With the U.S.. Census process beginning, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) advises people to be cooperative, but cautious, so as not to become a victim of fraud or identity theft. The first phase of the 2010 U.S. Census is under way as workers have begun verifying the addresses of households across the country. Eventually, more than 140,000 U.S. Census workers will count every person in the United States and will gather information about every person living at each address including name, age, gender, race, and other relevant data.

The big question is - how do you tell the difference between a U.S. Census worker and a con artist? BBB offers the following advice:

**If a U.S. Census worker knocks on your door, they will have a badge, a handheld device, a Census Bureau canvas bag, and a confidentiality notice.  Ask to see their identification and their badge before answering their questions.  However, you should never invite anyone you don’t know into your home.

**Census workers are currently only knocking on doors to verify address information.  Do not give your Social Security number, credit card or banking information to anyone, even if they claim they need it for the U.S. Census.

REMEMBER, NO MATTER WHAT THEY ASK, YOU REALLY ONLY NEED TO TELL THEM HOW MANY PEOPLE LIVE AT YOUR ADDRESS.

While the Census Bureau might ask for basic financial information, such as a salary range, YOU DON’T HAVE TO ANSWER ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT YOUR FINANCIAL SITUATION. The Census Bureau will not ask for Social Security, bank account, or credit card numbers, nor will employees solicit donations.  Any one asking for that information is NOT with the Census Bureau.

AND REMEMBER, THE CENSUS BUREAU HAS DECIDED NOT TO WORK WITH ACORN ON GATHERING THIS INFORMATION. No Acorn worker should approach you saying he/she is with the Census Bureau.

Eventually, Census workers may contact you by telephone, mail, or in person at home. However, the Census Bureau will not contact you by E-mail, so be on the lookout for E-mail scams impersonating the Census.

Never click on a link or open any attachments in an E-mail that are supposedly from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The peak buying months could be just around the corner with help from the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit.

By Mai Ling at MSN Real Estate

If you’re thinking about selling your home in 2010, you might want to push your planning into high gear.

Even though the peak buying months have been in summer for the past decade, according to Forbes that trend could get pushed up by a season or two because of the newly extended $8,000 homebuyer tax credit, which requires buyers to close on a home by April 30 to participate. From Forbes:

"The beginning of the year is going to be make-it-or-break-it," says (Trulia.com spokesman Ken) Shuman. "If you’re a seller, get your property listed as early in the year as you can."

Obviously, that’s not going to work out for everybody. One reason the strongest sale months are in summer is because it’s easier on families with children in school, not to mention that weather plays a big role in how a move turns out.

But for those of you who are a little more flexible with your sell date, Forbes urges you to get your home ready as soon as possible for buyers who are forced to speed up their decisions to take advantage of the tax credit:

"This year, we’re anticipating sales will peak earlier," says Nicole Hall, editor-in-chief of Lendingtree.com, an online mortgage comparison service. "The best time to get your house on the market will be February or early March, and maybe even earlier if you want to avoid competition."

No, the weather most likely won’t be working in your favor, especially if you’re unable to showcase your normally superb landscape when it’s covered in a layer of snow. But the article notes that there still are ways to show off your home and yard, including sprucing up holiday decorations and keeping your sidewalks clear of snow and other debris.

Pay close attention to what your local market is doing, too. Hall urges sellers to read local real-estate blogs, while keeping an eye not only on price fluctuations, but also on the unemployment rate.

And before you get in a panic, just remember, as Forbes points out, "Nothing about the last few years in real estate has been traditional."

Outside you’ll need to check gutters and problem tree limbs. Indoors you’ll want to tend to your large appliances and tackle overflowing closets.

By Anne Erickson of MSN Real Estate

November is a good month to move some maintenance efforts indoors. This month also provides an opportunity to see if your hard work during earlier months paid off — nothing tests waterproofing efforts like a hard November rain.

Maintain large appliances
As the holiday season begins, make sure your appliances are prepared for the demands you will place on them.

Pull your refrigerator from the wall and clean the condenser coils in back with a vacuum cleaner with a brush attachment. Also, vacuum dust from the front lower grille and clean the drip pan and the drain leading to it (if your unit has one).

Clean the oven and stove drip pans on your electric range. Clean the surface burner on your gas stove to ensure proper flame level.

De-stench your in-sink garbage disposal by packing it with ice cubes and 1/4 cup of baking soda; then turn it on. After the ice-grinding noise stops, pour a kettle full of boiling water into the sink.

Check the dishwasher strainer and washer arm; clean if necessary.

Clean and maintain closets
Go to your closets and perform these two simple tests: Can you see floor space, and can you easily close the door? If the answer to either one of these questions is no, clean your closet. Cramped closets can provide haven for pests, too-full racks can break free from walls, and sliding doors can be derailed by too much stuff. Add compartments and hanging racks at different levels to utilize more space.

