Average return on remodeling dollars upon resale of home in the Chicago area. Costs listed are average costs and are dependent on site conditions, amenities, upgrades and scope of work needed to complete project.

What is the difference between the assessed value vs market value of your home? Which of these values affects your property taxes? Your house market value will differ from your property tax value in most cases. Want to find out why? Keep reading and I’ll explain everything.

The assessed value is what the property taxes on your home will be calculated on, even if the market value is much higher. Understanding the difference between these types of value is important, especially if you will be buying or building a home and need a lender for a mortgage. It is also important to note that often the market value of a home does not conform to the assessed value of the same home.

Huh????

I know……..that makes absolutely no sense, but I promise you it will!

When you are looking at the assessed value vs market value, there may be a big difference between these two numbers. Why is that you ask? Does the house market value reflect more factors than the property tax value (assessed value)?

House Market Value: What This Is and How It Can Fluctuate

Market Value Definition:

Market value is the most probable price as of a specific date (the date of sale) that a property with all its rights should sell after reasonable exposure to buyers in a competitive market with the sellers under no undue duress (meaning the sellers aren’t forced to sell).

At its most basic form, house market value is usually the highest price that the home would bring on the real estate market if a reasonable length of time is allowed for the home to sell. In this scenario the buyer will have complete knowledge of the legal uses and purposes of the home.

Assessed Value: How the Assessed Value Differs

Assessed Value Definition:

Assessed value is the value of a property as of a certain date (usually January 1st) according to the tax rolls of your local government jurisdiction (county or city). This value can be higher or lower than market value based on the assessment ratio, which is a percentage of market value.

What is an Assessment ratio? The assessment ratio is the percentage that each state uses to determine the property taxes. A state will also determine whether you will be assessed per hundred or per thousand dollars. What does this mean?

Example – Your property’s market value is $100,000 as of January 1st according to your county. Your neighborhood market activity is normally monitored by a county tax assessor over the course of one year. The assessment ratio in your state is 60%. You take $100,000 x 60% = $60,000. Now that $60,000 is your assessed value.

If you want to figure out the actual dollar amount in taxes you will pay, you take that $60,000 and divide it by 100 or 1,000 depending on your state (you can call your local jurisdiction and ask if your taxes are calculated per $100 or per $1,000). In this example your state assesses per 100. Take $60,000 / 100 = $600 x (your county tax rate) = the total amount in property taxes you pay per year!

Your county tax rate is usually set by your local elected officials. So, for example let us do a final calculation of the taxes of the above property with a tax rate of $1.23.

As you can see in this example, the county tax rate increased your taxes by 23% (23 cents over one dollar). You can also see how the county tax rate has nothing to do with the assessed value of your home. It was added after your assessed value was set. It’s a way for government leaders to get more money to pay for county services and programs.

The property tax value (assessed value) of your home may not change unless certain circumstances occur, depending on the state and city where you live. Many states do not allow the assessment value to be increased unless the home is sold (California among others) or there are improvements done to the house.

When you’re looking at the assessed value vs market value of homes, in many cases you may notice that the house market value rises and falls, but the property tax value of the home usually stays stable and only changes if certain conditions occur.

Loan Applications and a Lenders View of Assessed Value vs Market Value

Loan applications are part of the mortgage process, and the lender will compare the assessed value vs market value of the home. For the lender, the market value of the home is the most important of these two amounts, because this is the amount that the lender will use to value the home.

House market value can change frequently, and is dependent on the housing supply and demand as well as other factors, including the economy. The property tax value (assessed value) of a home can vary greatly given the factors above. Market value is the most accurate and stable as far as lenders are concerned.

This value is preferred by lenders because it’s based on facts and certain factors that reflect the true value of the home. This is the amount that is usually used for mortgage applications and home equity loans.

Property tax value (assessed value) is used more as a guide for lenders, but they know that value is set as of January 1st. So, if you’re buying or building a home and it’s July, that property tax value (assessed value) is seven months old. A bank will not lend money solely on a seven month old appraisal by your county.

It’s important to understand that there are some differences in the assessed value vs market value, and to know what these differences are.

Everyone in life starts out with great intentions, aspirations to make a success of their life. A baby fails on average 10,000 times before successfully walking without falling. That’s how determined we were when we started life. Imagine if a baby tried to walk, fell over a few times and thought, “this is too hard. . . I am just going to take the easy option and crawl the rest of my life!” will the baby ever walked?

