Let's face it. We are living in a new economy whether we like it or not. The real question is how are we going to adjust to it or better, what are we going to do about it?

The Obama administration is spending money like no other before it since the founding of this great nation. All of this is done under the guise of saving our economy but the path is socialism.

I remember someone asking former President Bill Clinton the question, "When has any nation ever spent itself into prosperity?" Of course the answer is, never. Just ask Greece.

Listen to what Matt Spalding of the Heritage Foundation said: "This past year has been a historic one when it comes to the sheer size of legislation forced through Congress. But the health care bill is just a symptom of a larger epidemic: the shift toward an "administrative state" - an unelected, unaccountable, bureaucratic government operating without the consent of the governed. The United States has been moving down this path in fits and starts for some time, from the Progressive Era reforms through the New Deal's interventions in the economy."

But what has all this to do with real estate you might ask? A lot! Remember last week's volatile stock market movement when at one point the market was down almost a thousand points. Investors fled to the 10 year Treasury, driving the yield way down and pulling down the rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage right along with it. The yield came up a bit, but at one point you could get a 30-year fixed rate mortgage for 4.5 percent with no points. That's not bad but at what cost?

What if the market never recovered that day or what if the same thing happened the following day? How would that affect consumer confidence? As everyone knows, consumer confidence is a very important part of the real estate market.

I can go to several websites that will tell me the real estate market has bottomed out and things are on the rise again. On the other hand I can go to some websites that will tell me the worst is not over. Many will tell me the commercial real estate market is the next to fall.

The National Association of Realtors, of which I am a member, has to put a positive spin on things or they will lose more members. Even Clear Capital says a 3.9% decrease in home value was better than the previous 5% between February and March of this year. The slowing of the decline in housing value is seen as a positive trend, even though the overall numbers are still negative.

If our government keeps spending at the current rate, the best thing you can do is get out of debt as there will be a day of reckoning. And that starts with paying off your current mortgage as quickly as possible as more and more banks are projected to default.

Many European nations are making an adjustment away from socialism but we as a nation seem to be on the path that they want to get off of. Greece is broke through over-spending and many are comparing California to Greece. What comes out of California seems to move eastward.

What can we do about it? Get rid of these socialites in November.

For more information about our company, go to www.cansellnow.com

I don't know about you, but as a real estate broker and professional auctioneer, I have to wear many hats. One of the hats we have to wear is that of working short sales for a client that is upside down financially, viz., owing more on their home than what it is worth in today's market.

I don't recall the exact source, I want to say it was NAR, [National Association of Realtors] but back in May-June etc., almost 30% of the homes sold were purchased by investor's via short sales or REO. The investor bought the property with the idea of re-selling it for a profit. Now that is stimulating the economy by way of moving money around, providing liquidity, etc.

However, have you tried to work a short sale lately? Many lenders want the current owner of the property to have been on title for 30 to 90 days before they will approve a loan by a new buyer. It is called seasoning. Most investors hold property for a short period of time. They may make improvements on the property, if needed, or may sell it in an "as is" condition.

This whole process of seasoning has slowed down investor's purchasing and stimulating the economy because they want to keep turning their money over. Having to hold onto a property for 30 to 90 days adds additional cost and cuts into the investor's profit.

The negotiating process normally takes three to six months to go full cycle. And now the investor is told he or she must hold the property for an additional 30 to 90 days after purchase. I think you are beginning to see the picture. Less homes being purchased means more "toxic assets," less money if available to the banks to lend out.

In looking at our records, here are some of the related industries who make money off of a successful short sale:

• Foreclosing Lender (they make far more in a short sale then when they foreclose)
• Listing Agents and Buying Agents
• Attorneys and Title Companies
• Mortgage Broker/Direct Lender
• Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA or whomever buys this loan in the secondary market
• The Appraiser
• The Home Inspector
• Plumbers
• Contractors
• Electricians
• Cities and Towns
• Insurance Company
• The IRS
• Accountants
• Marketing Companies (Direct Mail and Signs)
• Printing Shops

What's the best way to stimulate the economy? The lender's can start by making the short sale process a lot easier.

For more information on how we work with homeowners and realtors with short sales and pre-foreclosures, go to our website at http://www.cansellnow.com .

Is more government the solution or the problem? I would submit to you that government is and always has been the problem. We can all remember when the Clinton administration under Barney Frank wanted home ownership available to all Americans, even to those that could not afford one and was not credit worthy.