Maintain woodwork
November is a good month to repair and reglue woodwork, since indoor air is at its driest. If you are regluing wobbly dining room chairs, clamp during drying by wrapping a rope tightly around the perimeter of the legs. Be sure to protect wood surfaces with cardboard before tightening rope. Try using toothpaste on white water stains on wood surfaces. Once the stain is removed, polish with furniture polish. Use paste wax and elbow grease to put a new sheen on wood furniture.

Clear leaves from gutters
Cleaning gutters is a slimy job, but the task will protect your siding and basement from expensive water damage. Don long rubber gloves, grab a gallon bucket and scoop leaves into the bucket by hand. Trying to use a garden trowel or other device just makes the task more cumbersome and can damage gutters. Blast the scum from the bottom of the gutter with a hose equipped with a pressure nozzle. If it doesn’t drain well, feed your running hose up the pipe to knock loose the clog. Dump the contents of the bucket on your compost pile and pat yourself on the back for a dirty job well done.

Speaking of leaves …
Check some other places where accumulated leaves can be a problem. If leaves are piled in the valleys of your roof, they can retain water and initiate leaks. Walk your property with a shovel and clear drainage ditches and culverts of leaf buildup. Also, a moderate amount of leaves on a lawn can provide a natural mulch, but if large amounts are left to soak up winter rains, they will smother the grass beneath them.

Have problem trees trimmed
Now that you’ve cleaned your gutters, you know which trees are dumping leaves on your roof, shading it enough to encourage moss, and close enough to cause serious damage should they lose a branch in a storm. Trees are dormant this time of the year and can withstand extensive pruning. Decide which ones need cutting back and hire a professional to do the job. This is not a do-it-yourself task if the trees you are looking at are high enough to affect your roof. Trimming large trees is a dangerous job that should be left to an expert.

Maintain moisture
Heaters, especially forced air and wood stoves, can rob a home of humidity. A touch of moisture in the air makes heated air feel warmer, so you can keep the heat at a slightly lower temperature if your humidity is balanced. If your woodwork is cracking or your skin seems excessively dry, you need more moisture in your home. A furnace-mounted humidifier is likely the answer if your home has central forced-air heat and other measures don’t moisten things up. If you have a wood stove, put a teakettle (nonwhistling!) on it and add water regularly (check it daily to make sure the water hasn’t evaporated away). If you prefer not to go by feel, buy an inexpensive instrument called a hygrometer that measures humidity.

Maintain pools down south
For most of the country, pools are out of sight and out of mind during November. But if you live in sunny southern climes, this month marks the beginning of the dry season and the time to begin any pool maintenance job that requires emptying the pool. If a pool is emptied when groundwater levels are high, it can "float" and damage itself. So if you’re fortunate enough to live in a place where you can actually enjoy your pool in December, consider having major maintenance like replastering done this time of year.

Check your sump pump
Some unfinished basements in wet areas have sump pumps installed. These pumps switch on automatically when ground water levels rise, eliminating basement water before it becomes a problem. If you have one, make sure it is in good working order before the rainy season starts.

Buy foam-cup covers for outdoor faucets
Be prepared to protect your spigots when the weather gets chilly and flirts with going below the freezing level. The foam cups are commonly sold at hardware stores and provide a cheap insurance policy that will help keep exposed pipes from freezing.

By sorting through your belongings before you move, you’ll save time and money. Here’s how to streamline your stuff without losing your mind.

By Melinda Fulmer of MSN Real Estate

Admit it. Your open house is right around the corner and you’re tempted to just throw all of your belongings into boxes and sort them out after you move. That’s the easiest way to handle it, right?

Wrong. By decluttering before you pack a single box, you’ll not only save time, you’ll save money because you won’t be paying someone else to move or store those items.

“With most homes, you could get rid of 30% of its contents and never miss it for a second,” says Debra Gould, aka The Staging Diva. One family Gould worked with got rid of 6,000 pounds of clutter that they didn’t have to pay to move.

But how do you streamline your stuff without losing your mind? MSN Real Estate consulted a handful of the nation’s top organizers and clutter busters, as well as home stager Gould, to give our readers a guide to overcoming clutter inertia and shedding excess baggage before a move.

Have a plan, Stan
One thing that most of our professional declutterers suggest is to plot out a strategy.

Don’t try to tackle the entire place in one whirlwind weekend. Laura Leist, owner of Seattle-based Eliminate Chaos and president of the National Association of Professional Organizers, suggests sitting down and blocking out time to do it in two- or three-hour increments a couple of months before you put your house on the market.

“Scratch out all the dates on a calendar,” she says. That way, you don’t get panicked at the last minute before an open house.