By our teenage years we have been told an average of 100,000 times that we are NOT good at lots of things, that we won’t be successful, that we can’t do this and can’t do that. Many people have already built an identity by their teenage years where they are full of doubt and fear. You need to overcome your fear by doing what you fear most.

Our working life started with aspirations of success yet 95% of people retire financially depended, just over broke, or living depending on government welfare and family. 100% of people intended to be successful but only 5% actually achieved a life where money and time do not control their retirement years.

80% of people who start up a new business fail in the first 2years. 80% of those still in business after year 1 will fail in the next 4 years. That means only 4% of people who start a business survive the first 5 years, even after investing significant amounts of money, time and effort.

Everyone who says I do on their wedding day and promised to love one another for the rest of their lives, however, face the realities of life and could not survive the first 5years and eventually end up in divorce.

The point is 100% of people start out with a strong FAITH and excitement to be successful in life, in business, in Christian ministry, in their career, in their marriages and yet the majority do not achieve the life they pictured and desired.

Start doing things differently. If everybody is looking for a Job, you look for an opportunity. Look at what everyone else is doing and head in the opposite direction as fast as you can. Opportunities that people detest like (Network Marketing Business), you go for it because there is a lot of wisdom in that.

If the majority of people are NOT living the life they pictured and desired WHY would you do what the majority of people are doing? You need to STEP OUT of your comfort zone and go to the conflict zone, face challenges to become a champion. Do things differently and take different legitimate actions to everyone else.

However be aware that when you do not follow society you will also have your critics. People may judge you, criticize you and not support your decision. Often the biggest critics will be family, friends and those closest to you

Remember, critics do not put your children in private school, pay for your dream car, home and holidays, and will not fund your retirement.

It is the decisions and actions you take NOW that will determine your future. Decisions determines destiny and destiny determines decision. Your current life situation, good or bad, is a function of your past decisions and actions. What are you willing to do in 2011 to make sure the next 5 years is NOT a repeat of the past 5 years?

Avenues to Wealth is not the only plan for success but it is a PLAN. It does offer a legitimate and credible way to transform and empower lives, create wealth for those that will follow the rule of the game, and enhances your potentials for fulfilment in life.

JOIN me in changing the world!

Steve Jobs’ impact on your life cannot be overestimated. His innovations have likely touched nearly every aspect — computers, movies, music and mobile. As a communications coach, I learned from Jobs that a presentation can, indeed, inspire. For entrepreneurs, Jobs’ greatest legacy is the set of principles that drove his success.

Over the years, I’ve become a student of sorts of Jobs’ career and life. Here’s my take on the rules and values underpinning his success. Any of us can adopt them to unleash our “inner Steve Jobs.”

1. Do what you love. Jobs once said, “People with passion can change the world for the better.” Asked about the advice he would offer would-be entrepreneurs, he said, “I’d get a job as a busboy or something until I figured out what I was really passionate about.” That’s how much it meant to him. Passion is everything.

2. Put a dent in the universe. Jobs believed in the power of vision. He once asked then-Pepsi President, John Sculley, “Do you want to spend your life selling sugar water or do you want to change the world?” Don’t lose sight of the big vision.

3. Make connections. Jobs once said creativity is connecting things. He meant that people with a broad set of life experiences can often see things that others miss. He took calligraphy classes that didn’t have any practical use in his life — until he built the Macintosh. Jobs traveled to India and Asia. He studied design and hospitality. Don’t live in a bubble. Connect ideas from different fields.

4. Say no to 1,000 things. Jobs was as proud of what Apple chose not to do as he was of what Apple did. When he returned in Apple in 1997, he took a company with 350 products and reduced them to 10 products in a two-year period. Why? So he could put the “A-Team” on each product. What are you saying “no” to?

5. Create insanely different experiences. Jobs also sought innovation in the customer-service experience. When he first came up with the concept for the Apple Stores, he said they would be different because instead of just moving boxes, the stores would enrich lives. Everything about the experience you have when you walk into an Apple store is intended to enrich your life and to create an emotional connection between you and the Apple brand. What are you doing to enrich the lives of your customers?

6. Master the message. You can have the greatest idea in the world, but if you can’t communicate your ideas, it doesn’t matter. Jobs was the world’s greatest corporate storyteller. Instead of simply delivering a presentation like most people do, he informed, he educated, he inspired and he entertained, all in one presentation.

