Over the years, and especially since Sept. 11, 2001, homeowners in community associations and their boards of directors have been arguing about the American flag. Some homeowners have wanted the right to fly the flag whenever and wherever they want — especially on holidays and special occasions — while some board members have been concerned about uniformity and architectural guidelines.

Now, this argument has more or less been resolved in favor of the American community association homeowner. On July 24, President Bush signed into law the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005.

Starting Monday, it’s going to get much riskier to fib about your income when you apply for a home mortgage. That’s because the Internal Revenue Service is overhauling a key income verification tool used by lenders — making it faster and easier to pull up electronically the confidential income tax information of borrowers.

“It could be huge” in spotting fraud upfront, before it’s too late, said Mike Summers, vice president of Veri-tax.com, a Tustin, Calif.-based firm that services 3,000-plus large and small mortgage lenders nationwide. Fraud in mortgage applications is now a multibillion-dollar-a-year problem, according to the FBI, and falsified income tax filings are an important contributing factor.

Q: DEAR BOB: I have been selling homes successfully for about three years. In 2005, I earned more than $100,000 in sales commissions. But my earnings in 2006 will be much less due to the slowdown in the home sales market. I’m not making as many sales as last year. As I read the newspapers and real estate trade journals, I’m wondering why the national home sales prices keep going up but the number of home sales is dropping. What is your view on today’s home sales market?

– Susan R.

After falling for three months, sales of new homes rose in August. But the gain was expected to be temporary, as the housing industry struggles with a near-record level of unsold homes.

The Commerce Department reported yesterday that new-home sales increased 4.1 percent last month, the largest showing since an 8 percent increase last March.

Open Houses

A little pre-planning goes a long way. If you don’t have the money or time to invest in cleaning up the yard. Landscaping will provide the most bang for your buck. Trim hedges, mow the lawn, plant bright colored annuals if its spring or summer, edge and weed flower beds.

Open houses have significant benefits. Often curious neighbors will visit and help spread the word if they are impressed with what they see. Browsers will stop by and often evaluate the property, this is a great opportunity for realtors to connect with potential buyers.

In order to get the most bang for your buck prepare for the open house. In the dining area, set the table and light candles to give ambience. Clear out the clutter in the home so it looks open and spacious. Give appropriate notice, the week of your open house hold a “preview” or a realtors open house. Focus on the unique features of the home.

And remember the date of the open house matters, if a local event or holiday is NOT the time to hold an open house.

Place balloons on the mailbox to make the property easy to locate. Provide refreshments to potential purchasers and use a sign-in book to capture the information of prospective buyers, if they don’t want the property they might have an interest in another property.

Bringing two buildings from the early 1800s into the 21st century can be a challenge in the best of circumstances. It’s absolutely daunting when those buildings have had no significant work done to them in more than 150 years.

The four-story Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop, at 105-107 S. Fairfax St. in Alexandria, was operated by family members at its current location from 1796 until 1933. In 1805, the original wooden structure at 107 was taken down to its foundation and rebuilt, but other changes were rare.

It’s not easy to tell when you’re in Monticello Forest, but if you’re at the Springfield Trader Joe’s, you’re very close.

It’s one of several Springfield neighborhoods that stretch from the Beltway south to Old Keene Mill Road, west of Interstate 395. They were built in the 1950s, all with the same styles of split-level, rambler and bi-level brick houses, and they all feed into Crestwood Elementary School.

Andy Hallmark and his wife faced the same financial squeeze now bringing pain to thousands of homeowners around the country: The monthly payment on their floating-rate home equity credit line had risen to uncomfortably high levels — the direct result of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases over the past two years.

The Hallmarks, who live in Annapolis, knew the standard options: They could hunker down, stick with their $70,000 credit line and risk further payment jumps in the months ahead. Alternatively, they could refinance their first mortgage and pull out an additional $70,000 to pay off the credit line. That’s what’s known as a cash-out refinancing. According to Freddie Mac, the congressionally chartered mortgage investment giant, roughly nine out of 10 refinancings this year have involved cash-outs, many of them to pay off variable-rate credit lines.

Q: DEAR BOB: Because of the slow market in our area, we are having difficulty selling our home. Our listing agent suggests we offer special incentives such as a cash bonus or a vacation to the buyer’s agent who sells our house. She says this encourages other agents to show our house more often to their buyers. Is this ethical? It seems like blackmail to me, as we already signed a listing contract. — Debra W.

A: DEAR DEBRA: To combat the slow market in many communities, sellers frequently offer buyer’s agents special incentives, such as televisions and vacations, to show and sell their listed homes.

Lucrative Real Estate

Several sources note that the real estate business has proven to be quite lucrative in today’s fast-paced world. With the development of private property ownership, real estate has become a major area of business.

Getting connected to the right agent is the key to a positive real estate experience. When it comes time to interview brokers.Realtors usually have extensive community information, school information, consumer links, free reports, real estate answers and more, all specific to the area in which they sell homes. Be sure to request this information so that you can evaluate some things.

Licensed realtors work by a strict code of ethics to protect buyers and sellers in real estate transactions. Unlike a traditional realtor, a buyers agent advocates for the purchaser attempting to negotiate the lowest possible price. A Buyer’s Agent will create an itinerary of homes that matches your real estate requirements, negotiate prices, arrange financing, and manage the closing transaction.

When selling property a real estate agent may be able to provide other simple and cost-effective ideas about how to maximize your home’s appeal.