Rachael Hite-Twigg

Recently I have had several clients whom I have meet with in the past year about short sales contact me again ready to try the process. Why? Because their LOAN MODIFICATION DID NOT HELP!!! I am not writing this post to deter anyone from trying a loan modification to keep their home. I am writing this post because I want to again stress that loan modifications only work if you have the income to support the modification. Unfortunately if you loose half of your income (spouse looses job), and your mortgage payment is half of your income, even if your lender cuts your payment in half the chances that you will be able to make up the difference are slim to none. Factor in that almost anyone who has bought a home in the last 4 to 5 years may be upside down on their property value, their just is not any wiggle room when it comes to changes in your income.

What can a short sale do for you? It can give you a chance to create a new lifestyle that you can afford and rebuilld your credit more quickly than if you wait until your home goes to foreclosure. Short Sales do need time to work out! Please do not wait until you are six months behind on your mortgage before contacting a REALTOR to help you sell your home! We need time to get in touch with your lender and work out an offer and that alone can take up to three months! For more information on Short Sales and how they work please visit my site www.equitynegotiations.com.

Are you ready for your off road adventure?

Since the beginning of the summer our office has had the pleasure of enjoying the sights and sounds of the economic stimulus package at our door step! The road work to improve Cameron Street and turn it into a two way street . . .a long with tearing up every other intersection in OLD TOWN Winchester has proved to be a challenge for morning and evening commutes. Please take a moment and ENJOY my photo of the CHAOS! Now if I only had a digital audio recorder . . . .

One thing that I'm grateful for every morning ( although I do have to be reminded occasionally) is that I have a career and not a JOB in real estate. A career is a path set with goals and milestones, a job is punching the clock and getting a paycheck. I'm also thankful for the fact that even though things do get tough, I know that if I work a little harder I can keep ends met for my little family.

I agree real estate is definitely not what it was in 2005 when I started working part-time in our shop, BUT I also know that it could be worse AND that at least I'm not in a third world country wondering where my next scoop of rice is coming from. Our economy is bruised and so is our credit, BUT we still need to keep our heads up and looking towards the future.

I often write about crazy encounters or poor attitudes, but today I wanted to write about practicing our business with grace. Be glad that you have a hot pocket in the freezer for lunch and a desk with Internet access to search for homes for your clients! Keep plugging along and good things are bound to happen.

What? Yes! An agent on desk duty actually asked me that when I was phoning in to set up a showing. Apparently it was the same condo that she was preparing to show her client and she insisted that I was honest with her and let her know my clients name!

Really? Seriously? I assured her that it was just a coincidence, and as I hung up the phone I had to ask myself "Where was her Buyer's Agreement?"

For perspective clients and working agents we must have an agreement to outline our expectations and goals during our transaction. Remember to be successful you need to know the direction your headed. Make sure that your agreement is your map, and that you know which agent is driving you towards your destination. Its not our client's job to make sure that they use us, its our job to make sure that they know to call us for all their housing needs.

I have seen several posts on the rain promoting the petition, but STILL we have not reached our goal of 100,000 signatures. I urge anyone who is involved in real estate to please take a moment to sign the petition and to help STOP the insanity.

I recently had it take over a WEEK for an appraisal to be ordered because the appraisal manager company could not find an appraiser who would work for the LOW amount they were offering to perform the report!!!

We are already stretching out close times into 45 days with the new lending regulations . . . now is it going to be longer because appraisers are refusing to work for the cheap???

I'm # 42,452!! What's your NUMBER??

www.hvccpetition.com