As a maker of house signs it never ceases to amaze me at how few home owners consider the importance of having a decent house sign on their homes. We are told that first impressions are the most important, well consider this, the first thing a new visitor to your home will probably see will be your house sign.
Take a walk down any street and you will see a remarkable variety of house signs and what I can only describe as non house signs.
I recently wandered through my village taking note of the house signs adorning the various properties. It is a small fairly prosperous place, the houses for the most part reflect this. They are on average well maintained and most have well cared for gardens showing every sign of having reasonably house proud owners.
However, the number of homes with frankly, tatty house signs is astonishing!
I saw house signs made of plywood and written with felt tip, old wooden signs so worn and sad they were unreadable, a house name painted on a concrete building block in a very shaky hand! One cast resin sign had some of its letters missing and one, with the name of a farm written on cardboard! Fully half of the houses in the village have signs that in no way reflects the quality of the properties.
Our village is not unusual. The sad fact is that many home owners just don’t consider a house sign as being important. This is poor thinking for many reasons. Let us for the moment put aside the aesthetic reasons and consider the practical downside.
We are all doing more of our shopping on the internet, these goods have to be delivered, your local postman knows his route and will usually deliver to the right address no matter what the state of the house sign but drivers for private delivery firms and even Parcelforce often spend hours every day trying to find badly signed houses in long roads.
This is not only inconvenient, its harming the environment! The extra fuel burned driving up and down and the hot air generated by all the foul language must be punching great holes in the ozone layer!
Also if ever you have the misfortune to call for one of the emergency services you will be less than pleased if the paramedics can’t find you with the defibrillator, or the burglar escapes before the police can find your house!
The aesthetic reasons are also pretty compelling, you may have spent thousands on improving and decorating your home, you have maintained the exterior of your property and paid that landscape gardener a small fortune to remodel your estate.
Now look at your house sign, does it really reflect the love and hard work you have put into your home? If not it may be time to consider a new house sign.
You do not have to pay vast fortunes for a suitable house sign.The main thing is to choose a design of the house sign that suits the quality and the style of your home.
There are plenty of sites on the internet selling house signs.Try to focus in on the style or material you would prefer for your house sign and narrow the field by doing a focused search on a search engine.
Browsing these sites and taking the time to choose a house sign that will enhance the selling of your house will be time well spent.
Steve Walker
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/home-owners-and-house-signs-74301.html
#1 by simfox3 on March 2, 2010 - 10:34 am
Dad buying new home and making me owner for tax benefits BUT I need to get house loan?
My father and Uncle are jointly buying a secondary property. Both already have a primary residence, so they want my cousin and I to be joint owners of the house. I’m single and currently not a house owner, last year I paid over $25,000 in taxes so the savings for me could be substantial (also for cousin).
The intent is that my cousin and I will buy the house (but all money coming from parents). Unfortunately, my uncle just informed me that my cousin and I are the ones who need to get the house loan in order for us to claim deductions on next year’s taxes.
I had a few questions on which I would like some input from you guys:
1) Can there be a joint-owner of a primary residential property AND both of us able to deduct mortgage from taxes?
2) Can my cousin and I [primary resident owners] receive tax benefits without SIGNING the house loan. Don’t want my credit score to be hurt because our parents failed to pay.
3) Any other potential problems? Like if I want to buy a car or a house?
#2 by jbridger84 on March 2, 2010 - 3:36 pm
who cares californias gonna be underwater in a few years
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#3 by therainbowseeker on March 2, 2010 - 3:38 pm
only the owner(s) of a property can grant a mortgage interest in a property (receive a loan secured by the property).
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#4 by alleykhad607 on March 2, 2010 - 3:40 pm
talk to a real estate lawyer
before you get in to any deals involving family
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#5 by mcmufin on March 2, 2010 - 3:42 pm
Seek an attorney’s assistance before you do this. In reading your question, the first thing that came to my mind was that this is potentially tax fraud. The second thing that came to my mind was that was a recipe for a family disaster.
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I am a real estate attorney
#6 by bob shark on March 2, 2010 - 3:44 pm
doing shady stuff, usually ends up biting you in the A**.
Is your father and uncle buying this house for your benefit, or are they trying to get an investment house by using you to participate in a fraud?
If It was legal, Joint owners would claim tax benefits as a proportion of their interest in the property and payments.
You can’t get interest deductions without paying interest.
Are you and your cousin, buying this house from uncle and father? Will you make full payments of principal and interest?
Find out what is really going on here, or your can have group family reunions in the slammer.
Don’t P**S off the IRS
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#7 by mld_public on March 2, 2010 - 3:46 pm
Having a home loan, with a house that is not yours (deed not under your name), will not be good in the long run. If your father and uncle are even a couple days late on the payment, you will be the one paying for it.
Also, if you do plan to buy a house in a few years, you will not be qualified for 1st time home buyer benefits. Your credit score will also decrease (30-100 points) because your debt-to-income ratio will change.
Do not sign anything, unless you have your own real estate lawyer present. It will only cost you $600-$800, but will make your life more secure.
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Currently buying in the process of buying my first home.
#8 by Andrew R on March 2, 2010 - 3:48 pm
(1) The joint ownership would be you and your cousin. You and your cousin would be entitled to the tax deductions on the property.
(2)You can not receive tax benefits on property you aren’t buying. If you do not sign the loan then you are not buying. Most people think that they are buying a house when in fact what they are doing is getting a mortgage from a lender that holds the house. It is like buying a car, until the car is totally paid and you receive the pink slip it really is not yours. The car can be repossesed at any time for failure to pay because it belongs to the lender.
(3) If you want to buy your own house later it will appear to everyone that the house your dad and uncle had you buy is yours. You will face the secondary house problem. If you want to buy a car it will look like you are carrying property debt that would be taken into consideration in your ability to take on more debt…same for another house. If you want to use a first time buyer program forget it.
The last thing is that your dad and uncle want to buy this house for themselves and you to qualify for it, hold the mortgage in your name… Are you going to live there? Are you going to pay the morgage payment as rent? If you are paying the mortgage as rent then you probably will be paying more than the going rent rate.Is this house next to the ocean because there is a real fishy odor about so much of this deal.
If has so many ways that spell defraud and guess who would be at fault there.
Your dad and uncle are not buying a house just because they want to have a house collection. They want to make some money off the ownership of this property. They could buy another house some miles away from the vicinity of their primary residence and not pay the secondary house mortgage penalty.
Sorry to come on so strong about this because you are considering helping your family. It seems to you that you could gain love and money (tax return) from this transaction. You also have a feeling that this could turn out to be a bad situation or you wouldn’t be an asker here. You have been asked to be part of a fraud. You have been asked to use your credit and reputation. You family might be upset if you say no but you may earn their respect.
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