It's Official: If you've been waiting for the bottom...you missed it!

The numbers have been looking up for about the last 60-90 days: inventory is dropping off, sales volume is up and the closings are up.

Industry Barometer Shows Gains in Home Prices for Second Straight Month

Prices of single-family residential homes rose for the second consecutive month in June, Standard & Poor’s reported Tuesday. Quarter-over-quarter gains were also evident during the second quarter of the year, for the first time since 2006.

Yes the new lending guidelines are a hassle, no there's no 100% no doc loans but, the huge sucking sound that was our equity disappearing alongside 200+ banks and lending institutions, has eased.

The opportunity is there but you can't win if you don't enter the race.

market conditions, real estate, short sale, REO, cash flow, houses

If you are thinking about a short sale you need to read this!

It's been my understanding that the IRS has "waived" the "gain" of a short sale - it was just for a short time period, etc so read up on the details at irs.gov.

In all my short sales, I've only had one bank negotiate a deficiency judgment but read on:

A Short Sale May Not Mean You're Home Free - WSJ.com

Financially troubled borrowers may think that foreclosure or a short sale of their home means their mortgage woes are over.

Not necessarily.

Some homeowners are finding that when they sell their homes for less than the outstanding mortgages -- a so-called short sale -- their mortgage companies are going after them for some or all of the difference. Mortgage companies are also sometimes taking legal action to recover unpaid amounts after a foreclosure is completed.

Forebearance - an Option to Foreclosure or even Loan Modification

While working on a loan modification, sometimes the terms just can not be worked out. Maybe the Borrower doesn't have pay stubs or doesn't show enough income to qualify for a fully amortized loan.

In Forebearance, the underlying note remains unchanged but the bank and the Borrower both agree to modified terms to get the Borrower back on track. This is a temporary stop gap approach to the foreclosure issue.

Forebearance keeps the Borrower in their home and it keeps the loan in the Bank's "performing assets" file.