Julie Morgenstern, author of “When Organizing Isn’t Enough: Shed Your Stuff, Change Your Life,” takes this planning a step further. You should first pick a theme or vision for your future, she says. What feeling are you seeking in your home and your life? Freedom? Serenity? Fun?

“This is an opportunity to create a new chapter in your life,” she adds.

Keep this in mind when you sort through your things and ask if each item supports this feeling. Doing this, she says, makes the shedding process easier, especially if you are on the fence about getting rid of something.

Next, select some “points of entry” to put on your decluttering calendar. If the thought of focusing on an entire room makes you want to curl up in a fetal position on the couch, try tackling a series of small projects, such as one family member’s clothes, your bathroom toiletries, books or magazines, DVDS and CDs, your linen closet or that cluttered drawer of kitchen gadgets.

Morgenstern recommends starting with any area that has items that are stagnant, (i.e. not moving) or that is bursting at the seams — because clearing those will give you greater momentum for the rest of your decluttering.

“Start with the things that will give you the biggest payoffs,” Morgenstern says. “It will give you motivation to pack away less” in the rest of your house.

Choose six or eight areas to start, and by all means avoid emotionally fraught baggage such as memorabilia at first — or your efforts will quickly lose steam.

Trash or treasure?
You want to treat the decluttering before a move like you’re packing for a long trip, but instead of taking a swimsuit, shorts and T-shirts, you’re bringing only the most valuable belongings: things that are extremely meaningful or practical. (And of course, you want to remove anything that takes up too much space or detracts from the showing of your house.)

Reformed pack rat Erin Rooney Doland, who blogs about organization and who authored the forthcoming book “Unclutter Your Life in One Week,” says you must ask yourself these questions about your belongings as you sort through them:

• Do I have something like this that fills the same purpose?
• If this is a duplicate, which one is in the best condition, is of the best quality and will last the longest?
• Does this item need repairs?
• Does this item save me money or fulfill some essential need?
• Why does this object live in my house and is this the best place for it?

(Some experts suggest if you are storing a “collection” of some sort out of sight, it might not be worth holding on to.)

• Has the expiration date on this item passed?
• Does it help me live the kind of life I want to lead?

Diving in
When you’re ready to start in an area, gather your supplies: trash bags, a shredder and bags or boxes for donations. Don’t make the mistake of going to the store first and getting fancy little shelving units, chic baskets and organization systems until after you’ve shed the clutter.

“You won’t know how much you have to store or the quantity of stuff you will have left,” Leist says.

Set up a staging area or work surface to pile all of the things to be sorted. Identify bags for trash, donations (these should be decided in advance) and recycling and another bin for things that must be returned, given to a relative or repaired.  Set a timer and go.

“Immediately put into a pile anything you don’t love, don’t use or haven’t worn in a year,” Gould says. That includes furniture that you’re not crazy about as well. “Ask yourself ‘Do I want to be looking at this stuff again in my new house?’”

Pointers for all of your stuff
Kitchen: Get rid of any cookbook that you don’t use regularly or that wasn’t recommended, Morgenstern suggests.

Try to eliminate “uni-taskers” — or gadgets that serve only one purpose — if you don’t use them regularly, Doland says. These would be things like that pickle fork or egg slicer or Shamrock cookie cutter you never use.

Set your table (and bar area) with as many plates, dishes, platters and glasses as you could for a dinner party and get rid of any that don’t fit.

Haul the food and spices out of your cabinets. Chuck anything that’s expired, contaminated or moldy and consult Web sites such as www.stilltasty.com to see if your stash is still safe to eat.

Likewise, get rid of any excess food storage containers. Try this exercise: Pretend each one has food in it and figure out how many would fit into your refrigerator and freezer at one time. Ditch the rest.

Once you start putting things back, keep only the toaster, coffeemaker and maybe a couple of canisters on the counter, Gould advises.

Bathroom: This is an especially important area to declutter before you show your house, Gould says.

“People don’t want to look at your hairbrush, toothbrush or razor,” she says.  And they don’t want to see shampoo and soaps lining the tub.

‘Think of it as a hotel bathroom. There you don’t think of the 7 million people who used it before you.” Shrink your supplies and stash your everyday items out of sight when you’re showing your home. Remember those shower caddies from dorm living?

Assume that people touring your place will look in your medicine cabinets, cosmetic drawers and cabinets, so make sure these items are clear of anything you don’t want seen or — gasp! — touched.

Living room: Go through your books, art objects, electronics and furniture and keep only the things that are especially useful, meaningful or beautiful. Get rid of DVDs you don’t watch and consider ditching your CDs if you have them backed up on your computer.

If you are having a hard time deciding what detracts from the space or what is visual clutter, take digital pictures of these rooms and let your eye take in the whole scene. What does your eye go to first? What is most distracting? If you’re not sure, ask a friend for a second opinion.

