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So where are we now in the housing market? Home prices have fallen. Defaults and foreclosures are skyrocketing. The Federal Reserve and its counterparts around the world are, almost daily, coming up with new ways to pump liquidity into a seemingly frozen credit market. Are you looking to short sell your second home? Do you need help because you own tow homes and can’t sell either? So how long do I have to wait to sell my home, is a tough question. Consider the items below to help you determine how long to wait to sell your home. Do you WANT to sell your home or do you NEED to sell your home? In the case of divorce, job loss or serious health issue, you may legitimately need to sell your home. It’s as if fate teamed up against you with a double whammy in your hardest hour. First, you should know that most houses can sell in a week. You just need to price your house sufficiently low to attract one of the few buyers out there currently. If pricing your house that low would leave you owing more on your mortgage than what you get (i.e. underwater) you can try to negotiate a short sale. This is where you renegotiate with your lender to get them accept less than you owe on the mortgage and effectively let you off the hook. Negotiating a short sale of your home is not a piece of cake and not something to be taken lightly. Check out this short sell your home article for details. But the overview is that you’ll want to involve an attorney or at least a knowledgeable real estate agent to advise you on whether your lender has truly agreed; whether you will owe any taxes on the difference between the sale price and what you owe; and on what the specific terms of sale are. Another reason you may feel you need to sell your homeis because you were "sold" some sort of adjustable rate mortgage a few years ago, and now the rate is resetting to more than you can afford. This is an unfortunate situation which occurred far too frequently in the past few years. Again, we suggest talking to your lender. Often they will want to avoid foreclosure as much as you do, so you can renegotiate a rate you can actually afford. Also, since the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September, rates on many fixed mortgages have come down. Look into simply refinancing if at all possible. Unfortunately, the winter months are often the slow season for real estate sales even in a good market, so simply listing your home for sale with the expectation of something actually happening soon is a gamble. If you are stuck in your home, consider options you would not have considered before. Does it make sense to bring in a border who will pay rent every month? Can you kids take after-school jobs to help with the bills? Are there areas of your life where you can cut back spending…perhaps on cable T.V., mobile phone service or help around the house? Obviously these are stop gap measures, but until the credit market thaws out, there are just not many buyers around. In Part III of "How Long Do I Have to Wait to Sell My Home", we will discuss situation where you may think you need to sell, but in fact, it would make more sense to stay put for a while.
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