There certainly is a lot of confusion about modifying for the average homeowner to try to navigate through today and it is changing by the minute. We have the acronyms coming out of space at us and we as professionals are trying to keep up with it all.  What's a homeowner to do when the lenders can't even figure it out themselves?

What you might want to consider before you even look at a modification is your own local real estate market, you local economy, and the stability of the neighborhood you live in, in addition to how much you actually owe on your home vs. today's market value. Why are all of these factors so important? Well, a modification might not be the best solution for you at all.

Take a good look at you local real estate market. There are many places on the internet you can check, or you may consult with a local professional I would recommend you get at least two opinions on this from very qualified professionals. Ask them to provide you some documentation about the rate of decline in sales prices in your local market, the increase or decrease in the amount of homes selling. Ask them to provide you with neighborhood specifics in your neighborhood. How many are short sales or foreclosures?How many are normal sales? How long are they taking to sell? This will give you an better idea of the current value.

Then look at the unemloyment rate in your area. Is it declining or increasing? Is it worse or better than your state average? Are there prospects of new employers coming into your area, or expansions with current companies? Check with the Chamber of Commerce, or you Economic Development Council. If the rate of unemployment is rising or higher than the state average, chances are that the recovery in housing prices will take longer in your area.

Why is all this information important to you if you simply want to get your payment reduced on your home? If you get your payment reduced through a loan modification, you are going to be signing some new documents from your lender. You may be giving away some rights under this new agreement that you currently have under your old agreement. Most people just don't read the fine print, because they are so very relieved that they have reduced their payments to an amount they can afford and in signing the modification, the mortgage has been brought back into good standing (with payments and interest tacked on to the end of the loan).

Now you owe more than you did before, and it may take many years before your equity will increase enough for you to sell without applying for a short sale anyway.

For some homowners, the obvious solution is a short sale. It just hard to face the fact that you will have to move and become a renter for a while. It seems like a step in the wrong direction, when in fact it may be the best solution of all, epecially while Uncle Sam is has specail allowances in place for you to do so.

Please visit my website at www.stopocalaforeclosures.com for further information and definitions and free reports.

It could be possible that things are starting to change for the better in short sales and modifications for distressed homeonwers. Yesterday I received a couple of phone calls that indicated promise on the horizon for borrowers from Bank of America.

The first call was from a past client that lives in California and has an investment property in Ocala, FLorida. He had his home on the market as a short sale, but Bank of America just offered him a modification that cut his payment in half. PERMANTLY.  His rental home in Ocala now positve cash flows and it is one less property listed in an oversupplied market. His credit doesn't get dinged and the tenant doesn't have to worry about having to move.

The second call was from a representative from Bank of America stating that they will now be using REOtrans for their short sale processing. They have been familiar to me as a third party company for bank owned properties and now they are going to handle Bank of America short sales. I was not clear if this was all the short sales through Bank of AMerica or just some of them.

It has been tough, if not impossible  with Bank of America since they absorbed all the Countrywide loans on getting short sales approved, so maybe this will be the solution we've all been waiting for. They already seem to be more efficient with the strategy that we communicate by email and we can check the progress along with the seller at any tiime by logging in.

As a Short sale Specialist in Ocala, having dealt with Bank Of America before and after the Countrywide absorption, it must have been like a tsunami for the mitigators at that bank. If Reotrans can solve this problem, it's really going to make a huge dent in the real estate market in Ocala, and probably around the country.

Some short sale specialists had already stopped representing sellers that had Bank of America or former Countrywide borrowers because of the lack of response. My suggestion today is if a borrower has been turned down for a modification, reapply today. You may get a diffierent answer from your lender because of improvements in their system.

If you or your Realtor gave up on a short sale, try again. Be sure and use a Realtor with a proven track record on getting short sales approved and closed. Here in Ocala, we still have many misconceptions out floating around.  You wouldn't believe the stories I hear from other agents and sellers that were given bad information.

One cliche' that sticks with me in the short sale specialist industry. "The only thing constant is change." ( I hope I said that right.)

The latest sales activity shows that although the Ocala real estate activity has increased substantially since the same time in 2008, the prices  of homes selling is down and not surprisingly, the number of foreclosures selling  has drastically increased.

In through October of 2008, the number of homes sold is 2279. The number of homes sold through October of 2009 is 2739, an increase of 460 homes sold. However, last year only 661 of the homes sold in the Ocala/Marion County MLS system were under $100,000. This year, the number of homes sold under $100,000 increased to 1313 homes.  That's an increase of almost 100% in the number of homes sold below $100,000.

The first time buyer activity and the $8000 first time buyer home credit is partially responsible, but another reason is the increase in the number of foreclosures sold this year vs. last year.

Last year, only 239 of the homes sold through the first 10 months were either bank owned or corporate owned, slightly over 10% of the overall number. This year, the foreclosure or bank owned homes sold number increased  to 678 homes sold and closed so far this year in Ocala/Marion County. The statistics show that the number of foreclosures sold has increased to almost 25% of the sold activity.

These statistics do not show the other distressed properties sold known as short sales, or pre foreclosures.  The number of distressed properties selling is definitely increasing in the Ocala real estate market, which is a surprise to almost no one who lives here. We all watched the Ocala real estate boom take place with all the new homes getting built on scattered lots all over Marion County.

We just didn't know that it would end so abruptly. We do still have many homes selling that are not short sales and foreclosures, they just have the competition in pricing to contend with on the bank owned homes in order to get their properties sold.

If you would like to receive a list of the new foreclosures each morning by email, just contact me at www.findocalahomes.com and I will be happy to put you on our automatic email list.

If you would like to find out what your home is worth in today's market, just call me at 352-351-5429 or on my cell at 352-427-5704.

If you need help with getting your home sold and you think you owe more than it worth in today's real estate market, just contact me or go to www.stopocalaforeclosures.com  There is a wealth of information there to help you decide which road to take and a glossary of terms and definitions to assist you in understanding your options.

We are here to help.

Have you ever heard the phrase "Timing is everything"?

There are so many factors that are helping.

1. The first factor is the number of homes that are being sold as short sales. The short sale is like finding the perfect outfit on the clearance rack without knowing what the price will be. You have to wait a little longer to find out, but when you make the offer and get the accepted price back from the manager, (seller's lender), it a price too good to pass up. 
2. The programs that are out there are fantastic. The USDA loan that so many buyers qualify for helps get a buyer in a home for absolutely no money down from the buyer. If the Realtor writes the contract correctly, the buyer can get all the closing costs paid by the seller including their first year's insurance on the home.  This is a real no money down deal. Not like the ones on the info-mercials. This is a mainstream loan.
3. The interest rates are in the low 5's on these loans. What that means to the buyer is that many times the payment is as low or lower than the rent payment they are paying. I have helped many buyers with a purchase where they ended up paying less per month than the rent payment they were previously paying and now they own a home. When the market recovers and starts appreciating again, they will have a great automatic investment. (History has shown that real estate values recover over and over)  Don't think interest rates won't go up again. This is a 30 year fixed rate. Lock it in while you can.
4. The $7500 tax credit exists for first time buyers or buyers that haven't owned a primary residence in three years. This is a phenomenal break that the federal government is already offering as a stimulus for buyers to buy, even prior to Obama. This also has a time of expiration. The credit expires July 1st of this year. The paperwork is actually very simple in order to get your credit.