Visit the all new Helenoliveri.com

After months of preparation we have upgraded our entire website with a fresh new look and better functionality. We’ve put a lot of thought and effort into our new website in order to make it more appealing and user friendly to our visitor. Here are just a few of the new features for you to check out on the new www.Helenoliveri.com.

New Search Features

We have a great new search tool that gives you more options to choose from in order to narrow down your search to fit your specific needs. You can use the Basic search on our homepage that gives you the most common search criteria. If you know exactly what you’re looking for, use our Advanced Search that gives you precise control over your home search.

Other New Search options:
Search by Map
Search by MLS Number
Search by Address

Save your Searches and Receive FREE Custom Home Alerts

Another great new feature to our Searches is the ability to save your searches and get Custom Home Alerts for new properties matching your search criteria sent directly to your email. You can also join our VIP’s List and receive our monthly newsletters and be the first to know about upcoming Events and Contests from The Helen Oliveri Team. Create your FREE account today.

New FREE iPhone Application

With the vast improvement of mobile phones over the past few years, more people are looking to search for a new home even when they are away from their computer. For that reason we now have an iPhone Application that lets you search not only our properties but the entire MLS all from your iPhone. Download our new iPhone application and enter 5372 when it asks for the Agent code on your phone.

Coming Soon

Check back soon for our Neighborhood guides that will give you great information and highlights of the neighborhoods we service. We also hope to add more mobile phone support to be able to search for properties anywhere on your mobile phone. We are constantly trying to improve our website and bring new features to our visitors, if there is something you would like to see on our website or if you have any problems using our website please contact us with your feedback and we will try to add it.

Housing and mortgage groups were unusually active last week on Capitol Hill, pushing hard for a better tax credit to spur home purchases.

In coordinated lobbying efforts, homebuilders, Realtors, bankers and mortgage companies focused on the Senate, where final details of a nine hundred billion dollar economic stimulus package were being hammered out all week.

Four trade groups sent a joint letter to the Senate Finance Committee, which has responsibility for all tax-related aspects of the stimulus, applauding the committee’s decision to make the existing seven thousand five hundred dollar tax credit nonrepayable as the House Ways and Means Committee voted to do the prior week.

But the amended credit could be improved even more, the groups said, if the Senate makes several additional changes.

Tops on the list: Extend the eligibility period for using the credit from the current deadline of June thirtieth through the end of December.

“If the stimulus bill is signed sometime in February, as anticipated,“ said the groups, “only about four months will remain for the credit to have a meaningful impact. The spring, summer and early fall months are historically the most active seasons for home purchases. Allowing the credit to expire June thirtieth could undermine” the ability of the credit to stimulate potentially hundreds of thousands of sales this year .

The four trade groups, the National Association of Realtors, the National Association of Homebuilders, the Independent Bankers of America and the Mortgage Bankers Association, asked the Senate to take two more steps: expand eligibility to ALL buyers of homes this year — not simply first time purchasers- and authorize a mechanism whereby the seven thousand five hundred dollar credit could be made available as downpayment cash at settlement.

Eliminating the first time buyer restriction would be a huge change. Under the current tax code and the House Democratic stimulus package, only taxpayers who have not owned a home during the previous three years are eligible for the credit. Opening that up to all purchasers -whether moveup buyers, downsizers or first timers would stimulate sales far more — perhaps half a million additional sales — according to some estimates.

Though the four trade groups joined to push for an improved tax credit, they don’t necessarily agree on all aspects of the plan. For example, the National Association of Homebuilders continues to lobby Congress and the Obama administration for a ten percent credit up to twenty-two thousand dollars available to all 2009 purchasers.

Kenneth R. Harney