America's house prices are falling even faster than during the Great Depression

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

When people hurt, they think times are bad.

I'm not hurting yet. Most people I know aren't hurting yet.

[LaL 418]

I just got off the phone with both my insurance company and my tax appraiser.

Insurance company was rating my home for more than my house can sell for (I cognitively *get* this - but numbers wise, I just couldnt stomach it). They ran through the quick version application and found they were rating my home $36,000 too much , yay for me, I saved about $500 on my insurance. (hopefully this is not a mistake)

As far as property appraisers - well, we didnt occurpy the home January 1st 2008, therefore losing our homesteading which will double our taxes (according to the appraiser I spoke with). I lowered the asking price yet again last week. For my small house since December 07 - I have knocked $35,000 off the price and noone is even looking at it anymore.

I guess I will try to rent it and most likely lose my insurance to Citizens . !%^@#%&*(&@)*)(*

Edited May 30, 2008 by LaL

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Yeah I read an article forwarded to me by a realtor recently that basically demonstrated that a homes chances of selling were highest in the first 4 weeks.... after that, chances go down steadily... one of those tends to zero curves....

[SpiritAlight 1]

I just got off the phone with both my insurance company and my tax appraiser.

Insurance company was rating my home for more than my house can sell for (I cognitively *get* this - but numbers wise, I just couldnt stomach it). They ran through the quick version application and found they were rating my home $36,000 too much , yay for me, I saved about $500 on my insurance. (hopefully this is not a mistake)

As far as property appraisers - well, we didnt occurpy the home January 1st 2008, therefore losing our homesteading which will double our taxes (according to the appraiser I spoke with). I lowered the asking price yet again last week. For my small house since December 07 - I have knocked $35,000 off the price and noone is even looking at it anymore.

I guess I will try to rent it and most likely lose my insurance to Citizens . !%^@#%&*(&@)*)(*

Yup.

I feel for you.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors says he expects prices to continue falling.

"It's ugly," Naroff says. "In major metro areas, we had the big (price) run-ups, and that's where we're seeing the record declines. … Everything is working in the direction of more price declines."

Other economists agree. "We do think prices will drop a lot more," says Patrick Newport of Global Insight. "We forecast another 10% drop from current levels and bottoming out in 2009."

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/hous...se_N.htm?csp=34

[peejay 327]

If house prices are falling, why isn't my property taxes or the county appraisal?

Anyway, my house has been paid off many years and the value would have to fall 50%+ from it's present market value before I would feel a pinch. And I wouldn't feel anything unless I was trying to sell (which I have no immediate plans to do so).

Not everyones' circumstances are the same. I don't feel threatened at all by the present situation in the market. The housing market is the least of my worries.

[amiquechu 0]

Get into the short sale business!

CRE Online > How-To Articles > Using Loss Mitigation for a Real Estate Short Sale

Using Loss Mitigation for a Real Estate Short Sale

by Dwan Bent-Twyford and

Sharon Restrepo

It is virtually impossible to complete a successful short sale without dealing with the loss mitigation department at the bank. So, how do you deal with loss mitigation successfully? We can shed some light on that.

If you are new to real estate investing and wondering, "What is a short sale?" A short sale means getting the bank to accept less than what is owed as payment in full.

For example: You find a homeowner in distress who owes $100,000 on a property that is worth $100,000. What do you do? Most real estate investors walk away--unless they know how to use a short sale.

Using our short sale secrets, you get the bank to accept $55,000 as payment in full. You now have equity in a deal that had none. The homeowners are ecstatic, since they can move on with their lives, and the bank has a defaulted loan off its books. Real estate short sales are win/win for everyone.

Once you have your homeowner under control and your short sale package together, you are ready to deal with loss mitigation. When making the initial phone call to the bank, ask for the loss mitigation department.

Some customer service reps may say that the bank does not have a loss mitigation department. Keep trying! Ask if the bank has a work-out department, foreclosures department, short sale department, loan modification department, or reinstatement department.

The reason we ask for different departments is many times a new person is working the customer service phone and may have no clue what you actually want. By using a term he is familiar with, you will eventually get to the right person.

