"Home Sales Plunge 27% to Lowest Rate on Record."  If you're a homeowner looking to sell your home, this headline from USA Today comes as a great discouragement.  It's even more discouraging if you're underwater on your mortgage hoping against hope that your house would gain in value so that you could sell it and get out of your bad mortgage situation.   Talking about the latest numbers in home sales, Mark Zandi at Moody Analytics.com said, "This qualifies as a double dip in housing.  It's particularly disconcerting given that fixed mortgage rates are lower. The recovery is weakening. These are pretty ugly numbers."

President Obama, his economists, and the news have been talking about a slow recovery.  Sadly, in the housing market, the "slow recovery" is little more than a wishful thought.  For buyers, the news is good - this market is inescapably a buyer's market.  Not only are homes available at very reasonable prices, but loans are at their lowest interest rates in years.  If you have the means, there's plenty of opportunity to get a great deal on a home.

Sellers are not without options, however.  If you're able to afford to hold on to your home, great, but be ready for the market to get worse over the next year. However, if you're underwater on your mortgage or, worse, facing foreclosure, it might be time to consider a short sale.  For many, joblessness and a recent spike in their adjustable rate mortgage proved to be knock-out punches.  In addition to losing their job and having to pay a higher monthly mortgage than they previously were paying, these individuals are living in a home that has decreased dramatically in value putting them underwater on their mortgages.  Foreclosure seems like the inevitable outcome.

If you're in this situation, it's time to consider a short sale.  The fact of the matter is that millions of homeowners nationwide are in your exact situation.  Many were caught off guard by the sudden spike in their ARM; few expected to lose their jobs.  You, and they, have been caught up in a perfect storm of financial chaos that has flooded the market with problems.  A short sale, if done properly, will be a calm in the storm enabling you to sell your home while having your mortgage debt forgiven by the bank.

Here's what you need to do to get started.  First, find a reputable real estate agent with a track record of success in short sales.  Short sales are not the same as standard (equity) sales and they require a knowledgeable person to see them through to the end.  Don't rely on tag lines like "short sale expert."  Paper certificates from a brief seminar isn't good enough.  Ask to see proven results.  Second, make sure you have an attorney reviewing the terms of the sale.  A good short sale attorney may be able to eliminate "recourse" language from the sale thereby stopping banks from trying to collect on your mortgage debt in the future.  Third, don't hide anything about the home.  When you find an agent, tell them the full story so that nothing surprises either the agent or the bank.  When negotiating a short sale, surprises put the success of the sale at risk.  Finally, be ready to wait.  Unlike standard sales, short sales require negotiation and negotiations take time.

We recommend you work with Fitzpatrick and Prince Real Estate and Rasmussen Law Firm.  They have a proven record of success having closed 95% of their short sales.  Nationally, the average short sale closure rate is only 20%.  Additionally, these companies have worked together on a number of short sales, they understand how the other operates, and can move quickly, together, to negotiate with the banks to close your short sale.  Start the conversation today with Mark, Whitney, or Blake at Fitzpatrick and Prince Real Estate.  Give them a call at: 800.880.9962.