How was this accomplished? By pressuring the lenders to make 100% financing available and even in some cases 110%, where the homeowner walked away from the closing table with several thousand dollars in their pockets and never put one penny down in the deal. The first time I saw this, I said to myself, "How is this possible?" Oh, how I learned how it was possible.

When I was a little boy and did wrong, my grandmother would always shake her long index finger in my face and say, "You will reap what you sow".  Now the mortgage industry and the real estate industry are reaping what has been sown over the last few years.

The Obama administration tries it best to put a positive spin on the current state of our economy. I remember watching a charismatic preacher on television one time quoting verses from the Bible out of context about physical healing. He had a terrible cold and looked awfully miserable.

He said that just prior to the program being televised, he prayed to Jesus to heal him of his flu and Jesus did heal him, even though he sounded like he was still sick and his nose was still red and running.

That is a picture of our government today. It is sick (bankrupt) but refuses to believe it. All you have to do is look at our deficit and the amount of spending going on. Just today I got an e-mail from the National Association of Realtors [NAR] giving tacit endorsement to more spending proposed by a group called the Center for American Progress. Isn't that a nice, patriotic, sounding organization?

The fact is CAP is liberal think tank organization headed up by John Podesta, former chief of staff to President Clinton. And to think we pay our dues to NAR to support such lunacy? We don't need more government spending. When has any nation ever spent itself into prosperity? Not in my life time and probably never yours.

Like many of you, I get e-mails and magazines from the National Association of Realtors and from my state association wanting me to write my representatives and endorse many things the Obama administration are proposing to "stimulate" the real estate industry.

Now the Obama administration has proposed to pay each lender $1,000 for each successful short sale. In addition, they want to pay the homeowner $1,500 as "moving" money. They will pay the first lender $1 for every $2 the second lender is allowed to receive.

While this may loosen up the lenders a little to accept more short sale, now the lenders want to put a stipulation in the closing instructions that a home cannot be resold for 90 days after their closing. How is this going to stimulate the economy?

I recently read that 40% of home sold were bought by investors. These investors bought the homes with the idea of reselling for a profit. By adding this stipulation to any closing instructions will only hurt the sale of these homes. I am thankful that many title companies have said they will not issue title insurance with that stipulation. They can't monitor what happens to a home after closing. Secondly, I even wonder if it is legal.

The loan modification program established by the Obama administration just postpones the inevitable, viz., a foreclosure. Even with reduced payments, you still have to have a job to make the payments, plus many homeowners are finding out they don't qualify for this loan modification program.

More foreclosure homes are coming on the market affecting the value of the one next door. Unemployment at a all time high while real estate is at an all time low. Which raise an important question? Where is the money coming from to pay for all this? You got, from you and me in the form of higher taxes.

Can anybody tell me what country or individual has ever spent their way into prosperity by going deeper into debt? Why does our government think otherwise?

For information on working with realtors through short sales, go to my web-site page at http://www.cansellnow.com/shortsaleinfo.html .

I recently attended a Broker-In-Charge CE Update class in my state. I was amazed at the number of brokers/agents that were walking away from possible sales because the principal was upside downside with their mortgage, viz., they owed more than what the home was worth, or they had recently filed for bankruptcy hoping to slow down a foreclosure.

It seemed that the brokers/agents would rather have a root canal done on them than try and work out another short sale offer. The complaints centered on the time it took the lender/bank to make a decision [three to six months... their buyers not willing to wait that long] and then having their commissions slashed, ignoring all the hoops the broker/agent had to go through to get an answer, which was in a lot of cases, "no deal."

It was noted in our handouts that "... a broker who considers accepting a listing in a short sale situation should first ask himself or herself whether s/he is competent to provide the necessary services and to adequately advise and negotiate on behalf of the owner." And I think "competency" is the key.

Having started in the real estate business as an investor, buying, fixing up homes and then selling them, I know of the many frustrations one can go through trying to buy property at the right price, negotiating with the seller and the lender/bank.

With this experience in hand, we are working with more and more real estate brokers in our state handling the short sale process for them and they get paid their full commission. There is no cost to the agent or the seller. It's a win-win situation for all.

For more information, go to my new web-site for agents only at www.canBuynow.com .

Lately, I have been getting more and more e-mails from real estate associations and mortgage lenders encouraging me to contact Congress and tell them to bail out (not exactly their words) the mortgage industry. This would be good for the economy, get the banks to start lending again, realtors could sell more houses and we all could live happily ever after. So they say.

