There were a couple of posts on Active|Rain today that reminded me of a situation I encountered a couple of years ago.  It was a short sale/foreclosure.  Let me summarize the posts that made me think about this…

You aren’t going to find many real estate agents that are going to say this…
You may need to talk with an agent that specializes in helping people through short sales!
And it isn’t me.
That’s right.  It isn’t me.  I don’t specialize in foreclosure mitigation or short sales.  It seems to be the “hottest” new specialty [...]

I heard two interesting points on the news today.  First, the screaming-stay-tuned-after-the-break headline…
Foreclosure filings skyrocket 65%
And then the less hyped statistic…
One home is 500 in some stage of the foreclosure process
That means that 0.2% of homes are somewhere in the foreclosure process.  That means that previously it had been 0.12%.
Does that sound as ominous?

I did the first six parts of this on my A/R blog.  I thought I would drop one here, too…  Here are the previous visits to the mailbag:

Part I, Buyer’s Price Range

Part II, When should we start to look?

Part III, New Homes inducements

Part IV, Should we sell?

Part V (A), What should we do to our [...]

There are a couple of stories in the last few days that have hit the same sour note.  And, if you are selling your home (with or without representation), you need to be aware of this situation.

Loan fraud is still rearing its ugly head.  Speaking at the Mortgage Brokers Association fraud conference:
Merle D. Sharick, vice [...]

If you didn’t know, this little thingie (≠) is the ‘does NOT equal’ sign.
photo credit: ejhogbin

So many people have an idea that price and value are connected… or more specifically, discount from original list and value have a connection… they don’t.  Bluntly, two buyers could go out and buy properties in the same neighborhood.  [...]

*** This is re-posted from my blog on Active Rain***

I heard voices…

And they were smart voices.

Wandering around in the Rain, there have been scores of bloggers pointing out that the federal government trying to “fix” the foreclosure crisis.  Now, Inman News is saying the same thing.   (the link will only be good until it [...]

Two items from the REALTOR® Magazine Online Daily Brief:
A masked gunman held up an Athens, Ga., bank on Thursday, saying that he was only getting his money back after the lender had foreclosed on his home.

The man entered Regions Bank wearing a black ski mask and pointed a handgun at a teller and said, “You [...]

I started by explaining in Everybody put your heads down on your desk… how we got to this ugly spot in the road where we see the paths of:

Government intervention in loans

or

A rush of foreclosures

In this installment, I’m going to outline the case for why it is the wrong thing for the government to do. [...]

Do you remember those words from grade school?  The big kid from the back of the class shot a spitball at the teacher, and so everyone got the same punishment.  There were 29 kids in the class that didn’t do anything, but they still got the same treatment.  What’s worse is that the kid that [...]