The Five Most Asked Real Estate Questions I've Had In 2011.

Here are the five most asked real estate questions I've had in 2011.

1. Interest rates -- how low will they go?American home buyers are fixated on interest rates, which have fallen to the 4 percent range, and stayed in that neighborhood much of the year. Homeowners who are stuck in upside-down mortgages (owing more than their homes are worth) have practically salivated after super-low rates all year, while buyers and refinanciers have suffered through days, even weeks, of breathless anxiety about the possibility of locking their rates too soon.

2. Stay or Walk away? There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as many of the people who think they are facing the issue of strategically defaulting cannot, in fact, afford to stay in their homes and so are actually debating what seems like a decision but is actually an inevitable road to foreclosure.

3. How to fix credit reports? Some have emailed me to ask what special tricks I have up my sleeve to help them resolve the issue that they've fallen behind on their mortgage. I tend to offer up loan mod plans in some cases, short-selling or applying for a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure in others, and bankruptcy as a last resort. Unfortunately, the only surefire way I know of to fix a delinquent mortgage and keep the home with minimal credit damage is to take a second job, cut back on expenses, and catch up on the payments.

4. Did I pay to much or sell for to little? Buyers fear they've paid to much. Sellers fear the buyers have paid to little.Those who've lost homes involuntarily wonder if they might have been able to do something to save their places; those who've walked away wonder if they made the right move. And any and everyone who has locked in an interest rate on a home loan, then noticed that rates kept dropping, has spent the time since wallowing in or at least occasionally visiting the land of real estate remorse.

5. Rent or buy? While you'd think low prices with matching interest rates would send prospective home buyers into the market, searching for deals, the fact that home prices have hit double dips in some areas has actually caused more home buyer fence-sitting. On top of that, the whole nation is experiencing the trauma of knowing people who have lost their homes, which makes everyone much more conscious and intentional about avoiding that same trauma. And the job market has continued to lag most of the year, making even employed people hesitant to lock in large, long-term financial commitments.