April 2009, has the bottom formed, or are we still in the Gates of Fire?

Finishing the first quarter of the year many who think the market will turn around may just be dreaming.

The hardest part of this dream, are agents whom are busier then ever with buyers, feel like they have never worked harder. And for most this is absolutely true.

First thing you notice in this Current Market is the huge number of sellers who are "Selling Short" meaning they are asking the bank who has their mortgage to allow them to sell even though they are short on Equity and the resulting sale will Mean a huge loss for the bank. Although with most banks this is a cheaper and more controlled way of getting some money back, instead of foreclosing on a Home that is worth less than what is owed the bank.

Foreclosures by banks are expensive and messy items to deal with.

Banks do not win when they have Real Estate Owned or (REO'S) so many are agreeing to the short sale process when the Mortgage is beginning to get delinquent.

But for Broker and Agents these are hard, hard, work and they are never in control when they sell them to buyers.

The REO market is now controlled by a few organized agents who paid the price through the years to land these accounts. Doing years of Broker Price Opinions and making contacts with Banks who had lots of loans going bad. The hard part of selling these to your buyers is, there are lots of offers, and many times offers above full asking price. SO many buyers get mad their offer was not considered and the dialogue with banks is often done simply over a computer screen. And worse the selection of the best offer by the bank offends many first time buyers. Bidding on these properties with buyers should not be for the faint of heart.

On top of this mountain of great opportunities for agents are the facts that sellers, are waiting when they have equity, waiting for the Market to improve. Worse are they thinking it might happen soon?  They quote "we should soon begin to feel the stimulus spending.benifits"; the warmer weather will bring out the expensive buyers", many millions of owners who think it unwise to try to sell if they are unable to get their price.

This is best evidenced by a sharp drop in the number of Americans moving from one home to another -- today about one-third below the numbers in the '80s and '90s.

What we all need to face now is this economy is on life support.

Selling one's home should be done or buying ones home should be done, because of one reason, its your lifestyle asset and you need to move on to another "lifestyle". Trying to time this market will never work today.

The economy is too crazy to predict anything; the government is embroiled in secrecy and is shading how deep our problems are. Here is a recent report from PMI. A leading insurer of Home Mortgages perhaps after Reading it you may realize that as agents we will be working very hard making the American Dream come true. As there is no easy way and perhaps no bottom forming in today's market place of Real Estate.