But if you lack the experience and the required skills to follow through with the sales process, you will probably be more comfortable working with a qualified real estate agent than going the FSBO route. Select the right estate agent who has the potential to sell your type of property - not the one who offers the highest valuation of your home. Look at their books to check if they have sold properties similar to yours in the area.

Signage encourages home shoppers to immediately call you or your agent. If your home is a corner plot, put up two signs. Talk to your neighbor whose home is located at the corner of a busy street, asking for permission to put a sign in that yard with an arrow pointing toward yours. The signs should include you phone number and the phone number of the agent’s office and the agent’s cell or voice mail number. Print advertising reaches buyers who read newspapers and internet ads reach the computer users. Insert ads in major newspapers on a Sunday but some newspapers also publish “picture classifieds” on other days. Advertise in local newspapers where you can possibly run a larger ad for less money and that will more closely target those searching homes in your area. Advertising in Real estate publications will also be useful.

If you are a direct seller, you can buy mailing lists from list brokers for a small fee. If you are represented by an estate agent, talk to him about a direct mail program. You should direct mail to your neighbors as they may have friends and relatives who might want to buy homes nearer to them. You must send mailers to agents who represent buyers in your neighborhood and to those who live in neighboring areas who may wish to relocate to your neighborhood. However, since most buyers are represented by an agent, it is a good idea to invite as many agents and brokers as possible to view your home. Local agents who linger around your home will better remember details to later describe to buyers. The best way to entice an agent to hang around is food and it does not cost much as sandwiches and tea will suffice.

One important thing to remember when negotiating your offer with the potential buyer is to take your time and not appear impatient. Do not make the buyer feel that you are in desperately wanting to close the sale as this will usually result in a low offer.

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Expensive houses, as a rule, did not hit the foreclosure market unless there had been some monumental catastrophe like a death in the family or serious illness which affected the family finances. Not anymore apparently if the latest listings in Baldwin County are anything to go by.

Traditionally a wealthy area with homes in the $800,000 plus range it now has several properties in foreclosures going for about $600,000 a piece. The fact that properties in that range have began to show up on foreclosure lists is a clear indication that the property market is undergoing a sharper correction than expected and it is going to start affecting property prices at a deeper level than has hitherto been thought possible.

This means that the credit crunch that has been making itself felt right across the financial market is now beginning to bite all types of income and may well continue to do so unless some sort of respite is found and the market starts to breathe a little more easily again.

High value properties hitting the foreclosure list is not good news for anyone. They will be sold of course as real estate investors move in to pick them up and sell them fast but they are the first indication we have had so far that the credit crunch we are experiencing has began to bite deeper.

The question right now is what does this mean for the real estate market as a whole and real estate investors. Well, in terms of the effects of the credit crunch it is a worrying sign and should perhaps begin to give us cause for concern. Credit crunches often lead to market shrinkage and recessionary pressures because they restrict the ability of many people to tap into money sources and that is not good news.

In the short term real estate investors will probably benefit from the new, high-ticket properties coming in the market but their ability to offload them fast may be restricted too if their potential buyers cannot raise enough money due to credit restrictions and tougher lending.

There have been rumours that the Fed, bowing to pressure brought to bear by a large number of organizations may step in and force lenders to be more transparent in their lending methods. It may also reduce interest rates and make it easier for home owners to meet payments in their mortgages in which case our current crisis may well soon be over.

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First let’s establish that under the Home Ownership & Equity Protection Act of 1994, the Fed has the power to set such regulation which compels lenders to tighten up on their lending practices and establish a more transparent lending process that is a lot less predatory than some we see at the moment.

According to ACORN, as one of the nation’s top three regulating agencies for the financial industry, the Fed has a responsibility to prevent abusive lending practices. Its president, Maude Hurd has often gone on record to say that ‘The Fed could step in right now and help stem the tide of foreclosures; American homeowners shouldn’t have to wait for Congress to pass new legislation.’
Some of the recommendations made to the Fed by ACORN include:
• Eliminating prepayment penalties on subprime mortgages
• Barring lender approvals for loans a borrower cannot afford
• Limiting use of no documentation/stated income loans
At the moment Congress has not decided one way or another and neither has the Fed decided to make a stand and force lenders to adopt stricter practices and this has left many potential homeowners exposed to lending practices which may, in turn, lead them into situations where they could not meet their debts.
Owning a home is part of the great American Dream and, potentially, anything that is done to make it harder for people to achieve it strikes at the very heart of a sacred cow. However there is a lot to be said against accepting lending behavior that only serves to increase the profits of the lender. Predatory lending practices which do not permit American home owners to fully understand their financial commitment and, as a result, later on lose their home, ultimately, harm the economy at large.
An economy where the number of foreclosures disproportionately reflects the number of new and established home buyers is an economy that is teetering on the verge of a recession with a real shrinkage of services in terms of building new homes, developing them or fixing them and this has a knock-on effect on the retail trade.
It may well be that the market will see sense and predatory lending practices will stop as lending organizations and institutions begin to self-regulate their industry, but if that does not happen the Fed will need to step in or risk having the great American economy go into a fatal tailspin. 

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The delinquency survey which the MBA carries out covers more than 44 million mortgages and it showed that the previous highest percentage of defaulting home owners recorded was in 2006 and it was 0.43%. This has now risen to 0.58% of all loans made.

