[A8]A Bridge Over Troubled Water

The real estate and home buyers markets are evolving into a more balanced market giving buyers more negotiating power, give & take and added time to make purchase decisions. This trend is forecast to continue, and will result in smaller price increases in 2007." Unless you bought your house recently and were hoping to “?ip" it at a hefty pro't, chances are you’re not actually going to sell at a loss. So, the question remains how to sell your home at a reasonable price, and in a reasonable amount of time? The first consideration is price. What we need to do is have a look at what similar properties in your area have sold or recently. Remember that the key word is “recently," not a year ago when the housing market was still in an irregular ?ux. Homes are certainly still selling, it’s just that they aren’t selling at the inflated prices that we saw over the past couple of years. Pricing your home properly is more important now than ever

The state of the current housing market could be cause for confusion amongst home sellers these days. Reports of a real estate slump in areas of the United States have left many people wondering if their markets will follow. In actuality, what is happening is world real estate markets are now “normalizing." Instead of the unusual real estate market activity of recent years �" record sales, double-digit price increases and frantic bidding wars �" we’re going back to a more balanced real estate situation. The second thing to keep in mind is that in order to make your home stand out amongst similar ones in your area, you need to pay particular attention to its visual appeal. That means ensuring that your property is clean, clutter-free and in good repair.

A simple fact of home ownership for most of us is a mortgage. As necessary as it is, wouldn’t it be nice if you could pay it off quicker, freeing up your money for home improvements, your children’s education, your retirement fund or an endless list of dreams that need ?nancing? If your answer is “yes," then you may want to talk to your mortgage representative and re-visit your current mortgage situation to see if it would make sense to re?nance or change the structure of your payments to help you achieve your financial goals.

Some mortgage reduction tips , some suggestions for paying off your mortgage sooner may include:1.Increase the frequency of your payments. If you get paid every two weeks anyway, why not make biweekly mortgage payments instead of one big monthly payment? You could reduce the term of your loan and save hundreds of dollars in annual interest costs! 2. Decrease the term of your loan. If you can afford the higher payments, choose a shorter mortgage term and pay substantially less interest over the term of the loan.3. Pay as much as you can �" for your down payment and your monthly payments. Don’t pay more than you can comfortably afford. However if, for example, interest rates decrease when it’s time to renew your mortgage, then keep your mortgage payments the same, allowing more money to go directly to your principal.4. Use extra money for an annual lump sum payment.