Tax, Lies and Real Estate
Submitted by gregflynn on Wed, 07/04/2007 - 3:32pm
According to the Washington Daily News The NC Association of Realtors misled many county residents this week with letters and advertisements claiming that a public hearing was going to take place about the imposition of a transfer tax. No such hearing was scheduled and no such decision was on the table but many people showed up at a county commissioner's meeting Monday night.
Of the seven North Carolina counties that have authority to impose a transfer tax, Washington County is the only one which has yet to exercise that authority. Commissioners did decide to hold a referendum in November to let people decide for themselves. The standing room only crowd on Monday night was clearly misinformed by the NC Realtors.
I had my own experience in Wake County. In May I wrote the following to the Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors and Triangle MLS because they were circulating a false statement:
Please stop telling lies about WakeUP Wake County, an organization that supports Fair Funding for Good Growth.
To assert in an email to your members and to County Commissioners that WakeUp Wake County is an "anti-growth, anti-real estate group" is patently false.
I call on the RRAR and Triangle MLS to apologize to WakeUP Wake County and issue a public retraction.
This is part of the response I got:
When you apologize for the U-Tube video, I'll apologize for the Anti-growth statement. Deal?
You mean this video?
Now the Wake Homebuilders have come out with a TV ad claiming "thousands in additional taxes" on a home sale. Thousands?
At the currently discussed rate of 0.4%, if the voters of a county decided to impose that tax on themselves, a tax bill of $2,000 would be the tax for a property with a $500,000 sale price. This is more than twice the median sale price for existing homes in North Carolina.
If 0.4% is "wrong", how is 6.0% Realtors' commission "right". How is paying a Realtor $30,000 for selling that $500,000 house going to "make sure our children can afford the American dream"?
Affordability is more than the numbers on a closing statement. The true cost of home ownership is greater and includes liability for public services like schools, sewer, water and emergency services. Maybe they're "selling" the "$500,000" house in the ad to move to a county that doesn't have trailers for classrooms.
Tick, tick, tick
Stop the home ticks.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Happy 4th
For the record, I'm not anti-real estate, just anti-hypocrisy and crocodile tears.
Stop the NC Association of Realtors from polluting our State Legislature with money.
Framing
The realtors are framing this as a tax on sellers of homes, a tax on your equity in your home. It has nothing to do with equity, and economists can argue interminably about who actually "pays" the tax.
A county that is adding thousands of new residents each year needs to build new school capacity; more sewer and water capacity; all the infrastructure that make the are attractive to newcomers. The only way counties have to pay for that is the property tax. Isn't it fair to ask for growth to help support itself?
That 0.4% they are talking about now, or even the full 1% that is in the proposed legislation, will not come close to providing all the new infrastructure that is needed in fast growing counties, but it will help to share the cost more fairly.
Apologize for Utube?
Hey Greg,
I think you should apologize for shamelessly promoting the cuteness of a certain three year old in that fantastic Utube asking simple questions about realtor rhetoric. It's not fair to realtors who don't have cute small children to make their case. But somehow I do think it is fair for a private citizen of limited means to use creativity to challenge the self-serving lies of a well-heeled lobby. But that's just one person's opinion
Linda
tag close
I assume many of these realtors have kids. But yeah, Greg using his kid in these videos really is the "nuclear option" of youtube.
"Keep the Faith"
"Keep the Faith"
Apology?
Ha. That would be the day.
More likely it's the one that says: 'It's not rocket science.'
Darn, the Ocean still has not swamped that little girl
Would be neat thou. OOO ok, Im being a meany.
Anytime a lobby opposes something, I really question it. And the more money they spend on it, the more it makes me want to look into it.
Why are the realators opposed to a .4 to 1% transfer tax that helps infrastructure of a county? The more the infrastructure is improved, the more people will want to buy in that region causing the prices to go up causing their profits to go up.
What do they preceive that is bad for them? The only thing that could possibly be wrong for them is some money is taken from them / transaction on each sale of real estate.
How many transactions are done a year? How much money is "taken" from the realators a year with this .4 to 1% transfer.
This is about greed on the part of the realators lobby. They are worried about a short term gain vs the long term stability of a region.
I hate lobbyiests.
Greg, you gonna redo that again? this time, the girl gets a wave? Please???? The waters warmer, and shes grown!
Sound side
She prefers swimming on the sound side and making sand castles on the ocean side. We were swimming in the sound it today and she was loving it, even "diving" for shells. She's not so crazy about the waves, or the wake from passing boats and jet-skis.
And, we shot another video. Stay tuned.
Stop the NC Association of RealtorsPolluting our State Legislature with money.
Excellent
the realators of North Carolina bested by a little one playing on a beach!
That's a GOOD Idea, Parmea!
Okay. We're ready to play ball now folks.... heh.