What Is The Biggest Mistake Seller’s Make

about how the 2009 First-

Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

can help prospective home

buyers become part of the

American dream.

Who Qualifies? First-time home buyers who purchase homes between January 1, 2009 and Decem-ber 1, 2009. To qualify as a “first-time home buyer” the purchaser or his/her spouse may not have owned a residence during the three years prior to the pur-chase. Which Properties Are Eligi-ble? The 2009 First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit may be ap-plied to primary residences, including: single-family homes, condos, townhomes, and co-ops.

Home Pros

Outlook

The homebuyer tax credit is one of 10 key provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed by the President into law on Feb. 17, 2009.

The bill provides for a $8,000 tax credit that would be available to first-time home buyers for the purchase of a principal residence on or after January 1, 2009 and before De-cember 1, 2009. The credit does not re-quire repay-ment. Most of the mechanics of the credit will be the same as under the 2008 rules: the credit will be claimed on a tax return to reduce the purchaser's in-come tax liability. If any credit amount remains unused, then the unused amount will be refunded as a check to the

purchaser.

As part of its plan to stimulate

the U.S. housing market and

As part of its plan to stimulate

the U.S. housing market and

address the economic chal-

lenges facing our nation, Con-

gress has passed legislation

that grants a tax credit of up to

$8,000 to first-time home buy-

ers.

Here is more information

Bringing The Dream Of

Homeownership Within Reach

Bob Abner Home Pros Summer

Volume 3, Issue 2

Look What’s Inside:

Answers To The $8000 Tax

Credit

Do You Know the Biggest

Mistake Sellers Make

Sheila Walker joins the

Home Pros

Marley Finds Her Prized

Possession

Brandon’s Money Matters –

Energy Efficient Improve-

ments Can Save You

Money At Tax Time

Late Breaking News

You’ve Been Tagged

We hope you will refer the Bob Abner Home Pros to your family, friends, neighbors and work associ-

ates. We are experts on the Tax Credit opportunity for first-time homebuyers. Do you know of any-

one who is planning to buy or sell a home? Have them call us today 859.442.4385

By far, the worst selling mistake a seller can make is hanging the wrong price tag on a home. If the home is priced too high, buyers won't look at it. If it's priced too low, sellers worry that they'll give away profits. Pricing a home to sell is an art. Part of the market value is based on comparable sales, but other factors to consider include market movement, demand, the home's location and its condition. If the home is overpriced, buyers might submit lowball offers, which tend to result in an immediate offer rejection. These extremely low offers tend to infuriate and insult sellers. Some agents deliberately overstate the value of a home and push a seller to sign an overpriced listing. There are many reasons why agents do this, but the bottom line is sellers lose a competitive edge when later reducing the price. The bottom line is sellers who "test the market" get stung.

The Bob Abner Home Pros is

excited to welcome Sheila

Walker to our team of profes-

sionals. With over 16 years

experience as an interior de-

signer, Sheila is the perfect

addition to our “real estate

family”.

Home staging is sweeping the

real estate market as sellers

seek to get top dollar for their

homes. Staging is one of the

best investments any home-

owner can make.

Staged homes show better

and appeal to a wider range of

buyers. Your home will sell

quicker and for more money.

Staging is a huge marketing

tool.

Most importantly buyers rec-

ognize when special time and

attention has been taken to

properly prepare a home for

the market. Curb appeal is

equally important, because

without it may be the differ-

ence between a drive-by and

a sale.

Being an experienced de-

signer, Sheila can create

amazing results working with

what you have. She can add

furniture and accessories if

needed. The decision is up to

you, Sheila can do as little or

as much as you want.

Bob and Lori personally used

Sheila in preparing their own

home for sale and she made a

tremendous difference in the

presentation of their home.

You can reach Sheila directly,

or The Bob Abner Home Pros

can put you in touch with her.

Direct: 859-466-5883

Email: staging@insightbb.com

Boy did my parents pull a fast

one on Haley June and I. It

all makes sense to me now,

but I must admit I didn’t put it

all together at the time. Re-

member when I told you

about my porch swing being

missing, and all the people

coming and going, doing work

around our house? Well after

that, my parents nearly killed

themselves keeping our

house looking perfect, all the

time. All Haley and I heard

was, “Keep your snoot marks

off the window Marley”, “Quit

digging in the yard Haley”,

“Wash your paws off before

you come in the house”. The

list went on and on and

Meet Sheila Walker

It’s A Dogs Life—Marley

Home Pros

Outlook

Volume 3, Issue 2

Page 2

Sheila Walker

frankly I could hardly take it.

My mom would take us to the

park sometimes more than

once a day. A couple of

times it was for several hours.

One day we were there so

long I was begging her to take

me back home. I was worn

out. When we would get back

from the park, I smelled

something amiss. I never

could prove it, but I knew

strangers had been in our

house snooping around.

Then one day we got in the

car, but we didn’t go to the

park. My dad took us to a

new house.

Money Matters—Brandon Barlow

Brandon Barlow

859.442.4466

My mom was there, and so

was our stuff, but it didn’t

have any of my smells in it

that I liked. In fact, it didn’t

smell like anyone had been in

it at all. The yard was differ-

ent too. None of my old

mulch that I laid in was there.

