AOL real estate has a great article with 10 very detailed credit card moves buyers and sellers should consider making in 2010. This is especially timely because lending guidelines are tightening (again) and the new Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD) takes effect on February 22, 2010.

There are a number of provisions in the CARD Act with significant implications and action points for homebuyers and sellers (most of the latter of which will also be homebuyers soon). One, in particular, is to request credit limit increases – if you qualify for them and need a boost to your FICO score – before the act takes place. Afterwards, the CARD Act will make it harder to obtain an increase.

If you’re applying for a mortgage soon, you might also want to use any accounts you have that have been inactive. Credit card companies are highly likely to close those accounts, in this marketplace, which reduces your debt-to-available credit ratio – a major component of your FICO score. I know this seems like a penalty for being responsible, and it is to some extent, but fair or not, it makes sense to avoid inactive accounts being closed by simply using them and paying the balance off ASAP.

Homebuyers wanting to jump into the dawning Era of Conspicuous Frugality might want to look at the free spending and credit management tools referenced in the article.

Check it out! Get the article, here.

lending guidelines are tightening (again) and the new Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD) takes effect on February 22, 2010.

Over the past month or so, the most frequently asked questions I’ve received from readers have had to do with when it makes sense to abandon their home and “walk away” from their mortgages.

I have watched and worked closely with a number of smart women homeowners as they grapple with their priorities and the financial, credit, ethical and emotional implications of leaving – or staying. I’ve also been up hundreds of thousands of dollars, and I’ve been underwater hundreds of thousands of dollars on my own homes.

So, better than most experts, I know firsthand – there is no black-and-white, wrong or right answer that applies to everyone.

To help you process and consider the whole-life implications of walking away from a home, I’ve put together a 13-page white paper called REThinking the Walk Away.

This white paper drills down into:

• what ‘walking away’ actually means (and doesn’t mean),
• the pros and cons of walking away,
• alternatives to walking away,
• the implications of walking away and, finally,
• the decision points that every smart homeowner must take into account when deciding whether or not to walk away from their mortgage.

Click here to download.

It’s no longer news that the real estate market has been ailing recently. I try to get away from making general statements about the market being ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ because in real estate, what’s bad for sellers is usually good for buyers, and vice versa. In that way, real estate is not like the stock market, which tends to be ‘bad’ for almost everyone at the same time.

While this recent housing crisis has created some favorable conditions for buyers – namely low prices, low interest rates, abundant inventory and superior bargaining power vis-a-vis sellers, it has been tough for buyers in other ways. Tight lending guidelines, deal-complicating appraisal and disclosure laws and a strong seller preference for all-cash offers have caused buyers to have to work much harder to get into the market than at any other time in recent history.

So, this Real Estate Remedies category is a catch-all. This is where you’ll find all of my fixes, rethinks and off-the-grid solutions to problems created by this uniquely crazy (and crazy-making) real estate market.

If you don’t see your particular *issue* here, ask me your question and I’ll try to answer it in a future column or webinar or post, or contact me for a one-on-one and get my personalized attention and custom solutions to your dilemma.

Download Tax Credit Comparison Chart from the National Association of Realtors©

Home Buyer Tax Credit FAQ from the National Association of Realtors©

Download from the IRS Important Facts: Extended Home Buyer Tax Credit

Download from the IRS Extended Home Buyer Tax Credit Information

Download from the IRS Tax Credit Form (5405)

Like any life-changing move you make, buying, selling or financing a home has its share of drama. But don’t sweat it! Tara and REThink Real Estate have teamed up with our partners over at HGTV’s FrontDoor.com to offer tips, advice and inspiration to take the fear and stress out of any real estate *situation*.

Note from Tara:

Here are two Drama-Free Real Estate articles for the oft-neglected Smart Owners just looking for some guidance to help them be wise stewards of the homes they already own.

Don’t Freak Out If: You Can’t Afford to Pay Your Mortgage or You’re Upside Down on Your Home

Foreclosure-Proof Your Home: Before or After You Buy It!

For the rest of my insider secrets, strategies and mindset management tools for Buying, Selling and Financing your home Drama-Free, visit the entire Drama-Free Real Estate wonderland over at my second home on the web, HGTV’s FrontDoor.com

What do you get the smart woman who already has everything she wants? $8,000 (or $6,500, if one of the things she already has is a house)!

These are the Obama Administration’s gifts to first-time and move-up homebuyers via the Extended 2009-2010 tax credit. This credit, the 3^rd (and likely final) extension of the first-time buyer’s credit originally implemented in 2008 has gotten better with every iteration, and this extension/expansion is no exception.

The 2008 version was a $7500 tax credit for first-time buyers earning under $75K per year, but it was also a loan that had to be repaid. Bleh.

The original 2009 version was an improvement, expanding the amount of the first-time buyer’s credit to $8,000 and, more importantly, removing the repayment requirement, rendering it a true tax credit. If you bought a home and closed escrow between January 1 and November 6, 2009, that’s your credit – click here for a fuller explanation of the credit itself, and here for a complete 2009 First-Time Buyer’s Credit Resource Center.

But the Expanded/Extended 2009-2010 credit trumps all previous versions, in several respects. At its core, it’s still an $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers. However, it also offers:

• An extension of the $8,000 first timer credit through April 30, 2010 (the deadline to get into contract to buy your first home)
• A new, $6,500 credit for current or previous homeowners who buy a new or existing home by April 30, 2010 – so long as their current/previous home was their primary residence for at least 5 of the past 8 years, and
• Expanded income limits – you’re eligible for the whole credit if you make less than $125,000 a year (single buyers) or $225,000 (married couples). You might be eligible for a prorated credit (less than the full $8,000 or $6,500) if your income exceeds these limits, but if you make more than $145,000 (single) or $245,000 (married) – sorry, you’re out of luck (but you have other reasons to be happy, so get over yourself).