Before going any further, let me preface my statements by saying I am a commissioned auctioneer/real estate broker. My business is down just like many of yours. Now with this understanding, is this bailout a good idea?

Why would I want to burden my children's future with this national debt, a debt the government can never pay back without stealing it from you and me in the form of tax increases? Only if I am selfish and don't care. It would be like maxing out all my credit cards, pulling out all the equity in my home, leaving all this debt to my children upon my demise, just so I can have a good time in the here and now.

Our government is leading us down the primrose path of socialism, all in the name of "national interest." It was the mortgage industry, then the brokerage industry, the airline industry and now the auto industry. In fact, many cities across the country want a piece of the bailout out pie.

Where and when will it all stop? Only when you and I speak up and say enough is enough.

For more information on real estate auctions, go to my website at www.canSellnow.com or call me with your questions at 252-257-4822.

Recently, I received a few calls from some real estate investor friends of mine here in North Carolina venting their frustration with working out short sales with some lenders. It seems some lenders are stalling in making any decisions as to whether they will release a mortgage for less than what is owed. If you have a buyer waiting for a decision from the lenders, believe me, they will not wait around very long.

It seems some lenders may be unwilling to short sale the property thinking that the Federal government will purchase these bad loans at par, thus no need to take a loss by short selling. What has been your experience?

In September of 2007, we made an offer on a pristine home in a golf community in Wake Forest, North Carolina. The lender sent out a local real estate agent for a BPO (Broker's Price Opinion). The BPO figure was way above the current payoff and the lender refused our offer thinking they could sell the property and not take a loss.

If I recall right, the BPO was for about $680,000 with a payoff of approximately $600,000. We offered $535,000 and I was turned down. I don't need to tell you what has happened to the price of real estate since September 2007. I drove by the home last week and guess what? The home has not sold. It has been vacant since April of 2007. I sometimes wonder if the lender wished they had accepted my offer. I am beginning to see this scenario more and more, especially in the economic environment we are in.

I don't know who coined the phrase, "Cash is King", but it is certainly true in the real estate market we are currently experiencing. I have been talking with other investors who are waiting for the market to bottom out. The problem is that no one knows when that will happened.

I  told them that if they can buy today and make a reasonable profit, then by all means buy today. But the greed factor is too great for most of them. They want to wait a little longer. I would prefer inventory and keep cash at a minimum because there are so many uncertainties in our economy today that can affect the value of our dollar.

I am also hearing rumors about the possibility of a Real Estate Resolution Trust. If that happens, I hope the Feds turn to professional auctioneers to help liquidate these properties. No doubt the Feds will suffer a loss but not as much of a loss if they use bank employees or attorneys to auction these properties.

For more information about real estate auctions, go to my web-site http://www.cansellnow.com

As I write this, I realize that much can change this week with regards to the Feds final plans and Congressional approval to rescue the banking industry. So what I am about to say is based upon what is currently being proposed. I also realize that what I am about to say will be only understood by a handful of people who understand the economics of this country. My disclaimer is that I am not an economist but someone who grew up under a constitutional form of government.

What is being proposed by the Federal government is socialism, spelled with a big S. Webster New World Dictionary defines socialism as following:  1. any of various theories or systems of the ownership and operation of the means of production and distribution by society or the community rather than by private individuals, with all members of society or the community sharing in the work and the products; 2. the stage of society, in Marxist doctrine, coming between the capitalist stage and the communist stage, in which private ownership of the means of production and distribution has been eliminated.

Our federal government is about to "nationalize" the mortgage market, the insurance, the financial institutions, and soon, the big 3 automakers, to the tune of $700 billion dollars, and as one economist said, the true cost is closer to one trillion dollars.

What does $700 billion or one trillion really look like? I was listening to Chuck Swindoll on the radio in my car this past week when he had another businessman explain to him the difference between one million dollars and one billion dollars. The businessman said if you had a single three foot stack of tightly bound one hundred dollar bills that would be what a million dollars look like.

On the other hand, a double stack of one hundred dollar bills tightly bound as tall as the Empire State Building would equal one billion. If this is true representation, we can say that $700 billion is doubled stacked one dollar bills 700 times taller than the Empire State Building.

Now where does all this money come from? It will come through increased taxes or by monetizing the economy, viz., start up the printing presses, which will produce inflation.

