The Minneapolis Duplex Tax Credit Race Is On

I keep wondering when people will notice summer’s almost over.

OK, so it’s not exactly over. But we’re a week a week and change away from the first day of August. Summer might as well be over then, as it’s when we all start thinking “time to get ready to go back to…”.

Summer’s end promises the onset of fall. And fall means the end of the $8000 first time home buyer tax credit.

Yes, the credit expires on November 30, 2009. But that doesn’t mean you have to have picked out a duplex by then. It means you actually have to have closed on it. In other words, the key and the mortgage need to be yours.

Sounds easy enough, right?

Well, there’s the fact that it usually takes anywhere from two weeks to a month for the bank to give you the mortgage you applied for to buy the place.

No worries. That means you have to have found your first home by November 1, right?

Guess again.

Anyone who’s been out looking at properties that fit the first time home or duplex buyer criteria can tell you this: anything decent is selling in multiple offers within hours of hitting the market.

And as we get close to the deadline expiring it only promises to get worse.

Not to mention the fact that lenders are going to be swamped by loan applications.

For the sake of argument, let’s say that adds 15 days to the loan process. Now we’re looking at having to have negotiated a successful purchase agreement by October 15.

But wait. Negotiations and inspections can take days or as much as a week.

Now we’re looking at October 1.

And since it takes most of the first time home buyers I’ve ever worked with more than a day to two to find a property that fits all of their needs, we’re now looking at a deadline some time in September.

Know any other procrastinators? Yeah, me too.

If you’re thinking of taking advantage of the $8000 first time home buyer tax credit, get in touch with me soon. We’re about to enter the home stretch.