Bones that I strategically hid

were gone. I didn’t think I

liked this trick that had been

played on me. Just when I

decided to leave this place

and go back to where I knew,

I saw it, on the back patio.

You’ll never guess what it

was. My porch swing, I was

overjoyed. I was home.

The tax credit for making en-

ergy efficient home improve-

ments is now 30% of the cost

of the improvements up to a

maximum of $1,500. This

means that if the improve-

ments cost you $4,500, you

would receive a tax refund of

$1,500 when you file your tax

returns.

Eligible improvements include

energy efficient exterior doors

and windows, insulation, heat

pumps, furnaces, central air

conditioners and water heat-

ers. Generally, your home

improvement contractor and/

or the manufacturer selling

the improvements issues a

certification that clarifies

whether the improvements

meet the necessary stand-

ards for energy efficiency.

Most modern windows, fur-

naces, and air conditioners

meet these requirements. If

you've been holding off on

making some of these im-

provements, now is a great

time to get a move on it - es-

pecially with all the great

deals that are being offered!

Interior Designer

where an 11-year old boy comes

up with a plan in social studies

class to encourage people to

each do a good deed. The the-

ory is that if instead of paying

someone “back” for an act of

kindness you encourage them to

“pay it forward” to 3 other people

and ask them to do it for 3 oth-

ers who’ll then each do it for 3

others, etc. In a period of two

weeks, you would affect close to

5 million people. We thought

this was an interesting idea.

You’ve been Tagged.

Consumers across the country

can now take advantage of a

Federal Housing Administration

program to allow qualified home

buyers to apply the $8,000 tax

credit when purchasing a home.

FHA will now permit its lend-

ers to provide a short-term

bridge loan that will let quali-

fied home buyers use the tax

credit to either make a larger

downpayment above the FHA

required 3.5 percent, cover

closing costs, or buy down

their interest rate.

“We all want to enable FHA

consumers to access the home

buyer tax credit funds when

they close on their home loans,”

Donovan said. According to

Donovan, the FHA’s approved

lenders will be permitted to

“monetize” the tax credit

through short-term bridge loans

allowing eligible home buyers to

access the funds immediately at

the closing table.

NAR has supported monetiza-

tion of the tax credit, which was

Late Breaking News Regarding Tax Credit

Home Pros

Outlook

Volume 3, Issue 2

Page 3

part of an Obama administration

housing stimulus plan enacted

earlier in the year. NAR peti-

tioned HUD to allow home buy-

ers to use the $8,000 tax credit

to help them cover downpay-

ment or closing costs to bring

new home buyers to the market

and stimulate home sales. CALL US TODAY AND

WE’LL SHOW YOU HOW!

859-442-4232

So The Home Pros have de-

cided to challenge ourselves and

our past clients and friends to be

tagged “it”. Your job is to do

three random acts of kindness

and when finished give the per-

son(s) helped a card asking to

not pay you back, but pay a ran-

dom act of kindness to three

people of their choosing, chal-

lenging them to pay it forward by

doing three random acts of kind-

ness.

You can find Pay It Forward

Ideas by visiting our website:

www.BobAbnerHomePros.com

and clicking on the “blog” tab.

We also want to hear from you

about your Pay It Forward ex-

perience. You can blog us your

story, or simply email us at mar-

leyabner@gmail.com and we will

post your story for you. We

hope to print some of your sto-

ries in our next newsletter.

Below are three SMILE cards.

This concept comes from a 10

year old movie called Pay It For-

ward

HUFF REALTY

2808 Alexandria Pike

Highland Heights, KY 41076

www.BobAbnerHomePros.com

How Much Will the Credit Be? The maximum allowable credit for home buyers is $8,000. Each home buyer’s tax credit is deter-mined by two fac-tors: The price of the home—the credit is equal to 10% of the purchase price of the home, up to $8,000.

… Homeownership Within Reach —cont. pg. 1

B o b A b n e r H o m e P r o s

Bob Abner—859-442-4385

Jane Yarborough—859-466-0734

Marilyn Stoffregen—859-653-1592

Lori Abner—859-442-4327

Marley—MarleyAbner@gmail.com

and over $170,000 for couples are not eligible for the credit Will the Tax Credit Need to Be Repaid? No. The buyer does not need to repay the tax credit, if he/she occupies the home for three years or more. However, if the property is sold during the three-year period, the credit will be recouped on the sale.

Yes, some buyers may still be eligible for the credit. The credit decreases for buyers who earn between $75,000 and $95,000 for single buyers and between $150,000 and $170,000 for home . buyers filing jointly. The amount of

the tax credit decreases as his/her

income approaches the maximum

limit. Home buyers earning more

than the maximum qualifying in-

come—over $95,000 for singles

The buyer's income—single buy-

ers with incomes up to $75,000

and married couples with incomes

up to $150,000—may receive the

maximum tax credit.

If the Buyer(s)’ In-come Exceeds These Limits, Can He/She Still Get a Credit?

Sheila Walker—859-466-5883