7. Sell dreams, not products. Jobs captured our imagination because he really understood his customer. He knew that tablets would not capture our imaginations if they were too complicated. The result? One button on the front of an iPad. It’s so simple, a 2-year-old can use it. Your customers don’t care about your product. They care about themselves, their hopes, their ambitions. Jobs taught us that if you help your customers reach their dreams, you’ll win them over.

There’s one story that I think sums up Jobs’ career at Apple. An executive who had the job of reinventing the Disney Store once called up Jobs and asked for advice. His counsel? Dream bigger. I think that’s the best advice he could leave us with. See genius in your craziness, believe in yourself, believe in your vision, and be constantly prepared to defend those ideas.

Carmine Gallo is a communications coach, a popular keynote speaker and author of several books including The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs and The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs. His latest is The Power of Foursquare (McGraw-Hill, 2011).

Key findings in the report include:

Demographics

• The number of African-American households earning $75,000 or higher grew by almost 64%, a rate close to 12% greater than the change in the overall population’s earning between 2000 and 2009.
• The percentage of African-Americans attending college or earning a degree has increased to 45% for men and 53% for women (adults 25+).

Television

• The average African-American household spends about seven hours, 12 minutes daily watching TV – 213 hours a month – which is 40% more viewing time spent than the overall population.
• 12.5 million African-American households helped make last year’s Super Bowl XLV the most watched Super Bowl ever.

Mobile

• African-Americans use more than double the amount of mobile phone voice minutes compared to Whites – 1,298 minutes a month vs. 606.
• African-Americans send/receive on average 907 text messages.
• 33% of all African-Americans own a smart phone

Consumer

• African-Americans may spend less on each shopping trip, but they make the most trips – 167 – annually of any other group.
• African-Americans in higher income brackets, spend 300% more in higher-end retail grocers, more than any other high income household.
• African-Americans over-index on purchases of health and beauty products, household cleaning items, clothes, food and electronics to name a few.

Online

• During July 2011, there were 23.9 million active African-American internet users.
• African-Americans are 30% more likely to visit Twitter.
• Top online purchases for African-Americans in the last six months included:
  • Airline tickets/reservations
  • Hotel reservations
  • Any clothes/shoes/accessories
  • Women’s clothes/shoes/accessories
  • Men’s clothes/shoes/accessories

Half of refinance applications are abandoned or rejected, as are 30 percent of purchase mortgage applications, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. All told, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) says that well over 2 million mortgage applications were rejected last year.

Want to avoid falling into that number? It’s tough — especially in light of the fact that mortgage lenders have become increasingly restrictive in terms of their lending guidelines since the housing market crash.

Here, as a cautionary tale and primer on what to expect, are the top six reasons mortgage lenders reject applications.

1. Income issues.Most failed applications falling into this category have income too low for the mortgage amount they are seeking; often, a spouse’s credit issues can create this problem, too, as the income the spouse plans to actually chip in toward the mortgage cannot be considered by a lender.

Half of refinance applications are abandoned or rejected, as are 30 percent of purchase mortgage applications, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. All told, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) says that well over 2 million mortgage applications were rejected last year.

Want to avoid falling into that number? It’s tough — especially in light of the fact that mortgage lenders have become increasingly restrictive in terms of their lending guidelines since the housing market crash.

Here, as a cautionary tale and primer on what to expect, are the top six reasons mortgage lenders reject applications.

1. Income issues. Most failed applications falling into this category have income too low for the mortgage amount they are seeking; often, a spouse’s credit issues can create this problem, too, as the income the spouse plans to actually chip in toward the mortgage cannot be considered by a lender.

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But increasingly, the recent vagaries of the job market are also causing this issue, as people who have changed their line of work or have changed from salaried employee to freelancer over the last couple of years can also have their home loan applications rejected based on income.

2. Muddled money matters. If the mortgage for which you’re applying plus your monthly payments on credit card, car and student loan debts will comprise more than 45 percent of your total income, you could have problems qualifying for a home loan. You might also run into problems if you rely too heavily on bonuses, overtime, cash wages or rental income — all of these can be difficult or impossible to get a mortgage bank to consider, and if they do, they might not take all of it into account.

3. Credit issues. Today, the mortgage-qualifying FICO score cutoff falls somewhere between 620 and 660, depending on which lender and which loan type you seek. More than one-third of Americans, by some numbers, have credit scores too low to qualify for a home loan. Even if your credit score is high enough to qualify, if you have any late mortgage payments, a short sale, a foreclosure or a bankruptcy in the last two years, loan qualifying could be difficult to impossible.