Clothes: Think of your clothes and accessories as your uniform and keep only the things that best represent your image and accommodate your lifestyle. Put each piece to these tests:

• Does it represent my current style and the image I want to present to others?
• Does it fit well and complement my body shape?
• Does it work with at least two other items in my wardrobe?
• Does it work with shoes I already own?
• Do I like how it feels when I wear it?
• Do I have an occasion to wear it in the next year?

Home office: Ditch crowded bulletin boards. Sort through your papers and group things into types of information and create a file for each type you encounter frequently, whether it’s ideas for your kitchen or bank statements. The most common mistake is keeping too many papers for tax purposes. IRS publication 552 will help you decide what to keep.

Create a separate folder for computer entry. This will have Web sites you want to check out and bookmark, contacts you need to add to your database, and things you want to add to online shopping or wish lists, etc.

Kid stuff: For those with babies: Ditch the changing table and keep changing supplies in a couple of covered baskets in different parts of your house while showing your home.

The same thing goes with toys. Have your kids sort through toys and pick out 10 to 12 items that they want to play with each week. Provide covered boxes in the living room and other common areas to stash them quickly when you have buyers arriving.

Put the rest in a couple of rubber bins in the basement or under the stairs, and in off-site storage. You may find that out of sight is truly out of mind for some of them, Gould says.

Ditch the discards
Once you’ve finished with each area, make sure you move these bags and boxes out within 48 hours of your decluttering session, Morgenstern advises, lest you derail your efforts.

For die-hard pack rats who are torn about getting rid of certain items, Gould advises a “maybe” box. Put them in, seal it up and give yourself a week (but no longer) to grab something back.

If you are too tired to sort your discards, you can also call a junk service to remove and deal with it for you. Just search on the Web for “junk removal” and the name of your city, and you’ll find a service that charges by volume to whisk it all away.

Keep it streamlined
Once you’re done shedding, our experts suggest grouping things and putting them back in the cabinets closest to the areas that you will actually use them.

Box up ahead of time anything that you can live without for a couple of months, Gould says. Put these items in storage or at a friend’s or relative’s house. Don’t just stuff the garage, basement or attic, because potential buyers always look in these places, and a cluttered space doesn’t let them imagine how they would use it.

This is also the time when you can go out shopping and buy those fancy baskets with lids and toy bins to keep everything in its place and out of sight.

But don’t go overboard. After most people declutter, Morgenstern says, there is “a moment of panic” when people question their identity without all of their stuff and frantically start buying replacements, many of which they aren’t so crazy about.

Ultimately, you want to have only things you love in your new house: It’s a new beginning, Morgenstern says, and you don’t want to spend all of your time unloading stuff you don’t love.

Embrace who you are, she says, without all of the stuff. “Don’t just refill.”

President Barack Obama signed a bill Nov. 6 that extends the $8,000 first-time homebuyer credit until June 30, and makes some current homeowners eligible for $6,500 on a new home purchase.

By Lisa Scherzer of SmartMoney

On the fence about buying a new home? Some government aid is on the way to help spur sales.

Nov. 6 President Barack Obama signed a bill that extends the $8,000 first-time homebuyer credit and expands it to include some existing homeowners.

Under the expanded program, homeowners are eligible for a tax credit of up to $6,500 if they purchase a new home. To qualify, current owners will need to have lived in their prior residence for five consecutive years out of the past eight years. The credit would apply to home purchases under contract by April 30, 2010, as long as they close by June 30.

First-time buyers (and those who haven’t owned a home in the last three years) continue to be eligible for up to $8,000.

As for income limits, the new credit is available to individuals earning up to $125,000 or couples earning $250,000. That’s up from $75,000 and $150,000, respectively, for the current tax credit. The credit can be used only on homes that cost $800,000 or less, and cannot be applied to vacation or second homes.

Here’s what you need to know:

Attention sellers: More buyers expected
The new tax credit — coupled with low mortgage rates and the supply of affordably priced homes on the market — may give many people who had been ambivalent of buying that extra nudge to step into the market. And in contrast to the first-time homebuyer credit, the new $6,500 credit is available to a larger part of the population with higher incomes.

This is “a gift of $6,500” that could help cover closing costs or renovations, says JP Endres-Fein, a real-estate broker and partner at Homes of Westchester in New York. “Over the next couple of months I suspect we’ll get a lot more people — who were in no hurry to buy before — to make a move a little earlier,” she says.

Plan out your timing now
The legislation allows buyers to claim the credit if the home purchase is under contract by the end of April and closes by the end of June. That might sound like a long time, but not in the world of home buying, says Tara-Nicholle Nelson, owner of Re-Think Real Estate. “I would tell them they should be shopping now,” she says.

