One of the blogs I love to read is by Ben Jones and he has a great foreclosure news roundup today that you will want to know more about.

The Press Enterprise reports from California. “End-of-the-year deals on a glut of built but unsold homes are in full swing in the Inland counties, as builders slash prices, subsidize mortgage rates and sometimes help to sell their customers’ existing houses. Borre Winckel, executive director of the Riverside County chapter of the Building Industry Association of Southern California, said the price discounting on new homes is the steepest the industry has ever seen.”

The lesson here is clear. If you want to sell, you are going to face very heavy competition if you are in an area where new homes are going up. I don't care what area you are in — if new homes are being built, you as the seller of a "used" home face a very tough job.

These builders will secretly drop their price. They have a public price but then when a deal is to be made, it's secret. They give away tens of thousands of dollars of extras, and also rebate money, all at the closing. This is kept away from the public. So you can be sure that if a lot of new homes are being built in your area, prices are far lower than they let on.

“On Sunday afternoon, Brian and Renee Katayama were visiting the model homes at Gavilan Springs Ranch, a community of large single-story homes on 2- to 2 ½-acre lots. The subdivision was part of Century Vintage Homes’ advertised ‘One week only! Huge Inventory Reduction Sale.’”

“It was the last day of the sale offering up to $200,000 in reductions off the original sales prices, but the couple said they were in no hurry to buy.”

“Renee Katayama said they are expecting the Federal Reserve will take further steps that could lead to lower mortgage rates, and that an explosion in foreclosures next year could cause home prices to ‘tank’ even more.”

“‘We are hoping it all comes together,’ she said.”

Yeah, I'll bet that's what they're hoping. If prices keep dropping, why should someone buy?

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See, that's what you face if you are trying to sell. That's why I would strongly suggest you sell no matter what it takes now, rather than wait. Because I think next year will be even worse. And the year after may be worse still.

I can't prove that. But it looks that way.

So here is what I suggest. Do a round robin to sell your house in 9 days. Don't bother fixing it up. Just clean it up and make sure it is free from objectionable smells. And run your own little auction. You coul have your house sold next weekend.

Now, if you owe more than it's worth, then you can show the lender that you have exposed your house to 65 buyers and gotten 3 offers. You aren't giving away your house to some creep who is paying 30 cents on the dollar for it.

What people don't understand is that a comp from six months ago may be worthless today. But that doesn't mean there isn't a market for your house. There is. But you have to expose the house to the market and then the market will tell you what it's worth. If you put together a good short sale package and convince the lender that you've exposed your house to the market, you can sell even when there are "no buyers".