in Crownridge, my phone actually died within 3 hours of use (even though I wasn’t even using it, it was just sitting in my pocket) the back of the phone was extremely hot!  Almost too hot to touch.  HMM??  Then today in the early morning I heard I had a phone call coming in, so I ran to the other room to answer it and suddenly…. the phone just died!  No reaction to anything I tried.  I held the power button down, slide the phone back and forth, even removed the battery from the back in attempts to reset it…  NADA!!

Surprisingly when I plugged the phone back into the charger (of which it was plugged into all night long), a big white question mark within a battery symbol appeared on the face of my palm pre.  After doing some digging on the internet, it was becoming clear that my battery was not communicating with the pre, BUT WHY?

So, without getting much further on my internet search, I decided to jump into my car and shoot over to the Sprint Store at Culebra @1604.  DO NOT EVER GO THERE!!  I repeat.. DO NOT EVER GO TO THIS STORE!  These 2 employees seemed not only clueless, but they could have cared less to help me or point me in the right direction.  Oh wait.. isn’t there a 1 year warranty with Palm for the hardware?  You wouldn’t have known talking to these boneheads.  They just asked me “where did you buy it?” and then told me that if I don’t have insurance on the phone, then they will have to charge me $35 smack-a-roos just to look at the phone and if it does need replacement or repair; that would come out of my pocket… WTF??

Despite the fact that those 2 bozo’s barely helped me at all, they did give me the idea to go to Best Buy.  After speaking with the cell phone agent within Best Buy for 2 minutes, he was already more help than the two people that ACTUALLY WORK FOR SPRINT!!  He told me, don’t even bother going to those stores that aren’t the corporate stores.  I could either go to the one on Bandera and 1604 or Blanco and 1604.  Guess what, when to the actual Sprint corporate store at Bandera & 1604 and within 20 minutes, they had the phone and battery tested; found out I had a very defective battery; replaced it and I was off on my way.

That was my Palm Pre story for the day and now I’m looking forward to actually having my pre last more than 4 hours since I have an actual working battery.

Luxury at it's finest.. and at a bargain!

This amazing 4 bedroom 4.5 bath Sierra home is the kind of luxury home that was ripped right out of the travel channel.  The backyard is nothing but spactular and according the the price and area within 5 square miles, this home represents the BEST BANG for your buck hands down!  Along with the stunning views from everywhere in the house, this Springs at Boerne Stage crown jewel comes at a bargain for any family looking for the perfect private home that includes all the bells and whistles to the corporate executive that is just relocating to our fine city of San Antonio.  No gym membership needed where this home is concerned.

Check it out…

This Sierra Homes Resort Home nestled and tucked away in the neighborhood of The Springs at Boerne Stage boasts gorgeous and spectacular country views.  Entertainment and stress-free living is exactly what this 4 Bedroom, 4.5 Bath mansion exudes.  Take a stroll through the large open floorplan that delivers 2 seperate living areas, a study w/ double french glass doors, a stunning gourmet kitchen that boasts breath taking granite counters and exquisite cabinets only to find every position in the home sets you up to enjoy the spectacular backyard paradise.  The gigantic backyard deck and awning deliver you into a lush, tropical paradise that includes a beach entry luxuriously designed custom pool with adjoining hot tub.  Hold a cool, crisp beverage in your hand and let all your cares stray away as you lie down in the hammock over white warm sand.  If all the relaxation has you energized for some more rigorous activities, jump on out to your own sport court for a 5 on 5 game of basketball.  Why not let the kids play in the sand box and playground area simultaneously so in the evening you can finish out your day soaking it up in the hot tub listening to the calming water falls.  Who ever said you can’t have a 5-star, resort-like vacation in the presence of your own backyard obviously hasn’t owned this jewel.

As he found buried deep on page 690 of the 694 page law an important change to the Capital Gains Exclusion rule that could cost home sellers across the country.  Dan said…

“Under the former Capital Gains Exclusion rule, home sellers could claim $250,000 of home sale profits tax-free ($500,000 if filing jointly) provided they physically lived in the home for 2 of the previous 5 years. Savvy real estate investors exploited this tax rule by moving between residences every two years.

Even “regular” homeowners were coached to stay in their homes for at least 2 years for tax reasons.

Under the new Capital Gains Exclusion rule, however, this sort of tax-minimizing behavior is rendered impractical. The new Capital Gains Exclusion formula is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Instead, it’s a ratio.

In other words, if a home seller occupied a property as a primary residence in 2 of the last 5 year, under the new system, he would be entitled to 40% of his capital gains tax-free versus 100 percent of those gains before the new housing law passed.

The effective date for the new Capital Gains Exclusion rules is January 1, 2009 so homeowners selling in 2008 are exempt. “

Here is the formula:

Here is a sample equation:

You bought a home in January 2004 and paid $500,000.  This has been your primary residence until this year, January 2008, when you bought another property and moved your primary residence.  Say you sell your original property next year, January 2009, for $600,000.  Your capital gains formula:

1460 / 1825 = 0.80 x $100,000 = $80,000 Capital Gains Exclusion

1460(365 days x 4 years) / 1825(365 days x 1 year) = 0.80 x $100,000 ($600,000 – $500,000) = $80,000

Which means you would pay capital gains tax on $20,000.  Capital Gains Tax is currently at 15%, so you would pay $3,000 in new taxes that you would have avoided prior to this new law. *Please note this does not account for the state portion of capital gains,

It may sound like a small number when you profit $100,000 to only pay $4200, but what happens if the new government leaders change the Capital Gains Rate? This rate has been as high as 45.5 percent in the past.  This is not good for future sellers of real estate.