New Texas Homestead Exemption Requirments

New Texas Homestead Exemption Form and Requirements

 The new Texas Homestead Exemption requirements have changed dramatically for 2012.  The new homestead exemption form can be found here, Texas Homestead Exemption Form.  Pay particular attention to paragraph/section 5.  For prior years homeowners just needed to file the homestead exemption in the year that they first occupied the property on January 1^st of that year to obtain the exemption. 

However, as of the new law, when you turn in your homestead exemption for 2012, all new homesteads purchased in 2011, you’ll have new requirements other than turning in the homestead exemption form. 

From here on out, ALL, homestead applications must provide the homestead application, a copy of the applicant’s driver’s license or state issued personal ID cert with the address on the specific document the same as the property address that you’re applying for the homestead exemption. 

You are also required to provide a copy of your vehicle registration showing the property address indicated on the form.  If you have a PO Box you might want to make sure that both addresses show on the registration so your Homestead application doesn’t get rejected. 

If you don’t own a vehicle you can provide an affidavit attesting to that fact and provide a copy of your utility bill in your name and including the property address on there.

What this means is that sometime before or during your Homestead filing period, Jan. 1 – April 30, 2012, you will have to get the address on your driver’s license and  your vehicle registration card corrected to show your homestead address, and provide a copy of it with your Homestead Exemption Application, otherwise your Homestead application will be rejected and you will not get the benefits afforded you by the reduction of taxable value on your property, the homestead exemption provides.

Also, remember that you will continue to receive homestead exemption forms from outside parties advising you to fill out the form and send it in to them with a check, the requests I’ve seen have ranged from $35-$75, and the respective company will file your homestead exemption for you saving you thousands of dollars on your property taxes.  Although the claim is true, the action is free, these companies are merely trying to get money from you for mailing in the form for you.  Just mail it in your self, it’s free.   

You can obviously view the state website at www.state.tx.us , for more information.

 Don’t wait to get this done; these items are mandatory for your homestead filing.

 If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to call me at 512.426.7638 or you can email me atRgoodwin@AmeriProFunding.com. 

 

The “Stress” of Buying a Home

The current recession that we’re in is enough to stress anyone out.  Add to that the stress and frustration of buying a home (or building a home, we’ll address that in a future post) and you’ve got the recipe for a nervous breakdown.  Why is buying a home stressful?  Is it because you’re trying to find the perfect deal, the best school districts, reducing your commute to work?…. Is it whether you’ll qualify in this, the new mortgage world? 

Obviously these questions along with a million others aid in creating the stress of buying a home.  So how do you reduce that stress?  First you have to come to the realization that most likely you are not in the real estate field and if you are some of this information will not apply to you, but working under the presumption that you’re not in the real estate field you need to find professionals that are in the field to help you.  You may think that you’re great at finding the perfect home but you won’t know some of the nuances of the area that a professional will know.  There is a reason you hire a professional to do their job and that is to aleviate the stress of specific issues in acquiring your new home.

First you need to find a mortgage professional, counselor, consultant, etc.  This is your first step, failure to do this can cause you immeasurable stress and could ultimately cause you to abandon your search for a home.

Your question, you’re in the mortgage field so your going to say your position is the most important in the transaction?  Good point and you’re right, it is the most important.  Why is that?  Well unfortunately it’s not because I have an inflated view of my self worth or self importance, but rather a fact about the concept.  Unless you’re paying cash you have to have money to purchase the home and therefore you need a mortgage, usually provided by a mortgage professional. 

Well I’ll just get a real estate agent and have them drive me around for hours on end and once we find the house we want I’ll call a lender and we’ll get that taken care of.  What if you don’t qualify for the house you find and submit a contract on or you have credit issues that you were unaware of or knew about but failed to realize could hamper your chances to purchase a home.  You’ve now wasted your time and the agents  time because you can’t purchase that home or you can’t afford it and now you and your spouse have to purchase a home that is considerably less than what you want and between the embarrassment of the relization and the anger of not being able to purchase what you want you abandon the search.

You’d be surprised how often that happens.  Okay so what are the steps?

First off you need to get preapproved to purchase a home.  Don’t tell the lender you interview and choose to qualify you for the highest amount possible.  You need to sit down and create a budgeted dollar amount that you’re comfortable in paying each month and stay within that budget.  Then have your mortgage professional provide you with a preapproval for that dollar amount, assuming that you qualify.  A preapproval means that the mortgage professional has pulled your credit report and checked your income and available cash for the downpayment that corresponds with the program that you qualify for.  It’s a little more involved than that but that is the gist of the situation.   There are still lots of options available to prospective homeowners but without a qualified mortgage professional you won’t know what your options are, nor what is best for you.

Once you know your approximate price range  you can sit down with your builder/realtor, and discuss geographic areas, etc.  You don’t want to be looking at houses you can’t afford or designing houses you can’t afford as you’ll be wasting not only your time, technically your money, but also that of your realtor and or builder and you’ll be increasing the probability your stress and frustration levels will be much greater throughout the process.