Fiscal Cliff - Real Estate Effects

Attached please find a short article and news report about the looming fiscal cliff and how the threat of new different taxation is driving some sales before the end of the year. Here is a link to the article http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2012-12-28/Upcoming-fiscal-cliff-i... and below please find the text of the article.

What do you think the fiscal cliff will do to the economy as a whole and more specifically to real estate investment and wholesaling?

Here's the article:

Upcoming fiscal cliff is helping the real estate market
Story Created: Dec 28, 2012 at 9:00 PM America/New_York

NAPLES, FL -Tax attorney Jeffrey Janeiro said his office is in a time crunch.

"Rushing to get transactions done before the end of the year," said Janeiro.

And before the fiscal cliff and its increase in taxes.

"We actually have clients who are selling properties to other entities simply to recognize gain, increase their basis and move on," said Janeiro.

Janeiro said homeowners in southwest Florida are working to get as much value out of their home as possible.

"The bottom line is if I wait one week I'll pay 4% more on 13 million dollars, roughly 520,000 dollars. So to him he says 'If I sell it for four million, I sell it for three and a half, doesn't matter to me.'"

And prospective buyers have been streaming into Nancy MacDonald's Coldwell Banker on 5th Avenue South in Naples. The Managing Broker said they've been busy during a time that's usually quiet.

"There's an awful lot of traffic and people are very interested in what is available in the real estate market right now so i think we're very fortunate," said MacDonald.

In the past two months, her office has sold homes worth more than ten million dollars.

"The attitude just seems a little bit more positive," said MacDonald.

But Janeiro said don't expect sales like that to stick around after we fall off the fiscal cliff.

"Next year, there's going to be, in my opinion a totally different attitude, everyone is going to have a different attitude, everyone's going to say we're waiting, we're not going to sell we're going to absolutely wait until this issue is resolved."