Well, this is my first blog post! As you can see from my bio, I’m a musician as well as a mortgage lender so I thought that I’d talk about two things:

1. Don’t miss the Tacoma Symphony concert this Sunday afternoon! We’re doing a Gospel and Broadway show with local singer, James Caddell. You can find out more on the Tacoma Symphony’s website at:

http://tacomasymphony.org/index.php/Concerts/JamesCaddellGershwinGospelMotown/

I’ve been a member of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra for 10 years now and it’s been great! We’ve been so lucky to play with such great artists as Ray Charles, Marvin Hamlisch and Wynonna. James is a great local talent and this promises to be a great show!

2. I am so glad that I have the opportunity to work at Wells Fargo! It’s been a great switch but best of all I have discovered the joys of the Mortgage Credit Certificate or MCC for short…

Now, this isn’t just our program, it’s administered by the Washington State Housing Finance Commission and is actually an IRS tax credit that a first time homebuyer can get OVER AND ABOVE the $8,000 first time buyer credit that expires soon.

The MCC is great because it’s an ongoing tax credit that gives a first time homebuyer a credit of 20% of the interest that they pay over a given year. For example: if you pay $10,000 per year in interest on your mortgage you can get a tax credit of $2,000 towards your refund (or payment) and the other $8,000 is able to be itemized with all of your other deductions… and the best part is that the homebuyer can claim the credit as long as they occupy the house as their primary residence!

Of course, there are restrictions… All of the guidelines can be found at www.wshfc.org or you could contact me at 253.224.1275 or kevin.s.jones@wellsfargo.com. You can also visit my webiste at: www.kevinstirretjones.com to see more first time buyer links.

We can do these tax credits with most 1st mortgages and even use them along with some down payment assistance programs so that you can get into a house with very little out of pocket AND have the IRS continue to pay you for living there… I wish I’d known about this where I used to work!

Until next time…

Kevin