A short sale in real estate occurs when the outstanding obligations (loans) against a property are greater than what the property can be sold for.

Instructions

STEP 1: Verify the value of your property. If you are selling the property through a real estate broker, your broker will provide you with an estimate of market value. If you are selling the property yourself, do your own market analysis of the area and your property.

An appraisal is a comprehensive report that determines the value of your property based on a number of valuation factors, ranging from gross living space, to the view and the year a property was built.

If you plan on purchasing a new home or refinancing your current home, you will need to order an appraisal. Usually a bank or broker will handle this for you, but you will still have to foot the bill unless it’s built into your mortgage rate.

Q: I need your expert opinion on my possible purchase of a condo unit. what are the potential pitfalls of condo investment? HOA got to be one of them. what particular attention that I need to pay? any special deed restrictions? How to check the association history or/and maintenance/improvement hisory? check with city or township? any othe potential problems? thanks a lot.
A: Strata fee (HOA fee?) Check if it includes heat and/or electrity. If it includes heat, then you will be paying the heat fee for the tenant. Hopefully it includes neither so you can make the tenant pay.

Buying properties at foreclosure sales is probably one of the more popular methods known by real estate investors. The foreclosure auction occurs after a homeowner has defaulted on their loan and the bank has taken legal action to take possession of the property. The foreclosure auction is publicly announced usually in the legal section of your newspaper. foreclosure sales can occur in as little as 3 weeks and as long as four months. State laws vary; therefore the process will be different from state to state.

More than $23.6 billion in California housing wealth will evaporate if real estate prices continue to decline and foreclosures on subprime home loans soar, according to a new congressional report that indicates the fallout from the national mortgage crisis is worsening.

In addition, over the next two years, the state will lose nearly $111 million in tax revenue from the forecast repossession of 191,000 homes and the spillover effect on neighboring property values, said the study, released Thursday by the Senate Joint Economic Committee.