Ditto to Ditty and StL.

Hey North TX.. Thanks for the list of states. VA is # 2. Woohoo! Who does # 2 work for? (ref. Austin Powers)

Seriously-VA has a balanced budget amendment on the books. No such thing as a deficit here.

I say it takes all sorts, but CABroker needs to take a soak or something. Have a mellow yellow my friend. We are all in this together. Like StLbpo's said, we were blessed to wake up today, the rest is gravy.

What did I miss? I was over at the bowling alley having a hot dog for dinner, and looking at the "help wanted" postings . . . (no, I wasn't, actually!).

CB, you clearly know nothing about Oklahoma . . . and that's fine. The market here has not bottomed-out yet, altho' there are plenty of REOs and will definitely be more. The main thing hurting my listings & sales at present is greed, plain ol' unadulterated greed. When BRAC was announced, home prices shot through the ceiling, and are only just beginning to come back down - tho' not to reality yet. People getting into loans for which they weren't qualified is the major problem here . . . And we have Carter & Clinton to thank for that.

You are purposely being dense, especially as it concerns CALIFORNIA real estate. I don't give one wit about what Obama's proposal is or isn't. I don't care one wit about the Federal moratorium or the California moratorium which will go into effect June 1.

To make sense of what this means to individual homeowners DOES rely upon the loan modification programs which are currently available and how well those individual policies/programs work for specific homeowners, this is beyond the scope of what the Feds or the State can mandate. You ought to know that.

Do you want to know something interesting? When it was announced a few months ago that loan modifications did not work, it was a small sample. In a larger survey, involving more loan mods and more servicers, OCWEN had the greatest success with the least number of "failures". Do you want to know why? Because they did true adjustments of individual loans, didn't increase monthly payments (as other loan mods did). In other words, they looked at each loan individually and restructured it into a way that made sense for their investors and the borrower. It is my understanding that OCWEN didn't give up much to accomplish this, so it can be done.

You, as a broker, have the ability to advocate for individual clients, based on current market conditions in your specific area. Like someone else pointed out, real estate is local. What flies in my market probably wouldn't fly in yours. Assuming that a one-size fits all approach will work is idiotic and you should know that much at least.

You have the ability, whether you excercise it or not, to affect one homeowner at a time by being their advocate. No one will do it because there's no money in doing that, so we look to the government to do it for us and then complain when it doesn't look like what we think it should.

There are specific rules for the Obama Loan Modification.....I read them...have them here.....maybe you should read them and you will see anyone underwater more then 5% or temporarily unemployed does not qualify, that affects alot of people in California. My point is the stupid plan will drag out the real estate market here in California! and frankly I dont give a hooters or a cheery coke what it does to your market in your area. that was never my point! The plan should have been universal to include 98% to 99% of all affected federal mortgage holders....so largest part of the real estate market could be helped..BTW......individual loan modifications for each homeowner is a crock and a scam and doesnt work........that is why Obama came up with this half-[censored] plan to begin with.

The will of the servicers has to be invoked to make a loan mod work (which was MY point).

I don't know how to break it to you but there have been all of kinds of boom and bust cycles over the last 20 years, real estate is just the latest (and certainly won't be the last). You've got to settle into the fact that this too shall pass, the market will level out. It's a question of when. Trying to time this market is just plain foolishness. It takes as long as it takes.

As I said, you could advocate for your clients instead of relying upon a government solution.

hahahahaha!!! You DO realize that you posted this in reply to a person from CA, YOUR market, right?!?!? Keep the senseless dribble coming--this is great. Everybody keeps giving you fact after fact and you keep the "sky is falling" routine going. This is great entertainment---- get cho popcorn ready!

Loans mods have been around since Obama was in high school. No rational investor (read as lender) is going to modify a loan just because someone is underwater. They still have to qualify to make the payments on the new loan amount.

As a recovering Kennedy (JFK, Not Edward(Ted)) Democrat, I wonder where all of the people who are wailing and moaning about the market were three or four years ago when they were making oodles of bucks selling overpriced s**tboxes to people who couldn't qualify to buy an outhouse. Oh yah, they were making big bux and refying their own home to purchase big screen TV's, Beemers and boats.

Rates of savings are way down from the 1990's. Everyone wants it now.

What ever happened to personal responsibility? My father graduated from high school in 1930 and was the first in his family to go to college. By 1932, he dropped out to help my grandparents cover their bills and support his younger brother and sister. Six years later he went back to college and graduated, started as a teacher and eventually became an administrator with a master's and a doctorate.

In today's mindset, that same 19 year old would expect the government to pay for college, support the family and financially cover any bad decisions he made.

If you have WSJ here is an article regarding huge MBS investors balking at the administrations plan:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123682290961203725.html

Here is a preview:

"Investors who hold billions of dollars of residential mortgage-backed securities are pressing the Obama administration to make changes in its housing rescue plan.
...
Some investors say they are contemplating legal action because they think the administration's plan and legislation before Congress would violate their rights. They are particularly concerned about measures that would prevent lawsuits against mortgage servicers, which collect loan payments for the investors and are responsible for modifying loans with homeowners.
"Investors are given rights through the contracts in the securities, and we expect those rights to be honored," said Jeffrey Gundlach, chief investment officer of TCW Group Inc., which manages roughly $52 billion in residential mortgage-backed securities.
...
Mr. Grundlach says the program would be more palatable to investors if, for instance, modifications weren't given to borrowers who lied when they took out their initial mortgage.
...
Mortgage investors say that rewriting the first mortgage without touching the second violates their rights, because second mortgages are supposed to be repaid second. Modifying the first loan can help the holder of the second mortgage, because it increases the chances the loan will be repaid, they say.
...
many loans are serviced by big banks that also hold second mortgages -- and as a result have a financial interest in how these loans are handled."

Hopefully, you really mean that.

I never interpreted, nor heard anything close to this. Somebody presented the bills differently to you than they did to me.

I'm not really sure what you mean by this. Mortgage holders are of course the lenders. But I'm thinking that you mean that you want 98 - 99% of the homeowners helped.

That would either bankrupt the lenders, or if the government (that means us) pays for it our economy will have to collapse due to an astronomical tax rate. I'm not sure how either of those will help the real estate market.

As someone mentioned, markets go in cycles, and this cycle will pass.

This cycle isn't really all that bad for those of us in the business. It's not like sales are down 50 - 75% or anything. So there is plenty of work out there for anyone who wants to go out and get it.

Sure business may not just be walking in the door like it did a few years ago. But those who aren't lazy, who will adapt to the current situation will be just fine, and may have their best years right now.

As you can tell by my signature Short Sales are my thing. It's what the market is calling for right now, and I'm swamped. My year is off to a great start, I have more listings than I've ever had, and plenty of buyers.

What ever the avenue you choose, get out there and work it, and you'll be fine.

For the most part ignore the news, and don't wait on the governement or wait for the market to change.

As has always been the case - success comes to those that take the market as it comes, not to those who complain and wait for the market to be the way they want it to be.

Do it now, wait for nothing.

I get the updates by .gov every time there is anything put out real estate related to the public ~ I have yet to find where anything in those emails that states they are purposely excluding California ~ but I am beginning to see why they might if they intend to punish all for the actions of one