If you qualify and want to take advantage of the tax credit, to be on the safe side, consider from now until March your window to buy a house, says Endres-Fein. Keep in mind that once you have an accepted offer, the closing process can take a while and can also be delayed for any number of reasons.

The slow months won’t be as slow
The renewed tax credit is obviously good news for buyers, but it’s even better for sellers, says Jay Papasan, the vice president of publishing for Keller Williams Realty and co-author of “Your First Home: The Proven Path to Ownership.”

That’s because the real-estate market is headed into what is traditionally the slowest months for real-estate sales — October to April. Typically, sellers are advised that a home on the market in that time will probably get the least attention from buyers and attract lower offers than in busier periods, says Papasan. But the credit should renew interest in the market during those typically slow months — and compel sellers to take advantage of any influx of buyers.

Already in a deal? Check your status
Buyers who are smack in the middle of a transaction now or have already accepted a contract should pause and figure out if they can take advantage of the credit. The first thing they should do is call their real-estate agent or mortgage broker to find out if this money would be available to them and how they can apply, Papasan says.

With fall in full swing, now’s the time to get your home and yard ready for winter.

By Anne Erickson of MSN Real Estate

October is the first full month of fall; by the end of this month, most of your winterization should be completed. Falling leaves and dwindling daylight signal a final opportunity to do some outdoor organizing before winter settles in.

Repair roof shingles
Try to do this on a warm day if you have asphalt shingles on your roof, so the shingles will be flexible. Use roofing cement to seal cracked and torn shingles and to reattach curled shingles. Then tack down the damage further with galvanized roofing nails, and cover the exposed nail heads with roofing cement. Split wood shingles can be patched with roofing cement as well.

Repair siding
Do a fall siding inspection and remedy any problems you find. Look for damaged paint, warped or split wood, cracks or holes in stucco, and missing or slipped siding panels. Your repair tool kit will depend on what kind of siding you have: For example, wood siding may require wood putty, waterproof glue, nails and screws; stucco may require wire mesh, stucco patching compound, a trowel and a chisel. Most types of siding require a coating of sealant or primer, and paint to finish the repair and ensure waterproofing.

Reinforce windows
Replace your screens with storm windows. If your screens are dirty or damaged, repair and clean before storing them to prevent further deterioration. Light scrubbing followed by a blast from a hose will eliminate bird droppings and other grime. Small tears can be sewn up with thin wire. If you have older single-pane windows and no storm coverings, apply heat-shrink plastic to the inner or outer window frame to create an insulating air space and save heating expense.

Fire fluency
Make sure your damper is in good working order by opening and shutting it prior to lighting the first fire of the season. If you didn’t clean your chimney at the end of the heating season, do it now — especially if you burn soft woods, which release more creosote. Often the first indication that a chimney needs cleaning is a chimney fire, so preventive maintenance is important.

Detect deadly gas
If you heat your home with wood heat or a gas heater, a carbon-monoxide detector is a must. These devices look and sound like smoke detectors, but they detect carbon-monoxide gas instead. Units that plug into an outlet are also available.

Check batteries in smoke detectors
Daylight saving time ends Nov. 1. Get into the habit of checking smoke-detector batteries when you "fall back" and "spring ahead." Also make sure household fire extinguishers are fully pressurized and in good working order.

Close seasonal air conditioners
If you live in a place where air conditioners are used seasonally instead of year-round, this is a good month to close them down. Switch off power, make sure the condensate drain is clear, and clean condenser coils and filters (a vacuum will do). Either remove window units or cover them, to protect your home from drafts and the units from inclement weather.

Bleed air from radiators
Radiators can get air pockets in them when not in use. If air pockets stay, they will keep the unit from heating up to its full capacity. If your unit doesn’t have automatic air valves, you need to bleed it prior to every heating season. To bleed air out, turn on the furnace and circulator and open the supply valve to the radiator. Find the bleeder valve (it’s usually opposite the supply valve) and open it while holding a pan to it. Air should be released, followed by hot water (thus the pan). Close the valve as the water comes out. Lightly feel the radiator to make sure it is heated along its entire surface; if there are gaps, repeat the procedure.

Cut brush back from the house
Before stowing all of your gardening equipment for the winter, walk around your house with a weed whacker and a pair of pruners and cut back any brush, weeds or branches that contact your house. This task will eliminate a common access point for insects, rodents and rot. It will also keep branches and shrubs from scraping away at your siding during windstorms.

Watch those leaves
If you don’t want the tannin in fall leaves to leave hard-to-clean imprints on your deck and concrete walkways, keep those surfaces leaf-free. If you do get some leaf prints, try a solution of half water and half bleach (test it first in an unobtrusive spot — it may lighten the wood on your deck) or trisodium phosphate (commonly known as TSP) and warm water. Or, just leave the prints and consider them an artistic addition to your exterior look.

