This, that and the other thing

Do any of our readers have books from the 1950's school days?  Dick and Jane?  Music and song books?  Just lookin'.

One client did not make a house payment for a year and was surprised to hear the lender adds the unpaid monthly payments to the loan balance, making her home mortgage more than her home value and her home sale now a short sale.  Thought you should know.

Times are tough but houses are selling still.  We previewed several in January we felt were over -priced; they all sold!  What they had in common was "cute, cute, cute", stylish, snazzy......snazzy sells!

Distress sales are the anchor holding down our market.  More and more folks are trying to preserve their credit.  A short sale damages credit  less than a foreclosure. Doing a short sale allows them to get out from under the mortgage, now higher than the homes value, while not destroying their credit.  The banks are getting better at processing short sales in a timely fashion.  Buyers are snapping them up as they generally sell slightly under market value.  Why do they sell under market value?  Because it is still a long process with uncertainty as it is subject to bank approval.  The discounted price is necessary to get the buyer hooked, willing to wade through the longish short sale process.

Write us back!  We'd like to hear your comments and questions!