If you’re searching for a good house to buy at a decent rate, one of the first places you need to look at, are those being sold by banks. Banks reposess properties that their owners have not been able to pay for, mostly due to defaulting on their monthly payments.

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Since banks don’t want to get into the real estate business, they are more or less desperate to sell these houses, and will probably offer you a good bargain to get them off their books.

However, you probably don’t want to buy directly from a bank, since they are used to dealing only with professionals. Buy your property from a broker instead.

You will need to search the Internet for a full listing of these properties, and for a monthly fee, you can even use sites like Foreclosures.com or RealtyTrac.com

However, you might want to be careful about houses that have remained unsold for a long time. There’s a reason why they have not been sold, and you have to find out why. Maybe it’s in real bad shape, and to get it up and running, you may have to shell out tens of thousands of dollars.

So those of you keen on buying a place at the best pricee need to keep in mind this great resource.

U.S. home foreclosure filings in May increased from April and were a whopping 48 percent higher than a year earlier, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said Friday.

Home foreclosure filings in May totaled 261,255, up 7 percent from April, RealtyTrac, an online market of foreclosed properties, said in its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. The figure is a total of default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions.

In April, home foreclosure filings had risen 4 percent from March.

RealtyTrac, based in Irvine, California, said the national foreclosure rate in May was one foreclosure filing for every 483 U.S. households.

“The nationwide rate of increase for default notices and foreclosure auction notices slowed in May, with default notices up just 1 percent from the previous month and auction notices down 3 percent from the previous month,” Saccacio said in a CNBC interview.

Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate in the country, with one foreclosure filing for every 118 households, followed by California and Arizona.

Default rates and foreclosures have jumped over the past year as the housing market deteriorated.

Nevada had 9,009 foreclosure filings in May, up nearly 24 percent from the previous month and a 72 percent increase from May 2007.

California foreclosure activity in May increased 11 percent from the previous month, helping the state continue to register the nation’s second-highest state foreclosure rate.

Arizona ranked third highest in the nation, with one foreclosure filing for every 201 households in May.

It had 12,959 filings, up nearly 12 percent from April and almost 119 percent higher than a year earlier, RealtyTrac said.

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If you’re a homeowner, chances are your monthly mortgage payments is by far your largest expense. You are probably perplexed as to where you’re going to get the money to pay your monthly dues, especially if you’ve got other debts to pay. Now, what you need to do is spend a few minutes reassessing and reviewing your mortgage.

Are you overpaying your mortgage lender? You need to find this out. How much money did you borrow? If it’s greater than your home’s appraised value, chances are you’re paying private mortgage insurance. PMIs depend on how much you’ve paid in down payment and on the value of your home. PMIs can inflate interest rates up to 1 percent, which can mean hundreds of dollars of additional expense every month. Needless to say, you have to get rid of PMI.

To free yourself from the burdensome PMI, you need to show proof to your lender that your mortgage balance is in fact below 80% of the value of your house. Next, send payments to apply to the principal, which must be expressly indicated as such, to reduce the loan balance. If real estate values are increasing in your area, have your property reappraised, and try talking to your lender. Ask what you can do to get rid of PMI.

Refinance your mortgage if feasible. Refinancing is a rather straightforward measure; your aim is to pay the principal with money borrowed elsewhere with a lower interest rate than your previous debt. Even if it only amounted to a hundred dollars saved each month, refinancing can still save you thousands of dollars in the long run.

Once you’ve gotten your debt low enough to eliminate PMI, you need to apply as much additional payment as you can to the principal. You need to do a little math and find out how much eventually you will be able to save if you pay off your debt early. Compare this with how much extra money you’ll save if you didn’t pay it off early, but instead invested some of your savings in an index fund that earns, let’s say about, eight to ten percent.

Take advantage of your home equity, which is the value of your home less the owed amount. This is another good source of additional low-interest cash that you can apply to the principal. Earlier you made refinancing as your first choice in helping you cut down on interest, and now, home equity loan can be a good second choice. You can also get a home equity line of credit, although this has the highest rate, it affords you the most flexibility in generating cash if you need to pay for some major expenses such as home improvements for instance.

All in all, a mortgage loan is a debt that you need to manage carefully. If you apply the advice given in this post plus a little bit of common sense, all will be well.

With the current economic crisis going as it is, the biggest stumbling block for buyers is the fact that more and more of them are having difficulty in getting the huge amount of money that is needed to buy a place. If your house costs close to a million dollars, here are some tips that will help you close a sale with a prospective buyer.

