New Jersey Senior Freeze program helps with your tax bill.

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help!

From New Jersey Money Help-

A question about NJ's Senior Freeze Program

Q. Has the property tax freeze been increased to incomes of $90,000?— Senior

A. You’re talking about the Senior Freeze program.

According to the website of the New Jersey Department of Treasury, Division of Taxation: “The Senior Freeze Program reimburses eligible senior citizens and disabled persons for property tax or mobile home park site fee increases on their principal residence. To qualify, you must meet ALL the eligibility requirements for each year from the base year (the year in which you became eligible for the senior freeze) through the application year (the current application year is 2018).”

These eligibility requirements are based on age/disability, residency, home ownership, property taxes payment history and income limits.

In this year’s budget, funding for the Senior Freeze program is increasing by $18 million in fiscal year 2020 for a total of $219.7 million, Taxation said.

The increase was because the budget removed language that capped income eligibility at $70,000, raising it back to $89,013, which will allow more people to apply, Taxation said.

Keep in mind that if your status is as a married/civil union couple and you lived in the same household, you must combine your incomes for the year and be below the income limits, said Deva Panambur, a certified financial planner with Sarsi, LLC in West New York. and adjunct professor of personal finance at Montclair State University.

The Division of Taxation has an online questionnaire to help you check your eligibility.

Email your questions to Ask@NJMoneyHelp.com.

This story was originally published on July 23, 2019.

For your real estate purchase or mortgage refinance or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

@vestedland

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New Jersey residents get answers about #incometax refunds

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help!

New Jersey's Division of Taxation has been creating FAQs for curious taxpayers.  And I'm not embarrassed to say we refer to them frequently in our #titleinsurance business.

A FAQ was just distributed under the heading Your Tax Refund: What You Need to Know and answers several questions. You can read the full FAQ here.

Let us know what you think.

For your real estate purchase or mortgage refinance or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

@vestedland

#NewJersey

#incometax

#titleagent

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From the New Jersey Law Journal - tips for lawyers as they travel

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help!

Commuter Commiseration: Tips Lawyers Can Use to Make Travel Time More productive

Everyone struggles to make travel time productive.  Watching people text while driving is infuriating because of the danger involved.  

Some tips in this article from Law.com may distract from driver attention, others are excellent.

On average, New Jersey residents have longer commutes than people living in any other states except New York and Maryland. According to 2012-2016 U.S. Census data, the typical Garden State commute clocks in at over 30 minutes.For attorneys, who often travel to court or meetings with clients in addition to trekking to the office, time on the road can really add up. But this time should not be considered “lost.” There are many ways to make your commute more productive.

• Use GPS so you don’t get lost traveling somewhere you have never been before. Even if you know where you are going, it is helpful to plug the address into an app with real-time traffic updates. In our densely populated state, there are always unexpected events requiring a detour. You don’t want to get to court late due to an accident you could have known about before hitting the road or avoided with a quick detour.

I recommend you read the full article.

If you have any comments, we'd be glad to hear them.

For your real estate purchase or mortgage refinance or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

@vestedland

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NJ's Homestead Rebate - don't lose it!

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help!

This post is from NJ Money Help.

I missed the New Jersey Homestead Rebate deadline. What now?

Q. I was denied the 2016 Homestead Rebate because I filed late. The application was literally lost under a pile of “too much to do” on my desk. How can they deny it to us under any circumstances?
— Unhappy homeowner

A. We can relate to that “too much to do” pile on your desk, but we’re afraid that won’t cut it.

A deadline is a deadline.

Generally, tax refunds are not issued unless the taxpayer files a tax return requesting the tax refund that they are entitled to receive, said Neil Becourtney, a certified public accountant and tax partner with CohnReznick in Eatontown.

He said for income tax purposes, an individual taxpayer has three years from the due date of the federal and New Jersey income tax return to file for a refund.

“If a taxpayer fails to file their federal or New Jersey personal income tax returns within this three-year time frame, they will lose out on any tax refunds to which they were entitled,” he said.

Unfortunately, the New Jersey Homestead Benefit program is based on income thresholds that need to be verified, requiring eligible homeowners to file a form each year with the New Jersey Division of Taxation.

The deadline for filing a 2016 Homestead Benefit application was Nov. 30, 2018.

The application called for the entry of your 2016 gross income, which could not have exceeded $150,000 if age 65 or older or blind or disabled, or $75,000 if under age 65 and not blind or disabled, Becourtney said.

This is explained in detail on the Division of Taxation’s website.

Unfortunately, you’re out of luck.

“In the future, I recommend that you file it the day it arrives in your mail,” Becourtney said. “I file the form for a few of my elderly clients who forward their forms to me – it only takes about five minutes to complete.”

Email your questions to Ask@NJMoneyHelp.com.

This story was originally published on July 11, 2019.

So, New Jersey homeowners, it goes something like this: you snooze, you lose.

For your real estate purchase or mortgage refinance or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

@vestedland

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Bergen County New Jersey's Ho-Ho-Kus in the news

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help!

Thinking of buying a home in Bergen County?  Think Ho-Ho-Kus!

The Sunday Times featured a nice article, "Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J.: A Tight-Knit but Welcoming Community."

"With a thousand pieces of candy on hand, Nicolle and Joe Zawacki thought they were well prepared for their first Halloween in Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J., having been warned that the three-bedroom home they bought six months earlier was on “the Halloween street.” But when a steady flow of 20 to 30 trick-or-treaters at a time began arriving at their door, the supply quickly ran out. They were relieved when Mr. Zawacki’s mother stopped by with her leftover candy."

 That says something about a child-friendly community, doesn't it.  But that's not all this town of 4,000 residents has.  It's got direct transportation to Hoboken's train terminal and ferry to NYC, and in the words of the Times, "a picturesque downtown."

If you are thinking of buying in Ho-Ho-Kus or any other New Jersey community, contact us, we can help.  You can read the full article on NYTimes.com here.

For your real estate purchase or mortgage refinance or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

@vestedland

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Seller changes mind, what's a buyer to do?

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help!

When Home Sellers Have Regrets

Real-estate agents recall desperate measures that sellers took to try and stop a home purchase.

Great feature article from the WSJ.COM about sellers who change their minds about selling right before closing and transfer of title.

Q:Have you ever worked with a client who went to desperate measures to stop a sale?

Andrew Karigan, 

Karigan Residential Group at Douglas Elliman Real Estate in Newport Beach, California

“Just after we accepted an offer, the seller changed his mind. The buyer would not let him out of the contract, so the seller did everything possible to try and sabotage the deal. The home had a lot of deferred maintenance, and there were issues concerning lack of permits. After getting a large ‘request for repair’ document back from the buyer, the seller refused to do any repairs. The buyer still wanted to proceed. The seller then wrote a disclosure statement stating that the home was haunted. This didn’t work either."

In New Jersey, we have a legal device called a "Notice of Settlement" that gives buyers a fair amount of protection.  But, at the end of the day, you need a good lawyer.

Read the full article here.

For your real estate purchase or mortgage refinance or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

@vestedland

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‘This Old House’ Turns 40

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help!

It's not title insurance, but we salute "This Old House" as it turns 40

The New York Times features the long running home improvement and renovations show "This Old House" which turned 40 years old this year.

According to Bob Vila, the original host of the show,

“It’s like cooking,” you get the ingredients, put them together and “at the end of the project, you’re a hero.”

Well, to all the do-it-your-selfers out there, keep watching a great TV show.

The full NYTimes.com article can be read here.

For your real estate purchase or mortgage refinance or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

@vestedland

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