Unfortunately, I do not believe that we have seen the bottom of the foreclosures. I wish I could look into a crystal ball and tell everyone when this will hit bottom. All we can do is speculate and make our decisions based upon the knowledge we have at the time.

If you find yourself in a position where you can no longer make your mortgage payments the worst thing you can do is to do nothing at all. Don’t just put those notices from the bank in a stack for later. You need to call your bank and tell them you are having difficulties. They may or may not be cooperative but you should still call them. 

Next call a Realtor to see if they can help you.  Some banks will only look at a short sale  if  the house has already been on the market for  a  few months. The banks want to see that you are diligently trying to sell the house. 

After you get notices from the bank and your home is pending foreclosure you will probably start getting phone calls and letters from a lot of different people claiming they can help you  out of the foreclosure. They claim they will negotiate a short sale for you. However…….their “services” require a fee. I have heard of the fee being as low as $500.00 to as high as $3,500.00. After you pay their “fees” you are ignored and your calls are not returned. You may get a token call every now and then…. well,if you are lucky.  Ultimately your home goes to the court house steps for auction. Really?! This is what you paid that person to do for you? Take your money and send you to foreclosure anyway?  ***** (At the time of this posting only licensed mortgage brokers or the home owners can negotiate a short sale in the State of Georgia.  GAR is trying to get this law changed so that Realtors can help home owners in the long negotiation process.)*****

The other semi-scam is where you Quit Claim your property over to an investor and they take over the mortgage payments for you. They claim they will make the payments, keep you out of foreclosure and bring your credit score back up. After you sign the house over  they move into the house, place renters into the house or leave it empty or……well let just your imagination run wild here as I am sure some of you have seen the trashed houses out there. This is all wonderful until the day comes when the investor stops making the mortgage payments. Then  who is facing foreclosure? Not the investor, no, no,no…. you are once again on the road to the court house steps. But wait you signed a Quit Claim deed, right?  You gave up your rights to the property, whatever they may have been, but you are still financially liable to the bank for the mortgage. I am not saying that this has not worked out well for some folks because it has been a life saver for them……but for others it has been a nightmare. With all that said, let me say one more thing….I know of good, honest people that have done this type of investing, stuck to their word and helped people that were in trouble facing a foreclosure.  I have also seen the nightmares happen. Just be very careful if you decide to go this route. Make sure you check out the investor and their track record before you proceed.

There are good people out there that are honest and willing to help. Then there are the scammers that just want to take your money when you are most vulnerable.

If you find yourself in a foreclosure situation be very careful of the schemers.   It’s a jungle out there!

Pending Home Sales Down from Surge but Higher than a Year Ago

Washington, January 05, 2010

Contract activity for pending home sales fell after a surge of activity in preceding months to beat the original deadline for the first-time home buyer tax credit but remains comfortably above a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in November, fell 16.0 percent to 96.0 from an upwardly revised 114.3 in October, but is 15.5 percent higher than November 2008 when it was 83.1.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said a drop was expected. “It will be at least early spring before we see notable gains in sales activity as home buyers respond to the recently extended and expanded tax credit,” he said. “The
fact that pending home sales are comfortably above year-ago levels shows the market has gained sufficient momentum on its own. We expect another surge in the spring as more home buyers take advantage of affordable housing conditions before the tax credit expires.”

Buyers who have a contract in place to purchase a primary residence by April 30, 2010, have until June 30, 2010, to finalize the transaction to qualify for the tax credit of up to $8,000 for first-time buyers and $6,500 for repeat buyers.

The PHSI in the Northeast dropped 25.7 percent to 74.4 in November but is 14.7 percent above a year ago. In the Midwest the index fell 25.7 percent to 82.0 but is 9.2 percent higher than November 2008. Pending home sales in the South fell 15.0 percent to an index of 97.8, but are 14.7 percent higher than a year ago. In the West the index declined 2.7 percent to 124.6 but is 21.4 percent above November 2008.

Yun projects an additional 900,000 first-time buyers will qualify for the extended tax credit in addition to about 2 million who have already purchased; 1.5 million repeat buyers also are expected to benefit from the credit.

“Many trade-up buyers, who have historically timed their purchase based on school-year considerations, will have to accelerate their buying plans if they need the tax credit to make a trade,” Yun said. Repeat buyers do not have to sell their existing home to qualify for the credit, but they must occupy the home they buy as their primary residence.

Yun added that mortgage interest rates cannot remain at rock-bottom levels for a sustained period and will likely inch higher in 2010. But the tax credit impact in the first half of the year and expected job growth impact in the second half will support home buying activity and absorb enough inventory to bring a rough balance between buyers and sellers. Home prices are expected to stabilize or even modestly rise as a result in 2010.

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

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*The Pending Home Sales Index is a leading indicator for the housing sector, based on pending sales of existing homes. A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not closed, though the sale usually is finalized within one or two months of signing.

The index is based on a large national sample, typically representing about 20 percent of transactions for existing-home sales. In developing the model for the index, it was demonstrated that the level of monthly sales-contract activity from 2001 through 2004 parallels the level of closed existing-home sales in the following two months. There is a closer relationship between annual index changes (from the same month a year earlier) and year-ago changes in sales performance than with month-to-month comparisons.

An index of 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity during 2001, which was the first year to be examined as well as the first of five consecutive record years for existing-home sales.

Existing-home sales for December will be reported January 25 and the next Pending Home Sales Index will be on February 2; release times are 10 a.m. EST.

This is what your buyers think of your home