You have loss mitigation on the phone; it's time to get to work. This person will make or break your deal, so be very nice. Your initial conversation should go something like this:

"Hi, my name is [your name here], and I am calling on behalf of Bob and Sally Smith. I have an 'authorization to release information' form I'd like to fax to you. What is your fax number? Great, I'll send it right over."

http://www.creonline.com/articles/art-228.html

I worked with short sales for about a year (in 2005). There's a lot of money to be made if you can stay in it for long enough, but most of the banks are a b*&$% to deal with. I made about $90,000 in three months...but that was all I made in the twelve months I worked on short sales. I could maybe be making more money doing that now, but I didn't want to deal with the stress of not knowing when the next check would come. To make decent money, you have to make pretty low offers to banks. Most times they'll know you're an investor and just laugh at your offer. I got a little creative, and posed as a real estate agent "just trying to get the house sold for the homeowner"...this was when I got it figured out. But then a lower-stress opportunity came along and I'm happy I switched! The "real estate gurus" ALWAYS make it sound a million times easier than it actually is. They do this so they can sell their CD and video sets.

[amiquechu 0]

my family owns 3 pretty large home construction companies in our area as well as 2 carpet stores and a concrete business. houses are being built, they're not selling, people getting new carpet has dropped significantly, concrete being poured for foundations or pools has dropped a large amount. last winter they had to lay off quite a few employees because they couldn't sell the houses that they were building fast enough.

I do engineering in the residential field. In Kansas City, a smaller market, we haven't been affected terribly by the downturn. Prices have dropped but not a lot, like in the bigger cities. Middle class and upper-middle class people are doing more remodeling/additions now, instead of buying new houses. The $150,000-$500,000 price range came to a screeching halt in '07 and the first couple of months in '08. But now, it's gradually picking back up. The people that have gone nuts in terms of buying houses are the upper class who don't live paycheck to paycheck. I'm guessing that 2/3 of the plans I've done engineering on the last four months are 5,000 - 12,000 square feet custom monsters.

I have a friend in the mortgage business who moved out to San Diego about five or so years ago and was making a killing before the bubble burst and his commission checks got slashed big time. He ended up having to move back to the KC area. He's still in the mortgage business and actually doing pretty well here in a smaller market where we didn't get the outrageous price increases the bigger cities did a few years back.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

i once read if u bury a statue of a certain patron saint in your yard that you home will sell. not that i buy into these things all the time but it would be interesting to test that theory. i just wish i could remember which saint it was.

[rika60607 215]

That would likely be St. Joseph, the saint of real estate )

i once read if u bury a statue of a certain patron saint in your yard that you home will sell. not that i buy into these things all the time but it would be interesting to test that theory. i just wish i could remember which saint it was.

[rika60607 215]

Hey,

I am looking for a house in Chicago near west suburbs!

Please PM me if you feel like it!

Sigh, we want to sell our house in the burbs of Chicago and move into town...just rent for now.

We are probably going to do it, and not wait...maybe we can rent our house.

At a time when I wished so much that the USD was doing great, it isn't.

Reality check: what will it take for USians to see their situation as it really is?

No one will use words such as recession, or that times are not that good....etc.

Ignorance is bliss.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

That would likely be St. Joseph, the saint of real estate )

i once read if u bury a statue of a certain patron saint in your yard that you home will sell. not that i buy into these things all the time but it would be interesting to test that theory. i just wish i could remember which saint it was.

nice. i wonder how those statues are selling these days?

[AnaAndDaniel 0]

we can start a VJ collection so we can put down a chunk of money for a VJ house. kinda like a frat house.

we could have reunions there and watch wrestling matches.

Daniel

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

we can start a VJ collection so we can put down a chunk of money for a VJ house. kinda like a frat house.

we could have reunions there and watch wrestling matches.

Daniel

oooo lemme know when it's time for the mermaid-lisad match!

[mawilson 2,133]

Check out all the perks being given out by new construction site people...

South Loop (Chicago) Glashaus

(price is completely ridiculous)

1 bd + den 900sf $289K

WITH 8 day Hilton Waikiki timeshare every year for life.

Still pretty silly!

Is $289K ridiculiously cheap for a 1bd in Chicago?