If the current proposal passes Congress, it creates a "Czar" position for Henry Paulson which gives him power that, according to the language in this proposal, is" non-reviewable by any court or any administrative agency." Paulson will have more power than our president that no one can challenge.

I keep asking the question but I cannot get an answer, "Where in our constitution does the government have the authority to do what is about to happen?"

There is talk about the Fed forming a Resolution Trust to liquidate all the bad loans these banks have accumulate. I suppose as a real estate auctioneer, I should be excited about this but I can't, not at the expense it will have on our country. And now, we are hearing talk about our government bailing out foreign banks as well because these banks have lent money to Americans.

When will all this insanity end? Not until you and I speak out and say enough is enough.

I received an interesting phone call from a realtor in California. She had read some articles I had written about using an auction as a first choice method of selling a home, rather than as a last option. Her question to me was this, "Should I become an auctioneer?"

My first tacit thought was, "Go for it!" Yes, auctioning a home is a fast way to sell it, but not all homes will qualify for an auction. But before I get into answering the question, let me discuss briefly what an auctioneer does and does not do.

Some think that an auctioneer shows up on the day of the auction, starts talking fast, sells the house, and he/she is done. Actually, the activities that take place on the auction day, represents about 5% of the total auction process.

The perception of a realtor may be closer, viz., a contract is signed, a sign is posted in the yard, information is listed in the local MLS, and the listing agent hopes and prays that it gets sold. We know that is not always true but that is how the public portrays us.

Now back to the question "should realtors become auctioneers?" My answer is, "It depends." Most auctioneers are a second, third or even fourth generation of auctioneers. They are in the business become they love it and have been around it since the beginning of time. Most auctioneers are specialist in a particular area such as farm equipment, heavy duty equipment, antiques, cars and trucks, land and yes, real estate, both residential and commercial.

I don't know what the licensing laws of California are, but here in North Carolina you must go to a state approved school for pre-licensing requirements which may involve ten days to two weeks of your time, then you must past a state administered test.

There are annual renewing requirements, professional associations to join such as your state association and/or the National Association of Auctioneers [NAA] in addition to continuing education requirements [CE] each year. Add all this up plus your NAR and state dues, MLS dues and CE requirements; you can spend several thousand dollars a year on licensing and professional dues requirements.

Then you must become a marketer, that is, know how to market and get bidders to your auction. Who coordinates the marketing process? Who makes up the25 to 100 page proposal to the client?  Who's responsibility is it for placing line and display ads in which newspapers? What income range are you targeting? Who makes up the flyers and ads mats?  Who checks on the cost of these things? Who sets up information on dozens of web-sites? Who draws up the Property Information Package (PIP)? Who registers the bidders and records the auction? Who keeps the client informed as to what is going on? And it goes on and on.

Rather than trying to re-invent the wheel, unless you have a real love for the auction industry, your best bet would be to partner with a local auctioneer in your area.

For more information about auctioneering, go to my website at http://www.cansellnow.com

In an effort to turn around the depressing attitude of many realtors across the country because of the market we are in, some local North Carolina real estate publications are trying to put a positive spin on the market by stating that 2009 will be good year and that preparation needs to be made now to take advantage of the 2009 "turnaround."

Yet, several of the major on-line networks reported this morning that foreclosures doubled during the first half of this year and that 2009 doesn't look any better.

As a North Carolina auctioneer, I have tried and tried to approach lenders in North Carolina to let us auction some of their REO properties. With very few exceptions, the answer has been a resounding no.

Reality has not set in with many of these lenders and banks. Surely they understand that these "non-income producing assets", as they call them, will affect their book value. If they get too many, the Feds will step in.

The BPO agent (Brokers Price Opinion) seems to hold the key to the lender's decision. In hopes of "getting a listing", what we in the auctioneering business call the "list and wait" method of selling, the BPO agent gives a range of unrealistic values to the lender/bank.

Why pull comps that are three to six months old or older, to determine a range of values, when we are in a declining market? Hello! The home sits on the market for many months, some over a year. The home deteriorates, some are broken in, not to mention the holding cost and the loss value of money while it sits.

An auction determines "market value." When you have a group of people in a room bidding on a home, when the bidding stops, market value is established, viz., what a  buyer is willing to pay for the home.

"Market value" is not what sold next door three months ago or three streets over six months ago but what someone is willing to pay today.

For more information on auctions, go to my website at www.canSellnow.com.