Store outdoor furniture
Scrub and store outdoor furniture; even furniture designed to stay out year-round will last longer if protected from extreme cold and wet. Store or cover your barbecue unless you cook with it all year. Empty and store large planters — clay or terra-cotta units will crack if left out to freeze and thaw. Clean and store your gardening tools, but don’t put them completely out of reach — shovels are useful year-round.

Winterize external plumbing systems
This is the most important job of fall if you live in an area that freezes in the winter. The simple fact that water expands upon freezing has caused countless homeowners innumerable woes. Ignore this job and flooding, water damage and thousands of dollars worth of plumbing bills will be your constant winter companions.

Here’s your to-do list:

• Drain underground sprinkler systems.
• Have outdoor pools drained and professionally serviced.
• Drain exterior water pipes and any pipes that run through unheated areas (such as a garage, crawl space or unheated porch). If draining these pipes isn’t possible, wrap them with foam insulation or heat tape.
• Cover exposed spigots with foam covers. Or, if cosmetics and ease of removal don’t matter, wrap spigots in layers of newspaper, cover the newspaper with a plastic bag, and seal the whole affair with duct tape.
• Drain and store garden hoses. Leave one hose and nozzle somewhere that’s easily accessible; you’ll need it for gutter cleaning and car washing.

6 easy ways to make your property more appealing to buyers.

By U.S. News & World Report

Faced with a massive glut of unsold homes, many would-be sellers are struggling to make their properties stand out in today’s downtrodden real-estate market. But while the economic head winds are beyond property owners’ control, home-marketing expert Barb Schwarz says they can dramatically improve their chances of making a sale by devoting attention to an often-overlooked aspect of real-estate selling: home staging.

Schwarz, the CEO of StagedHomes.com, was a pioneer in home staging back in the early 1970s and has used the techniques to sell properties ever since. "The goal [of home staging] is for the buyer to mentally move in," Schwarz says. "If they cannot mentally feel and see themselves living here, you’ve lost them." Schwarz offers six simple tips to help home sellers better position themselves in a sluggish market.

1. Get them inside. The first thing a prospective buyer notices about a home is not the living room but the front yard. "A lot of people think staging is the inside only," Schwarz says. "[But] we’ve got to stage the outside to get them inside." So cut the grass, trim the hedges, rake those leaves, sweep the sidewalks and power-wash the driveway. And make sure you don’t have too many potted plants scattered around the property. "Nothing dead," Schwarz says. "You’d be amazed how many people have dead plants in their yards."

2. Pretend you’re camping. Schwarz says a cluttered room will appear too small to buyers. "Clutter eats equity," she says. Schwarz tells homeowners to go through each room of the house and divide their belongings into two piles: "keep" and "give up." Items in the "keep" pile will be used to stage the room, while those in the "give up" pile should be stored elsewhere. "Pretend you are camping," she says. "When you go camping, you are not taking all those books, right?"

The de-cluttered rooms may appear bare to the seller, but the buyer won’t think so. "We are not selling your things. We are selling the space," Schwarz says. "And buyers cannot visualize when there is too much [stuff] in the room." De-cluttering a home’s outdoor spaces is important, too, she says.

3. Balance hard and soft surfaces. When staging a room, it’s essential to have a good balance of hard surfaces, such as a coffee-table top, and soft surfaces, like a carpet, Schwarz says. For example, a room with a cushy, 7-foot-long sofa, a love seat and four La-Z-Boy recliners has too many soft surfaces and not enough hard surfaces. "The room is sinking," she says. "It’s all too heavy." Instead, consider getting rid of the La-Z-Boys and the love seat, replacing them with two wingback chairs. "If you have hardwood floors but no rugs, it’s too hard," Schwarz says, "so you want to add a rug."

4. Work in ones or threes. Schwarz recommends arranging items on top of hard surfaces in ones or threes.

You would place three items — say, a lamp, a plant and a book — on top of a larger hard surface, such as an end table. "You take away the plant and the book, it’s too bare," she says. "[But if] you put 10 things on it, it’s overdone." The three items should be closely grouped in a triangle. "I draw a triangle for my clients," Schwarz says. "I say, ‘Here is the end table — let’s superimpose a triangle on top of it.’" For hard surfaces with less area, however, a single item will do.

5. Decide from the doorway. Since would-be buyers will get their first impression of each room from the doorway, homeowners should use that perspective to judge their staging work. "Do your work, go back to the doorway. Do some more, go back to the doorway," Schwarz says. That way, you’ll be better able to ensure that each room appeals to buyers.

