Wayne Johnson Coldwell Banker D'Ann Harper Realtors

The current first-time home buyers tax credit is set to expire November 30, 2009.

This program does seem to have had a stimulative affect at a time when home sales were lagging.

The question now is, "Will the program be extended into 2010"?

A case could be made that the program should not be extended because it benefits too few people, the federal deficiit is too high now and this only adds to the deficit, and we have had two years of tax incentives for home buyers.

A case can also be made that the program should be extended because it works. When good credit criteria are used for qualifying home owners, the home purchase is just one of many economic activities that result. There is the potential for sales of products and services that are used by the new home owner.

Since 2010 is an election year, and the Congress has a pretty low approval rating, I think there is a better than 50% chance that there will be some sort of home ownership incentive. Personally, I'd like to see something for a wider audience, not just first-time home owners,

Do you favor an extension of the tax credit?

In the selling of residential real estate, several key decisions made by the home owner affect the outcome. An agent makes recommendations and suggestions, but the homeowner always has the final say in the matter.

Location-Area of the city or county in which the property is located, area within the subdivision (if applicable), cul-de-sac, or corner lot. All of these factor affect the desirability of the home and lot. For some buyers a cul-de-sac is desirable for others, being near a park or play area may be a plus.

Condition of the House-Need painting, obvious maintenance issues left undone? Buyers begin the discounting off the asking price with each defect. At some point they may throw up their hands and move on to the next property on the list.

Price-This is the big one. The home has to be priced within the range of similar homes that have recently sold in the area. If it is not in the general range, it will get few visits and even fewer offers. The amount of available inventory homes gives buyers a wide range of choices, and it has been my experience over the past few months that buyers do not want to see homes they deem over priced. Therefore over priced homes never get into serious contention for sale.

As a seller, you cannot do anything about your location. The house sits where it sits. The other two issues-Condition and Price are totally within your control. Clean it up, fix it up, and price it to sell. Your agent can do a great marketing job when you take care of those issues.

So Saturday afternoon I'm out previewing homes for Sunday showings, and working in some prospecting contacts. I get a call from some buyer clients who just saw a new listing that just may be the house for them. I had my office number forwarded to my cell phone, for just such a situation. If I can take a call live, I prefer that to voice mail.

These clients have some pretty specific needs so when we find something that fits their profile of wants, I like to get on it. They wanted to see the house. Could I set up an appointment? I said, "Let me see what I can do."

I checked my GPS to get a sense of where I was in relation to the property to be seen. I love the time estimate some GPS systems have to help you guage ETA from a set point. Then I called Centralized Showing Service to see if the house was occupied. I don't like to give short notice appointments unless it is absolutely necessary. If occupied, I would have set up the showing for Sunday. But as luck would have it, it was vacant. So I set up the showing one hour from the time of the call.

I notified the clients, saw another home on my preview list for Sunday and then showed the house. It turned out not to be the one, but the available technology allowed me to be responsive a clients call, and still be productive with other tasks that needed to be performed.

There was nothing earth shattering about these events. Many times we take our technology for granted. But think back to the dark ages of say, 1985. The events that I just described would have been a whole lot different. No cellphone, maybe pick up messages when I stop someplace at a public phone (do they still have public phones), or when I got back to the office.

No way could I have handled that call on the fly.

Since clients are technology savvy, being able to respond quickly is an important factor in the benefit a realtor can add in being a reliable resource for their client.

Have you ever purchased something that you thought was a really outstanding buy? Then maybe you took it home, or told some of your friends about your great find, and your friends told you what a dumb-a-- you were for buying whatever it was.

Buyer's remorse can happen for any product or service- from a piece of fruit, investment products, or even a house. For big ticket items, I think it's helpful to have a plan of action. So here are a few things you can do to prepare yourself from the negative self-talk you may generate from your own thoughts and negative feedback you may get from friends, relatives and co-workers:

1. Make a list that describes key features of the item to be purchased.
2. Add to the list the reasons that you are making the purchase.
3. When you shop for the item, compare at least two products before making the purchase.
4. If you have a confidant in whom you value their judgment, ask for their feedback on what you are thinking. Do not let their judgment override your decision.
5. Now when you make the decision, keep your list handy to help you ward off the demons that may challenge your decision. With a good documented plan, you should feel good about the decision and be able to minimize any thoughts of buyer's remorse.

For the last few days, my blogging went to about zero.

I used my wife's computer and somehow contracted a virus. I must have disabled the virus protection when I downloaded some software that required the virus protection be disabled.

I failed to reactivate the anti-virus software.

I've got another group of people to whom administering water boarding should be seriously considered an option for punishment. Computer programmers who design and propagate computer viruses, spyware, and malware.

Maybe I should be waterboarded too for forgetting to reactivate the anti-virus software.

Our IT expert gave me some tips and software to try to rid the computer of the bug but nothing worked. After doing more research, our expert told me that the surest way to get rid of this bug was to reinstall the Operating System. It's been a while since I had done that, but I figured I could squeeze that task in between revenue generating tasks.

That meant my waking hours would be spent trying to follow directions from various sources, many of whom left out key steps in the re-installation process. Somehow, I stumbled onto a page that described the sequence in which drivers have to be reinstalled on a Dell Computer. Thank goodness everything works again. And I will be able to get back to blogging, from time to time.

Keep your virus protection activated, and up to date. You can waste a lot of time and money repairing a computer that is unprotected.