4. Property didn’t appraise. Since the whole industry had its hand (among other things) smacked for allowing home values to skyrocket in a very short time, appraisal guidelines have tightened up — some would say, even more than overall mortgage guidelines. So, it is increasingly common to have the property appraise for a price lower than the sale price negotiated between the buyer and seller.

This is especially common in the refinance realm, as well over a quarter of U.S. homes are now upside-down, meaning the mortgage balance owed is greater than the value of the home. (If you’re trying to refinance an upside-down mortgage, consider the FHA Short Refi program — contact your lender or get referrals to any mortgage broker who makes FHA details to apply.)

5. Condition problems. With all the distressed properties on the market, and with most nondistressed sellers barely breaking even, more home-sale transactions than ever are falling apart due to condition problems with the property. Many lenders will not extend financing on homes where the appraiser points out problems like cracked or broken windows, missing kitchen appliances, electrical problems, or wood rot.

And in the world of condos and other units that belong to a homeowners association, if more than 25 percent of units are rented (rather than owner-occupied) or more than 15 percent are delinquent on their HOA dues, new applications for refinance or purchase mortgages on units in the development are likely to be rejected.

6. Technical difficulties with application. The days when lenders just took your word for it are long, long gone. Applications with incomplete or unverifiable information are doomed.

If any of these mortgage loan application glitches arise in your homebuying or refinancing process, it’s critical that you connect with your mortgage professional, be it your banker or mortgage broker, to determine what course of action to take.

In some cases, it might be as simple as buying a stove you find at Craigslist and installing it before escrow closes; but with income issues your mortgage pro will need to help you determine whether it makes sense to pay some bills down, get a co-signer, or even wait six months so your income documentation will qualify.

Tara-Nicholle Nelson is author of “The Savvy Woman’s Homebuying Handbook” and “Trillion Dollar Women: Use Your Power to Make Buying and Remodeling Decisions.” Tara is also the Consumer Ambassador and Educator for real estate listings search site Trulia.com. Ask her a real estate question online or visit her website, www.rethinkrealestate.com.

Wise people are rewarded with wealth, but fools only get more foolishness.
-Proverbs 14:24 (New Century Version)

Statistics show that about five percent of the population controls over 90 percent of the wealth. Check, the numbers prove this. What happens sometimes is the others in the 95 percent who don’t have riches, judge those who do.

Statements like this are made, “there is no need for all that money” or “it must be nice having all that cash,” and my favorite, “rich people should be helping the poor.” First, what someone else does with their money is their business. Second, sure it is nice to be affluent and lastly, many wealthy people are the biggest philanthropists. But this is not the point.

Question, why the concern? Their money has nothing to do with your household. But here is a suggestion in two words: Take Notes. Instead of spending energy complaining and hating on those who have plenty, take notes and learn from them. So then you too can have the prosperity you want.

Is this important to you? Take time to understand the mindset of the wealthy. Read what they read, do what they do and your actions will bring you what you want. But YOU have to want it. Those in the five percent wanted more and went and got it. Go do likewise!

1. The broke don’t save. Instead, they mostly spend whatever extra money they have on things they can do without and then wonder why they never have any money when something important comes up. The wealthy, on the other hand, make it a habit of saving their money. 15-20% of your income in the general rule. Pay yourself 1st!

2. The broke talk about people, while the wealthy discuss ideas. Let’s face it, talk about other people all of the time will get you nowhere, except to the point where nobody trusts you with the simplest info. It will also get you into a few heated confrontations once the word comes back around to those who you were talking about.

On the other hand, talking about ideas will put you in front of some major people, expand your creativity and most likely put some extra money in your pocket while your at it.

3. The wealthy make their money work hard for them through investments. The broke work hard for the money. Stack your chips and then put them to work so you don’t have to!

4. The wealthy have multiple streams of income, while the broke are lucky to have one. Multiple streams of income can come from owning your own business, real estate investments, stocks and bonds and network marketing. So, if one stream of income starts to taper off, you’ll always have the others to fall back on, instead of being just out of luck if your only source of income is lost.

5. The broke complain, instead of trying to make the best of their situation. The wealthy always try to find the good in everything that comes their way, no matter how bad it may seem. There is opportunity in change!