6. Make your place "Q-Tip clean." A properly staged home should be immaculate — "Q-Tip clean," as Schwarz puts it. "I mean Q-Tips getting dead flies out of your windowsill [and] going around the bottom of your toilet on the floor," she says. The purpose of ensuring the house is spotless is more than simply making it presentable. If a home is unkempt, a buyer will wonder what other, less visible problems may come with the property, Schwarz says. "They’ll say, ‘Gosh, if they live like this, what don’t they take care of that I can’t see?’"

By Luke Mullins, U.S. News & World Report

With bargain prices and an $8,000 tax credit set to expire Nov. 30, first-time homebuyers rush in where they previously feared to tread.

By Brad Reagan of SmartMoney

Here’s one more way the housing bust has changed the rules of the real-estate world: In this market, first-time buyers are getting VIP treatment. Indeed, they’re the star players in a nascent market revival. New buyers accounted for almost half of all sales during the first part of the year, well above historic levels, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Tanking prices have certainly drawn the newbies in; J.K. and Nicole Harvey, for example, just snagged a three-bedroom Dutch colonial in Trumbull, Conn., on a corner lot — after bidding $50,000 less than the asking price. Low interest rates and a new federal tax incentive are making a difference, too. But more than anything, first-timers are benefiting from not being homeowners. They don’t have to worry about selling their current homes, most likely in a down market, to raise money for new ones. “The world is their oyster right now,” says Mike Larson, real-estate analyst with Weiss Research.

Small wonder that agents are now gladly tagging along as the “kids” kick the tires on starter homes. That’s a big change from the way things used to be: For most of this young century, the real-estate scene was dominated by homeowners trading up, flipping properties or snapping up vacation homes. Bubble-driven prices meant that even “starter homes” were out of reach for younger couples. Brokers and agents shunned first-time buyers because they needed too much hand-holding and, of course, because they weren’t that lucrative — why waste time peddling $150,000 condos when you could make seven times as much money selling a single $1 million McMansion? But today, new buyers with humbler aims are just as likely to get the red-carpet treatment.

Right now, of course, buyers of all stripes face what seems like an unprecedented opportunity. This year the housing affordability index reached its highest point in almost 40 years. But not every “Sold” sign is a marker on the path to prosperity. Despite signs of improvement in a growing number of markets, hardly anyone expects a quick return to boom times. That’s partly because first-timers are more willing to scoop up bargains at the bottom end of the market than jump into a bidding war. And buying a home can be trickier and scarier than ever. Still, virtually everyone agrees that the housing market won’t fully recover until buyers soak up the bloated inventory of available homes — in other words, until the rookies come through.

Tax breaks for rookies
First-time buyers owe some of their time in the sun to Congress and President Obama. This year’s stimulus bill included an $8,000 tax credit aimed at first-time buyers — and it wasn’t long before those newbies got wooed by a business-starved real-estate industry. Phoenix-area builder Fulton Homes blasted its mailing list with information about the tax credit and material promoting homes tailored to young couples. Over a recent 12-week period, the company sold 120 homes to first-time buyers, says Dennis Webb, Fulton’s vice president of operations.

Brokerages like Watson Realty, in Jacksonville, Fla., have issued buttons to their agents that read “Ask me about the $8,000 tax credit!” Mike Crowley, a broker in Spokane, Wash., even hosts a regular seminar for first-time buyers.

He provides pizza and soft drinks, but that’s a pittance compared with the $3,000 he budgets each month to promote the classes on radio and television. These days the seminars focus special attention on the tax break. Crowley says the workshops have helped his office sign up more than 30 clients in the past year. “We’ve got it dialed in now,” he says.

But for all the love it’s getting, some say the tax credit’s impact is limited. For one thing, $8,000 is a drop in the bucket for shoppers in expensive housing markets in the Northeast and California. The credit’s income ceiling — it phases out completely for couples earning more than $170,000 — isn’t mentioned on those buttons. And the credit often isn’t enough to get a first-timer over the down-payment hump. In fact, the typical newbie can come up with only a small fraction of the 10% to 20% that most banks are looking for these days.

All of which means that many first-timers are getting into real estate in a more traditional way — with help from  mom and dad. Erik and Jessica Wackenstedt of San Diego shopped for months before finding a row house with Pacific Ocean views, marked down to $530,000 from $700,000. Erik Wackenstedt’s father, Lars, loaned the couple $225,000 to make a hefty down payment. His motives weren’t entirely unselfish; he says he thought that payments from a loan to his son could provide a more reliable income than any of his other investments. There were other strings attached to the assistance: When Erik Wackenstedt originally asked for help a year ago, his father refused, saying that prices were “on the stupid side.” (In this case, obviously, dad was vindicated.)