We’ve put together an entire 2009-2010 Tax Credit Resource Center, here.

The extended/expanded credit also imposes a new purchase price limit of $800,000 (i.e., you can’t get the credit if the home you’re buying costs more than that). The vast majority of people who fall into the program’s income guidelines aren’t buying homes more pricey than this anyway, so it’s not really a hardship.

Key Timelines & Deadlines.

• This credit doesn’t have to be repaid, so long as you live in your home for at least 3 years.
• To get it, you have to be in contract (meaning, have a purchase agreement signed by both buyer and seller) on or before April 30, 2010, and you must close escrow between November 7, 2009 and June 30, 2010.
• If you bought between January 1 and November 7, 2009, your credit is the 2009 Tax Credit, more here and here.
• If you bought in 2008, your credit is the 2008 Tax Credit, see here.

To collect the credit,you have a couple of options:

• If you close escrow before December 31, 2009, you can claim it on your 2009 tax return.
• If you close escrow after you’ve filed your 2009 tax return, you can file an amended 2009 return, or you can claim it on your 2010 tax return – your choice.
• Whenever you claim it, you need to include documentation of your purchase (like your HUD-1 settlement statement) and Form 5405 with that return.

If you’re just thinking about whether you might be able to qualify for the new tax credit, visit our 2009-2010 Tax Credit Resource Center, here.

Click here to watch Tara give tips on crazy ways to sell your house, with Good Morning America Now’s Juju Chang.

Upside Down. Underwater. Walking away. What sounds like a set of cues for Aquatic Twister are actually the new-age descriptors for an age-old dilemma. The problem of owing more on your home than it is worth certainly isn’t new, but the scope — 1 in 10 American homeowners — is. If dropping property values have added you to the class of underwater homeowners and you need to sell or refinance your home for whatever reason, you might have the makings for a freak-out on your hands, my friend.

I Know the Feeling. And the feeling is trapped. In high finance, they call a property that is eating up funds but can’t be sold for enough to clear the corresponding debt a “toxic asset.” If you’re paying a monthly mortgage on a home you can’t sell for what you owe, it might seem like Wall Street has indeed come to Main Street when the home you once loved so much starts to feel like your own personal toxic asset.

If you want to hold onto your home, the payment on your interest-only ARM is about to double and your efforts at refinancing are going nowhere because you owe more than it’s worth, it’s normal to feel trapped on a path that inevitably ends at foreclosure. Can’t sell, can’t refi, can’t afford the adjusting mortgage — the seeming lack of options can trigger a horrible sense of helplessness and perplexity: what on earth are you supposed to do?

Your Mindset Reset. How do you go from helpless to hopeful if you’re upside down on your home? Put it all in perspective. Your home, as important an asset as it is, is just that — a building. Even if the very worst that can happen to your home (foreclosure) does happen, that is certainly not the worst thing that could ever happen to you. Real estate matters are not life or death, and putting them in their proper perspective can be the cure for those heart-pounding, flush-inducing panic sessions that happen when you hear the house two doors down just closed on a short sale for 60 percent of what you paid for yours.

And don’t be a lemming. Were you actually planning to sell your home before market values tanked, I mean, declined? I talk to would-be sellers everyday with 30-year fixed rate mortgages they can well afford, stable jobs and homes they had planned to live in until they were carried out feet first. The claustrophobia of feeling trapped in a home can cause you to panic and decide to sell, but if you weren’t planning to and don’t need to, don’t decide to just because of the market.

Shift your mindset. It is actually okay to own a home that has declined in value and just keep on owning it, especially if it works for your family and has the potential to appreciate again when the market recovers. In fact, think like a daytrader (on this one point only!) — selling when you don’t need to at the bottom of the market locks in your losses. And that’s bad.

If you really need to sell or refinance, being upside down is a values check — what’s really important to you? There are solutions to help you get out of your home or your loan, but some of them might have less-than-lovely implications for your credit or other downsides. Instead of viewing your situation as a tragedy, it might be the nudge you needed to get out of your comfort zone and make some hard priority choices — choices that could have major upsides for your life over the long term, if you face them head on.

Your Drama-Free Real Estate Rx. You get to choose how you experience this unfortunate upside-downness: call to tears or call to action? If you choose action, be on the lookout for workarounds and for lessons. You can chalk your lost equity up as tuition if you find the lessons in the situation, like ways you will approach your mortgage decisions differently in the future. And when it comes to workarounds, there are dozens of potential solutions out there for upside down homeowners, ranging from short sales to creative sale structures to loan modifications and refinances under the stimulus plan.

Talk with your Realtor to see if you might be able to unload your home, despite the deficit, and check MakingHomeAffordable.com or a local loan modification attorney to see if you might be able to fix your broken ARM before it adjusts. Then take action or calculated inaction (i.e. staying put and sitting still), whichever makes you feel right side up, even if your home’s value is upside down.

Download FAQs on 2009 First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit from National Association of Realtors®

Download 2009 First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit Reference Guide from National Association of Realtors®

IRS Page on 2009 First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit

IRS Page on 2008 First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit

IRS Form 5405 (use it to claim your Tax Credit)

Download Chart Detailing Differences between 2008 & 2009 First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credits

Download Fact Sheet on using your First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit upfront toward down payment and/or closing costs

Link to state Housing Finance Agencies offering bridge loans so buyers can use their First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit upfront toward down payment and/or closing costs