With Federal lending cuts is now the time to invest in property?

We hear everyday about the doom and gloom of the economy and the number of foreclosures that are on the market. This was inevitable, and will continue until all those houses purchased with neg-am loans or bad adjustables' are either refinanced or sold. This situation has caused the value of homes to deflate and there are many being sold as REO's, foreclosures, or preforeclosure short sales. But historically there is value in property, and markets like this can *create wealth if you know what to do.

If your house is your home and you have an emotional attachment to it, you will not want to walk away. There are things you can do.

• Refinance into a better rate and lower your payments.
• Get help with a * loan modification.
• Sell it, but rent it back, possibly with an option to re-purchase at a later date.
  

If you have no particular attachment to your home, but would like to get out of the obligation of the property mortgage, with the least negative effect on your credit, these are options.

• Find someone to assume your loan, and take over payments and the title.
• Get a realtor to *short sale your property.

These are the properties that will be bought up by investors and first time home owners. With the rates as low as they are, now is the time you can profit from real estate purchases.

The lending requirements for investors is generally 20% down, but for first time home owners there are still some programs with 5% down. For these you do have to have *decent credit.

The other way in, if you have no down payment, is to take over someone elses payments and transfer title for an agreed price. This of course is a little risky for the seller as the loan is still in their name, but some loans are assumable, so with a reasonable credit score and some payment history it can be changed over. Until that time the original seller would have repossesion rights. This is quite complicated and does require the assistants of an *escrow officer familiar with this option.

If you have any equity in your home, now is a good time to consider the remodel that you have been putting off. I know, your saying, what, with the ecomomy like this! Consider this when the market picks back up again and prices start to level off a little higher, will your house be the least valuable on the block? Has your house not kept up with the neighborhood? When borrowing rates are so low, and construction is slow, you can really save some money and time on the remodel that you had always wanted to do, but then the market turned. It's your home, live in how you want to and make it that way when it is as inexpensive as possible.

For those of you with a fearless spirit, land purchases are another way to create some wealth. You can find nice building lots in some good neighborhoods, plan on building high end. Get a Profit/Cost analysis based on surrounding comparable properties. Set a budget. Hire a good architect to design around that budget. Even if you don't plan to sell it, you will still create wealth because the house will cost you less to build than to buy. You can get some very affordable construction loans, which can be converted to fixed rates upon completion.

* If you have any questions regarding any services asterixed, credit repair, escrow, loan modification, realtor, and creating long term wealth with MMA's please do not hesitate to e-mail me at GeorgeLondonInc@yahoo.com