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In trouble with your mortgage?  Feeling a bit desperate?  What to do, what to do?

Don’t fall for a scam that offers you quick and ready help.  Instead, call a counselor.

Counselors work, according to a recent study by the Urban Institute.  Since 2007, when the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program was founded to help distressed homeowners, $410 million has gone into the program.  Over 750,000 were helped through the end of 2008.  These borrowers were 60% more likely to keep their homes if they received counseling.  Their monthly payments were decreased to an average of $454.

Part of the counselor’s job is to help homeowners evaluate whether they can afford to keep their homes and then to help them gather the loan documents the lender needs to consider a modification.

This is an interesting finding in view of recently released statistics that 51% of loan modifications in the last year were in default by the end of 2009.  Did something change in the finances of those counseled?  Did counseling standards change as new federal programs encouraged more people to seek a counselor?  Were counselors too optimistic and those served so anxious to keep their homes that they agreed to a payment schedule that was still too high for their income?  Further studies into why re-defaults occurred in 2009 will undoubtedly reveal some needed insights.

The newest federal program announced that March 26 attacks the double-headed monster of negative equity and unemployment.  Most analysts of past housing remedies blame the failure of lenders to reduce principal and bring housing values and loan values more in sync.  The new program offers lenders incentives to offer principle reduction and provides temporary help to people who are unemployed.  Even though the program is only hours old at this writing, no one expects that this is the silver bullet that will “fix housing” either.

Counselors are constrained by available programs to offer their clients.  Regardless of the program, counselors link those who can be helped to ways to get help even if the help is not the final answer to their problems.  This stark reality does not undermine the findings from 2008: Counseling works!

Want to sell your house fast?  Your house worries can be behind you in two weeks by calling Express Homebuyers.  We buy homes for cash and can have $2,500 in your hands even before your deal closes.

This subject came up on Dr. Phil the other day.  He asked the audience about mistakes they had made.  One person brought up that she had bought a house.  “Everyone” suggested it was a good idea, but she thought otherwise when the roof developed a major leak.  She was angry with the landlord until she remembered, “O, that’s me!”  She quickly decided that she didn’t want to be responsible for property and longed for the days of more carefree renting.

Does this describe you? Would you prefer to direct your money elsewhere besides home repair and new carpeting?  Do you travel and find homeownership a burden?  Or are you struggling to pay anything besides your basic mortgage and maybe even having trouble with that since you got laid off or had your hours cut?

It may be part of the American Dream to own a home, but that does not have to be the blueprint for your life. If you have signed on the dotted line sometime in the past and have lived to regret it, you have options!  Maybe you should have bought a condo rather than a house.  Maybe you should have stuck to renting.

Given the state of affairs in real estate today, you may have come to the realization that you made a mistake at the wrong time. Selling can be challenging, even though the Days on Market (DOM) have gone down in many parts of the country, especially in DC, Virginia, and Maryland.

Express Homebuyers fixes mistakes.  We will buy your home for cash in short order, so can get back into your comfort zone within two weeks.  We even give you $2,500 up front to facilitate your move.  A simple call to 1-877-804-5252 can get things going for you.

Even in this age of computer-fed journalism, gallons of ink has been figuratively spilled to discuss and evaluate the hard time that home-sellers are experiencing in the current economy.  Figures in the DC area show shortened Days On the Market (DOM) and more stabilized housing prices. While this may seem like good news for sellers – a lot of the challenges are still not over.

When you want to or need to move, due to divorce, job transfers or economic challenges; you usually want to go quickly.  You find yourself on the downside of Bill Moyers’ famous quip, “Buy a home, sell a house.” Even before you anticipate buying a new home, you have disassociated yourself from the old one.  If you are not in a hurry, you might feel like avoiding the agony of actually going through a sale, until you really need to make one. If you are distressed and are not moving by choice, you have probably surpassed the stages associated with denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance; and really want to move on to the next stage.

Decreased DOM means that on an average, You, as a seller, will have less time to wait to get an ‘ideal’ offer.  According to Jay McDonald of bankrate.com, for sellers whose properties don’t seem to move – DOM means DOOM.  You feel no certainty that your home will sell just because you want to sell it. Your plans are delayed, you are faced with unpalatable choices such as lowering the price, you are just passively waiting to sell or choose to take the home off the market. 

What might give you partial hope is that these days there are many incentives pushing buyers towards homeownership.  The up side is that this triggers a sale of your home more quickly.  However, the huge flipside is that you are the one providing some of the incentives, by giving price concessions, making unnecessary repairs to please buyers, and contributing to closing costs. As a buyer of a new home, you yourself may look forward to some of the same dynamics, however, as a seller, this whole process would give you the short end of the stick.

From a seller’s perspective, how can you minimize your stress, as well as your DOM, so you can move on more quickly?  Contact Express Homebuyers today.  We buy homes for cash within two weeks – much better than the best DOM in the nation!  Contact us today for the answers to all your questions!