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Offer to help with the closing costs

When a seller transfers his house to a new owner, the incumbent has to take care of quite a few additional costs. These include title insurance and taxes, and can be upto 2% of the house’s value. If you can throw in the bargain that you will help your buyer with these costs, you’re increasing the value-add that comes with your home.

Tell the buyer that you can offer them some interest points

Points are those fees that are paid to a lender to decrease the interest rates. So instead of the buyer paying say 6.5% on the mortgage, you can offer them some points so that they get a lower interest rate for the first year.

Throw in a home warranty

You want to reassure your buyer that your home is in good condition, and a good way to do this is to buy a home warranty. This reassures the buyer that if a major fixture gives way after the seller has occupied it, it will be fixed and paid for.

We hope that these will give you some ideas on how to make your home more attractive for a buyer and will help you close the elusive deal you’re looking for.

A reverse mortgage is where you capitalize on the value of your home. It’s like a deferred sale. You approach the bank, or the bank’s salespeople approach you, and if you agree to the terms, they either pay you a lump sum amount that is based on the value of the home, or they agree to pay you a monthly amount, which once more depends on the valuation of your property.

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Usually monthly income is provided until your death, or if you are married, the death of your spouse too, and then the bank takes possession of your home. It’s like taking your home out to pay for the remainder of your years.

In countries like the US, it’s a very popular scheme, and is available to senior citizens above the age of 62. The banks usually give you up to 60% of the value of your home, which can be fairly substantial for the average individual considering that he/she gets to spend the rest of their life in it as well.

It must be noted, that banks often charge costs which can turn out to be rather expensive, amounting to up to 5% or more of your home. The details will depend on the specific scheme that you take out, and different countries have different implementations of the same thing.

You have to give the government credit for trying. It seems to be doing everything in it’s power to get the economy back on track so that people can start focusing on other things in their life.

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The latest move by the American Government to underwrite mortgages seems to try and tackle the economic crisis head on. Latest figures show that foreclosures have increased by 65% to 650,000. The culprits seem to be subprime ARM’s, where the initial payments are few, but now are proving to be unaffordable.

The Senate Banking Committee is set to insure upt o $300 billion in loans. The idea is, to allow refinancing to people who were paying off their mortgages before their loans reset.

However, this seems a good time for even those who are not having problems paying off their mortgage, to get a refinanced loan at a lower rate. In fact, this is what seems to be happening, as the original targets of the scheme only make up a small percentage of the total number of people who have benefited.

The move is expected to increase the confidence that people are going to pay off their loans and prevent foreclosures. This is the latest in a series of measures by the government to get the economy back on track.

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT), are the Land equivalent of Mutual Funds.

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Till now, most of our discussions on investment, have been held on stocks and bonds. While, my own strategy for this is fairly clear, I might want to cash in on the long term benefits of holding Real Estate. I want to do this, since I know, that in the long run, I am going to get good returns on it.

The problem though, and it’s a big one, is that I’m not a hands on management guy. I don’t want the hassle of paperwork, and finding a seller, negotiating the price, and all that sort of junk. Not only that, managing the property is a pain as well, since it needs to be constant, and requires some experience.

There’s good news for me! I can cash in the Real Estate market, in the same way that I can, with stocks. These are called Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT). The advantages are that they are highly liquid, and can be traded just like stocks and bonds. Perfect for me! Especially in emerging markets, where real estate and land is hotter than a hot stove. It allows me to keep up with the latest gains in housing without the hassle.

You can get more information about where to buy them at the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts

The best time to start estate planning is while you have legal capacity to do so.

If you wait until you are seriously ill, or suffering from other disabilities, it could affect your legal capacity, and your plan will be effectively challenged by those who assert that you lacked legal capacity, or were subjected to fraud, coercion or undue influence. All of these are requisites for the invalidation of a will or estate plan.

What is the purpose of estate planning?

The purpose of estate planning is to avoid dying intestate.

Dying intestate means dying without a will or a trust. It exposes your property to hazards, making it difficult for your heirs to claim. These hazards come in the guise of probate, creditors, con-artists, lawsuits, judgments, lawyers, and death taxes and can damage much or most of the value of your estate.

Without a will or a trust, the inheritance laws of your state will determine how your property will pass to your heirs. If you have no heirs that fit the state’s formula, the assets will be taken by the state.

Often times the state’s formula and rules for moving assets to your heirs will not be what you would have chosen if you had done some planning.

Therefore, there is no better time to start an estate plan than now.