The bank of  mom and dad
While nobody tracks loans like these, some families see them as a win-win. The youngsters receive financing at a rate much cheaper than they would find at a bank, while the older lenders get to help their kin and still collect an income. Elders who are feeling flush can still make gifts, of course. Each donor can give up to $13,000 each year to each relative, tax-free. Nicole Harvey’s family gave her money from a trust that was supposed to remain sealed until the now-33-year-old woman turned 40. Ultimately, it was her father, Oscar Marcos, who decided that giving up a few years of investment gains was a tolerable price to pay for getting a  home cheap.

While their parents may be stepping up to the plate with help, some new homebuyers say real-estate agents are only making their lives harder. Michael McLane, a 23-year-old educational consultant from Tempe, Ariz., started shopping for a home online in March and attracted a swarm of brokers. “As soon as I put my information in, they were on me like chicken hawks,” says McLane, who wound up needing a new e-mail address for all the spam he got from desperate agents. His answer? Sidestepping them and buying a home directly from a builder.

But some buyers say it isn’t always that easy, especially when the relationship with the agent gets further along. They tell stories of agents pushing them to buy from their brokerage’s listings (as opposed to the complete local inventory), while others report sellers’ agents who call several times a day. Once a deal gets to the contract stage, many cash-strapped brokers have been adding document preparation fees and other vague surcharges, according to Barry Zigas, director of housing policy for the Consumer Federation of America. Zigas adds that many first-timers are unaware of cozy ties between agents and the lenders, home inspectors and title companies they recommend — relationships that can boost a buyer’s costs. (A representative for the NAR says such fees and relationships should always be disclosed to consumers.)

Looking for ‘move-up’ buyers
Not all brokers – even well-meaning ones – are thrilled by the influx of first-timers, with some complaining that they offer a toxic mix of cluelessness and arrogance. But others have a deeper economic worry: By focusing on cheaper homes, the thinking goes, the new buyers are pushing average prices down, which in turn discourages “move-up buyers” — growing families and upwardly mobile types who would normally be trading up to something more luxurious. “For the overall market to recover, we’ve got to get people into that move-up market,” says Jim Gillespie, president and chief executive of Coldwell Banker Real Estate.

Gillespie is among the throng of real-estate honchos pressuring Congress to increase the current tax break from $8,000 to $15,000, extend its duration and make it available to all buyers, regardless of their income or whether they’ve bought before. The price tag: an estimated $36 billion. Naturally, among the beneficiaries would be people who overpaid and overborrowed for the houses they’re in now.

By comparison, this generation of first-time buyers is more cautious. The kids want fixed-rate mortgages they can easily afford, and they aren’t merely looking for a property to flip. A survey by the NAR showed that the average first-timer hopes to stay in the home for 10 years, up from seven at the peak of the boom. Regardless of how long first-timers stay, many economists believe these buyers can tip the first domino and kick-start the rest of the market. As Mark Markelz, a broker in Fairfield, Conn., puts it, “Without first-time buyers, you are going nowhere.”

Help for that first down payment
Until recently, the typical first-time buyer paid less than 5% as a down payment; now most banks are asking for 10% or even 20%. Here’s how buyers are making up the difference.

The Feds
Loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration permit down payments as low as 3.5%. They make up 18% of the market, up from 4% in 2006. The catch: Borrowers must pay mortgage insurance, usually 1.75% of the loan upfront — or $5,250 on a $300,000 loan — plus an annual 0.5% premium. Glenn Kelman, chief executive of discount broker Redfin, says some sellers shun FHA-backed offers because they take longer to close.

Family money
Parents can give up to $52,000 to a couple tax-free (if each parent gives $13,000 to the child and his or her spouse). Most lenders require a “gift letter” explaining that the money does not have to be paid back, says Keith Gumbinger, vice president with HSH Associates, and some require the borrowers to come up with cash of their own. If the family money comes in the form of a loan, the IRS sets minimum rates — currently just above 4% on longer-term loans — to ensure it isn’t merely a run around the gifting laws.

Tax credit
The much-ballyhooed $8,000 tax credit is set to expire Nov. 30, though industry groups are pushing to extend or expand it. Typically, the credit can be used for closing costs but not the down payment itself. One often overlooked plus: The government defines a first-time buyer as anyone who hasn’t owned a home in the past three years, so some former owners can qualify.

The Real Estate Marketplace Glossary: How to Talk the Talk

Buying a home can be exciting. It also can be somewhat daunting, even if you’ve done it before. You will deal with mortgage options, credit reports, loan applications, contracts, points, appraisals, change orders, inspections, warranties, walk-throughs, settlement sheets, escrow accounts, recording fees, insurance, taxes…the list goes on. No doubt you will hear and see words and terms you’ve never heard before. Just what do they all mean? The Federal Trade Commission, the agency that promotes competition and protects consumers, has prepared this glossary to help you better understand the terms commonly used in the real estate and mortgage marketplace.

Click Here for the definitions of the most common real estate terms

Do you have a question about something that is not on the list?  Give me a call!