Small as the percentage may be it shows that more than 286,000 loans entered the foreclosure process during the quarter in question.

You will ask me here, ok, where’s the good news? Well, gloomy as the figures may be they are actually pretty good because of all the States surveyed they all showed a decline in the overall number of foreclosures with the exception of states of California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona. In these four States foreclosures actually increased and they increased by a number large enough to actually make up for the dip in the other thirty-four States surveyed.

This means two things: 1. The dip in real estate is about to plateau and then we will see a steady incline as we head for the next growth period. 2. The increase in foreclosures in those four States is also a direct reflection of the robust real estate market they had there and the fact that they simply had more people than any other State buy their own home and borrow money to do it.

There is clear correlation on this: According to the MBA report California has 17% of the sub-prime ARMs in the country and more than 19% of the foreclosure starts on sub-prime ARMs. California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona have more than one-third of the country’s sub-prime ARMs and more than one-third of the foreclosure starts on sub-prime ARMs.

What is probably happening is that we now are beginning to enter the phase where the number of foreclosures is reaching a plateau prior to the market picking up and the four States in question are still locked in the shake up that releases new properties into the market and corrects house prices through the foreclosure mechanism.

The million dollar question is, of course, just how close are we to the end of the real estate market’s woes. Hard to tell. There are still figures coming through which may represent the tail end of foreclosures but that tail end could be both quiet substantial and prolonged. There are other factors affecting foreclosures and defaulting such as the ability to create new jobs in the economy and if that shrinks it affects home owners.

Overall we can see there is now light at the end of the tunnel and that is great news indeed. What we are not sure of yet is how long the tunnel is.

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The phrase “safe as houses” did not originate casually. Real estate has always been a great area to invest and though the market has suffered from occasional peaks and troughs these are an inevitable part of the progression rather than evidence that real estate is beginning to lose its glow as a great area to make money.

We are, at the moment, locked into a cycle of foreclosures which has grabbed newspaper headlines eager to catch on anything that will sell copies and it has resulted in a short-sighted feeding frenzy of negative publicity.

Now, this is not to say that an increase in foreclosures is good news. No. Foreclosures are problematic and they are accompanied by a certain amount of heartache and discomfort. They are, also, a vital part of the way our economic system works and act as a self-correcting mechanism which slows down and overheated market and returns balance to house prices.

Without foreclosures the following things would happen: 1. New house buyers would be squeezed out of the market as house prices would rise and rise. New house buyers are part of what drives the housing market so when they are squeezed out of the system it is never a good thing. 2. House buyers would be locked within their particular income bracket in terms of the house they could buy and they would never be able to move out of it. 3. Real estate investors would be unable to step in and jump-start a sluggish economy as there would be no opportunities.

Luckily, the way our economy is structured we have the foreclosure system which acts as a type of gear that allows us to shift down and speed up so we can scale up instead of getting locked in a one-speed market that is destined to run out of fuel.

Foreclosures present the smart real estate investor with the perfect opportunity to create win-win situations where he helps out homeowners stuck in a debt-trap, offers properties to new home owners at prices that allow them to get their foot on the property ladder at a much better level than they would otherwise have been able to afford.

In the process, real estate investors also benefit which is also a good thing for the economy at large. None of this would have been possible without the foreclosure system we have set up as a means of maintaining a balance in our economy.

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The first likely problem may pertain to the site. There may be certain peculiar restrictions such as neighbors may have to trespass into your property, house expansion may not be feasible, major pipelines are running underground etc. .Inadequate outer space can be a serious problem, particularly if your home has much less yard area than other homes in the neighborhood. Prospective buyers will in all probability shy away.

The second problem may be with regard to the location. Homes located in remote or less developed areas and homes that are situated opposite office buildings or retail centers are less fancied by buyers. Buyers looking for family peace and domestic comfort want homes away from commercial areas. If your home has no direct street frontage or there is a building or some other construction in front of your home. It is a positive disadvantage. Intending buyers will certainly be put off. The general reaction by buyers to high tension wires crossing near you home is to summarily reject the house. Most prospective buyers will simply drive away if the approach road is steep. They would obviously want to choose an area that is elitist and reflect pride in ownership. There could be security problems in your area - drug dealers, thefts, and other safety aspects which will make your home not saleable.

The third problem, though seemingly peculiar but quite common, is whether your home has been in the market for sale for a long time. Is it because the price simply set too high or is there a problem with the house that is difficult to correct? A house can remain unsold in the market for a long time if lots of houses in the area are available for sale. This may simply be a supply and demand issue.

The fourth problem may be with regard to amenities. Poor water drainage may prove to be a serious problem. Talk with an expert about improving the drainage around the house, and evaluate any previous damage caused by flooding or rain water entering the house. There could be structural defects like loose fill on the lot, clay soil, drainage issues, or poor construction. Excessive remarks noted on your inspection report will indicate that your house was not maintained properly or was it was poorly constructed. Previous history of large insurance claims can pose a serious problem as there may be difficulty in obtaining insurance on the home.

The fifth likely problem may arise if the home that have excess acreage as most people feel safer buying one of the cheaper houses in the neighborhood instead paying for unwanted additional land. Badly designed floor plans that make living in the home uncomfortable will turn away buyers. Rooms that are disproportionate in size, poor access to the backyard, low ceilings, fewer windows, less ventilation and other layout issues will result in a re-sale problem.

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