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The Offer: There's More
To It Than Just The Price
 Fixating on price in real estate may cost you the deal:
Sellers who decide that a specific dollar figure will buy their home and won't budge from that bottom line may sell themselves short.
Buyers who drop out of a transaction for a property they love because the seller's counter-offer shocks them may be quitting before they have really started negotiating.
When a buyer makes an offer to purchase a house, condominium unit or commercial property, the purchase price is a prime consideration, but it represents only part of the total value offered to the seller. Problems may arise for both sides
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of the transaction when this fact is forgotten.
The value expressed in a buyer's offer to purchase, or in a seller's offer to sell, involves 5 key elements -- a financial package:
Purchase Price, the stated amount of
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Taxpayers Seeking
Homebuyer Tax Credits, Refunds Must File Paper
 Homeowners filing for the home buyer tax credit are not allowed to use electronic filing and must file hard copies due to special documentation requirements.
Earlier this year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) deployed new home buyer tax credit forms and instructions requiring forms that will force taxpayers to file on paper, rather than electronically.
The new home buyer tax credit filing rules are to ward off a repeat of 90,000 taxpayers who fraudulently claimed the credit, according to the U.S. Treasury.
Under the new and expanded home buyer tax credit rule , the credit is worth up to $8,000 for first-time home buyers and up to $6,500 for qualifying existing home buyers, in both cases, who buy a primary residence or have one built.
The tax credit is refundable. A credit
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Buyers: Why Green is Worth It
 For new and existing home buyers alike, the options to "green up" homes abound.
Green upgrades on homes offer two-fold benefits. They contribute to a healthier environment, both now and in the future, and they can save homeowners big when it comes to energy costs.
How much impact does a green home have on the environment, you ask? The government reports that Energy Star qualified homes built in 2009 are the equivalent of:
Eliminating emissions from 51,645 vehicles
Savings 312,399,672 lbs of coals
Planting 85,372 acres of trees, and
Saving in the environment 612,678,574 pounds of CO2.
Many homebuyers shy away from green construction and green upgrades because of the upfront cost. But while some estimates have put the construction cost difference at 17 percent, recent estimates from The World Business Council for Sustainable Development put the cost of green construction only 5 percent higher than traditional.
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Easy Interior Design
 With all the time you've been forced indoors during the cold winter months you've probably found some aspects of your interior design that you'd like to change. Well, there's still another month of cold weather ahead of most of us, and being stuck indoors may provide the perfect excuse for making some much-needed changes to your interior design.
Interior design professional Emmy Spreng has a wealth of cheap and easy tips for improving the interior design of your home. This week she'll walk us through color and layout, and next week she'll offer some guidance on lighting and
Daily News and Advice
Read about the events shaping the Real Estate market today, find current interest rates, or browse the extensive library of advice and how-to articles written by some of the top experts in Real Estate. Updated each weekday.
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