DON'T LET YOUR HOME GO INTO FORECLOSURE

1. Read what the new home improvement trends are for 2010.

2. Pick and choose the latest trends that you can afford to do.

3. Update the wall colors in your home, a can of paint goes a long way.

4. Paint the outside of your front door.

5. Go to a Pike Nursury, take a picture of the front of your home, ask them
to help you update and make the front of your home very inviting. Use plenty of
color, window boxes, etc.

6. If you can afford it, take out your old kitchen counter tops and replace them
with the newest style of laminate (some looks a lot like granite).

7. Clean, clean, clean everywhere and declutter. When you clean do not forget the
baseboards.

8. Call me, Sharon Evans, RE/MAX Town & Country at 404-663-1669 to put your
home on the market.






Home Improvement Trends for the New Year | RISMedia

BANKS START TO EMBRACE SHORT SALES

Even before the government put pressure on them to embrace short sales, more banks were starting to take their lumps, do the short-sale deals and move on.

Three years into the housing meltdown, short sales have tripled to 40,000 in the first six months of 2009, compared to the same time period a year ago, according to data from the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Wells Fargo, Bank of America Corp., and JPMorgan Chase & Co. this year have hired and trained more staff to handle short sales and also developed software for expediting them.

“It’s really finally dawning on banks that they’re better off with a short sale,” said Richard Green, director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “I think banks were in denial.”