Al D’Amico’s Blog

home retention picture.pngPlease join The Al D’Amico Team and the U.S. Marnie Corps for our annual Toys for Tots Holiday ExtravaganzaWhen:  Wednesday, December 9th at 6pmWhere:  Keller Williams Palos Verdes Realty500 Silver Spur Road, Suite 303Rancho Palos Verdes, CA  90275Please bring a new, unwrapped toyRSVP by December 7th310.544.7511aldamico@kw.com

Al D’Amico and the U.S. Marine Corps request the honor of your presence at the annual Toys for Tots Holiday Party.

Join us Wednesday, December 9th from 6pm-pm at the Keller Williams Palos Verdes office at 500 Silver Spur Road, Suite 303 in Rancho Palos Verdes.

Al started this years ago with 100 toys and last year we collected 900.  You can take a photo with Santa Claus or the U.S. Marines.  It’ll be fun!

*Don’t forget a toy - a $10 unwrapped toy is sufficient*

Please RSVP to 310.544.7511 or to aldamico@kw.com.

If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, the Lobster Festival could be it!

The World’s largest lobster festival is at the Port of Los Angeles and features fresh discount Maine lobster meals and entertainment.  After feasting on the world famous lobster meals, you can enjoy dancing, parades, street performers, a pirate camp, tall ships, shopping and musical performances by some great acts and tribute bands.

Friday, September 18th will feature 4 different performers beginning at 7pm. 

Saturday, September 19th will begin at noon with the 11th Annual Lobsterdog Pet Parade and Pirates of the Black Swan at 1pm.  Several muscial performers will continue well past 9pm. 

Sunday, September 20th kicks off again at noon with a Bob Dylan tribute band and will finish the festival with The English Beat performing at 5:15pm. 

For a full lineup and information on the event, go to www.lobsterfest.com.

  As a Broker with Keller Williams Realty, I spend my days working to help families find homes and build our communities.  That’s why I am so passionate about giving where I live.  There are so many ways we can make a difference and help those who may need it the most! 

With that spirit in mind, I would like to invite you to participate with me in the first annual Keller Williams Realty RED Day on May 14, 2009.  On that day, Keller Williams Realty agents across North America are partnering with our families, friends and business associates to volunteer in our community.

Keller Williams Realty is the third largest real estate franchise in the United States!  Can you imagine what more than 74,000 individuals working together on RED Day can accomplish?  Together, we will make a difference.

Please join me on RED Day!  The Al D’Amico Team will be collecting non-perishable food at the Vons Market on 25th and Western Avenue in San Pedro and Pavilions in Rolling Hills Estates to be donated to local food banks including the Toberman Settlement House.  We would be grateful for your participation.  together we can make a difference, both on RED Day and throughout the year! 

Help the Homeless Help Themselves

I hope to see you soon!

Al D’Amico and the Al D’Amico Real Estate Team 

The Al D’Amico Real Estate Team of Keller Williams Realty presents…

PRIME TIME ‘09—BUYER SEMINAR

Join in the celebration of 40 years of service to children and the environment at WALK ON THE WILD SIDE 2009.   

Enter the gates of Terra Bella and imagine the rolling hills of Palos Verdes transformed into a quaint village in the Tuscan countryside.  Wander leisurely through the village shops in search of handmade treasures, antiques, unique garden creations and gourmet treats.

Listen while talented Las Candalistas docents recount  tales of Tuscany. Then relax and enjoy al fresco dining while overlooking the beautiful Pacific Ocean. 

April 23 and 25, 2009

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

30940 Hawthorne Boulevard

Rancho Palos Verdes, California

For further information or questions;

Send e-mail to   webmaster@lascandalistas.org

or

Call  (310) 798-7499

Cool news - Keller Williams now offers an online side-by-side comparison of home valuations from the leading home valuation websites.  Now available, there is no cost for this tool.

Go to www.kw.com and submit the address - kw.com will instantly display side-by-side home value estimates from www.zillow.com and www.cyberhomes.com.  If you’re interested in going further, you can submit your contact information for assistance interpreting the results and can obtain an accurate home valuation for that market.

We are extremely proud to be the first national real estate brand to offer this convenient and informational tool!

It’s an increasingly common dilemma: You want to retire, but you haven’t yet retired your mortgage.

Even before the recent debt-driven housing boom and bust, the numbers were getting ugly. Among households headed by someone age 65 to 74, more than 32% had a mortgage on their primary residence in 2004, up from less than 19% in 1992, according to the Federal Reserve.

Carrying a home loan into retirement? Here’s how to handle it.

Living free

Start with this question: Should you strive to pay off your home loan so you can live mortgage-free in retirement, or should you aim instead to shrink your monthly loan payments, thus freeing up cash that can then be spent on other items?

If you have a heap of savings and a modest mortgage, go for the loan payoff. To that end, you might trade down to a smaller home or, alternatively, work part time until you’re rid of the mortgage.

If you have cash sitting in, say, a money-market fund held in a regular taxable account, also consider using these savings to reduce your loan balance. Sure, your mortgage may be costing you just 6% and the interest might be tax-deductible. But your money-market fund is likely yielding only 5% — and you have to pay tax on that income.

Things get trickier when dealing with individual retirement accounts and 401(k) plans. An AARP study found that many departing employees cash out their 401(k)s, often using the money to pay down debt.

But this is foolish, because a big 401(k) withdrawal would likely trigger a huge income-tax bill. Instead, you’re better off slowly tapping your 401(k) or IRA to make your regular monthly mortgage payments. That way, you would also continue to enjoy the mortgage-interest tax deduction.

If this strategy makes you nervous, consider using a chunk of your IRA or 401(k) to buy a “period certain” immediate fixed annuity, says Rich Lindsay, a senior vice president with Symetra Financial in Bellevue, Wash. Let’s say you have 15 years left on your mortgage. To ensure you can make those payments, you could buy an annuity that will kick off 15 years of monthly income.

“If you’re risk-averse, this is a better strategy than taking a big withdrawal from your 401(k),” Lindsay argues. Avoiding the big 401(k) withdrawal makes particular sense if you are in a high tax bracket or if your mortgage has a low fixed rate, he adds.

One warning: If you buy the annuity, arrange to roll over the necessary retirement-account money directly to the annuity company. Don’t cash out the account first, or you could trigger the big tax bill.

Shrinking payments

What if your mortgage is so large that paying it off will seriously crimp your retirement?

“If you don’t think you’ll ever get to live mortgage-free, you might as well get the mortgage payment down as low as possible,” reckons Denver investment adviser Charles Farrell.

Imagine that, some years ago, you took out a $400,000 30-year mortgage at 6.5%, giving you a $2,528 monthly payment. You’re now about to retire, the loan’s balance is down to $300,000, and your home is worth $600,000.

You could simply refinance that $300,000 back over 30 years. Even if you get the same 6.5% rate, that will trim your payment to $1,896.

Better still, trade down to, say, a $400,000 home. After forking over a 5% real-estate commission and paying off your current mortgage, you could put down $270,000 on your new home, leaving you with a $130,000 mortgage. If you financed that over 30 years at 6.5%, your monthly payment would be $822.

You might even refinance later in retirement, further shrinking your monthly payment by again extending the loan over 30 years. Even in today’s tight credit environment, you shouldn’t have a problem qualifying for a new loan, as long as you have a reasonable amount of retirement income.

“My father bought a home two years ago, and he got a 30-year mortgage,” recounts Keith Gumbinger, a vice president at mortgage-information provider HSH Associates. “He was 77 at the time, and he didn’t have any trouble.”

This article was reported and written by Jonathan Clements for The Wall Street Journal.