The current housing inventory will be around for at least a couple years, and rental  properties and

investments  will be the driving force till a balance between inventory and demand is acheived. This is the

 time everyone is looking for great companies to do business with. People they can trust with thier time

 and money. I have been in this industry for 17 years. and have seen many changes. With the coming of

new RESPA issues, buying real estate becomes even more of a challenge. The new HUD 1 form now

has more charges and credits, so as to confuse buyer and seller even more. Why do we need to charge

the buyer; the mortgage title policy fee and transfer taxes, then turn around and have the seller credit

these charges? It is spelled out in the purchase agreements who is paying for both of these items.

Bureaucrats no nothing about the issues in the real estate industry, especially here in Michigan, since they

clearly have made more of a mess. Why has there not been a delagation from the Title and Mortgage

Broker associations fighting to be heard? Common sense does not prevail most of the time in politics. I

hope this finds it's way to people that can make a difference. Appraisals are another issue, don't get me

started there! Another common sense issue! Compare foreclosed homes with bank owned sales and

regular sales with private individual sales. At least that would make more sense and bring back

reasonable values.  I had an issue the other day where the purchase agreement was for 190K and that

was a good price. Then the appraisal came back 170K. The property owner still needed to pay off 190K for

thier existing mortgage.  If bank owned properties were not used in the appraisal, then the property

 would have appraisaed at the agreed upon price. The owners were in a position to come up with the

difference whereas the Buyers were not. This deal would have gone by the wayside and another good deal

would have been thrwarted.  Appraiser used to have to adjust for FHA transactions- why not for Bank

Owned Properties also? Michigan is in an especially rough position and the rules for appraising properties

needs to change, so a fair price can be had by all.