Liz Caldwell

It's largely a fact that the surge of foreclosures and drop in the values of Fort Lauderdale real estate is a result of unmanageable mortgages hundreds of homeowners are struggling with. Since bad mortgages continue to be a major problem for the average homeowner, programs have been implemented to address this major issue that's holding back the market from fully recovering.

Launched this month, the Making Home Affordable program is designed to tackle Fort Lauderdale real estate mortgages and should come as welcoming news to homeowners who are barely making ends meet. This program actually gives lenders a reason to tweak the terms of mortgages given to homeowners such as by dropping the interest rate or lengthening the number of years on the mortgage. Homeowners must either be behind on their mortgage by no more than sixty days or be considered an "at risk" borrower.

Lenders who manage to slice mortgage payments so that they average a little over thirty percent of the borrower’s income are eligible to have these cuts reimbursed by the U.S. Treasury Department. Is this a good step in the right direction towards a Fort Lauderdale real estate market recovery?

Staging is so popular there are even companies entirely devoted to staging homes for sale. Staging is the practice of sprucing up a home for the purposes of selling it quicker or even for a higher price. While it’s important to make a home look its best, sometimes staging can be deceptive for buyers and cover up blemishes or flaws buyers should know about. Here are some tips to see through the façade of staging.

Especially when it comes to pictures, sometimes sellers will use small furniture to make a room look bigger. Large rugs can also be used to cover up bad floors. Sellers also place paintings or other decorations on walls to cover up holes or large stains. Another standard staging technique is to use large curtains to cover up rotten window sill or broken window frames.

Most home use some if not many staging techniques so be sure to pay close attention to these signs and others.

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While locating solid deals in the current Fort Lauderdale real estate market seems as simple as driving down the street and looking at all the Fort Lauderdale real estate for sale, finding good deals in this market is an art form perfected by real estate professionals. Fort Lauderdale real estate for sale is abundant, but to find the kind of property that is selling at the lowest of the lows, you just need to know where to look. Below is a list of places to look for Fort Lauderdale real estate that is priced well below market value.

Build relationships with Fort Lauderdale real estate lenders. Basically, Fort Lauderdale real estate lenders are currently overstocked with foreclosed property and will likely welcome a Fort Lauderdale real estate enthusiast. Also, from the curbside there’s a lot someone interested in Fort Lauderdale real estate can tell about the property. If the home is vacant, it’s usually a good sign that the Fort Lauderdale real estate will sell for below average home values.

The majority of good deals on Fort Lauderdale real estate don’t come with the best marketing, so look on bulletin boards, local papers and smaller publications. Finding Fort Lauderdale real estate on a popular website, publication or newspaper almost ensures competition that will drive the price of specific Fort Lauderdale real estate up. Other places to look for great deals on Fort Lauderdale real estate include the legal section of newspapers for troubled property and look for Fort Lauderdale real estate foreclosures and short sales.

Anyone who’s considered purchasing Fort Lauderdale real estate probably found out rather quickly that the economic recession and the drop in home values make things a little harder than usual. It may be harder but that’s not to say it’s impossible. With the right research, financial stability, and preparation buying a home isn’t necessarily that hard. Here are a few things to stay away from if you are indeed considering a home purchase.

Buying Weston real estate is a lofty investment and the mortgage payments can be substantial so don’t make any other major purchase like a car if money is relatively tight. Monthly mortgage payments on top of car payments can cause financial strain and you certainly don’t want to become the next foreclosure statistic due to having too much debt.

The money you intend to use to purchase the home should also stay put, particularly the account itself. Mortgage underwriters are notoriously nitpicky these days when it comes to any kind of Fort Lauderdale real estate purchase and too many deposits and withdrawals will only make things more complicated as they may force you to show all these transactions with actual receipts.

While there is arguably no better time to purchase Weston real estate it might be a good idea to wait it out if it’s not going to work for you in the long term, especially if you can only make the minimum down payment and plan on moving soon. We can’t predict the future but if you see your circumstances changing in the short term, you may wish to wait it out a bit until there’s a better idea of stability before making such a lofty purchase like a home.

Amazingly buyers in the current Fort Lauderdale real estate market are finding themselves in an extremely advantageous situation. The market is flooded with homes for sale and sellers are dropping their prices to bring in more prospective buyers. The conventional way of buying real estate is to browse through listings and contact the homes that best match the buyer’s criteria. But in the current real estate market, there maybe hundreds of homes that match a buyer’s criteria and a they need to find out which Fort Lauderdale home for sale has the most motivated seller. So, how does a buyer know where to start?

The buyer can’t set up appointments to see several hundred houses so the best option is probably to defy convention and market themselves as a buyer to the sellers. Sellers anywhere in South Florida are struggling to keep their heads above water, so an ad in the classifieds could bring the perfect sellers to a buyer. The more descriptive the ad was on what the buyer is looking, the more relevant sellers would contact the buyer. An ad like “looking for Fort Lauderdale home east of I-95” would turn up dozens of phone calls that would allow the buyer to get offers instead of the other way around.

Advertising to sellers is a good thing in this market, being that there are so many properties available; it allows buyers to have more control and be more confident that they have seen every offer and aren’t missing any deals. The more offers the buyer gets the more leverage they have to request price reductions. To get these leads, buyers must use similar advertising mediums that sellers use. Some methods for advertising include: flyers, small display ads, signs and postcards.