“What will it take to get them to buy?” This is the question on the minds of those in the homebuilding industry today, more than 100,000 of which will be in attendance at the upcoming 2008 International Builders’ Show in Orlando, Fla., February 13-16. And, for the sixth year in a row, industry professionals will [...]

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Just about everybody who owns or invests in income real estate knows how important tax-free “Section 1031″ exchanges are. After all, Section 1031 of the federal tax code allows investors to swap “like kind” properties without having to pay Uncle Sam the hefty capital gains taxes they’d owe if they simply sold their real estate.
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Wall Street is buzzing about Microsoft’s extremely generous offer to buy Yahoo! for $45 billion, which is a 62 percent premium over what Yahoo! closed the market for on Thursday before the offer was made public. By Friday, the shares had doubled in price.
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After a recent Tax Court ruling that disallowed one taxpayer’s 1031 exchange of his vacation (or “second”) home, I’ve seen articles on this topic that range from “this was a bad ruling, so ignore it,” to “the sky is falling and you can no longer 1031 vacation homes under any circumstance.”
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Have you noticed lately that your closets are bulging? That your garage isn’t really being used to store your car as much as it’s storing your junk?
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You have seen the agents (or perhaps even been one) who seem to always hang in the shadows and keep to the fringes of business success. Whether by fear, indecision or inexperience these individuals find themselves more stealth agent than sales agent.
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Higher conforming loan limits could help clear the San Francisco Bay Area market of foggy conditions caused by a stubborn system of high-cost jumbo mortgages.
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Have you ever walked into a room in your home, discovered it was a bit warm, and drawn the blinds or shades or draperies to control that heat? Seems like a simple movement, but with energy prices and concerns about creating pollutants, this simple act is preferable to turning down the air conditioner to kick [...]

read full story of "Adding Home Value: Window Treatments"