Ignoring Creditor’s

Ignoring creditors is an option, but not a smart one as it will only make it worse for you later. Many people fall to ignoring debts and then they start to pile higher and higher getting more out of control and further from you being able to pay them. If you continually ignore creditor’s attempts for payments, you could very well end up with a lien on your home. No matter how large or small debt is creditor will continue to hound you for payment.

Whatever you choose as best option for you, ignoring problem will only make situation worse. Taking control of problem from start is your best bet.

Credit Counseling

Credit counseling agencies will contact your creditors and make new payment arrangements for you. Most will also be able to get your interest rate lowered and/or have your interest payments stopped.

Some families have found credit counseling to be a good solution for avoiding bankruptcy. It will also get creditors to stop calling you and allow you some breathing room! Experts say to try and avoid for profit credit counseling agencies and instead try to go with non profit credit counseling agencies. As always, be sure and do your research before making a decision.

Filing Bankruptcy

If you have exhausted all other resources and still feel bankruptcy is your only viable option you can learn more about filing bankruptcy or buy do it yourself bankruptcy forms.

The MLS goes public

“In real estate, MLS data sits at apex of change, specifically MLS information that is pushed to Internet every minute of day.” – Bradley Inman, Publisher of Inman News

Once an exclusive tool for real estate professionals, multiple listing service (MLS) has in recent years become a very public platform for real estate listings. The MLS is nation’s most comprehensive database of properties for sale – four out of five homes sold in United States are listed on MLS. MLS properties are available to agents and brokers worldwide, and are now accessible via consumer Web sites such as Realtor.com, WSJ.com, Excite, Netscape, AOL and MSN. MLS listings also appear on local, regional and national brokerage Websites through Internet Data Exchange (IDX) agreements that allow participating Realtors to share listings and display them to consumers. Even though only licensed realtors can list property on MLS, system has begun to figure prominently for $110 billion independent seller (for-sale-by-owner or FSBO) market. About 13 percent of real estate sales are now FSBO, conducted without a broker’s assistance.

Type “flat fee MLS” into any major search engine, and you’ll see dozens of real estate professionals willing to list your property in MLS for a fee. If you are willing to pay a commission of 2-3 percent, you can attract attention of thousands of agents who will show your property to prospective buyers. You can then reduce cost of sale to about half a traditional 5-6 percent sales commission, plus cost of MLS listing. If you find an independent buyer working without an agent, you could make a sale with no commission at all and pay only an MLS listing flat fee. Displacement

Currently, about 2.4 million real estate licensees operate nationally, according to Association of Real Estate License Law officials. The NAR has more than one million members, up from about 760,000 members five years ago. Many real estate professionals and industry observers expect a significant decline in this number because some tasks traditionally performed by agents and brokers can now be done more quickly and easily by Web-enabled consumers.

“Historically fundamental driver of real estate industry was control of information. The real estate agent and real estate office were only sources of comprehensive information on which properties were for sale and those who might be interested in buying them. With this control revenues were practically guaranteed.

Moreover, because this exclusive control was akin to a monopoly by virtue of multiple listing service (MLS) any firm of any size could serve customer equally well. As a result, number of real estate companies grew without regard to market efficiencies.

Simply put, traditional model is too inflexible. Consumers are seriously questioning value of a real estate agent. They frequently feel that many of traditional tasks undertaken by agents are now either no longer required or can be done by consumer themselves.”

– Swanepoel & Tuccillo, Real Estate Confronts Profitability

The quotes above, from a popular report on emerging real estate business models and dwindling profit margins, highlight a number of issues traditional real estate professionals are now facing. And if real estate industry has grown historically without regard to market efficiencies, issue has only been compounded since 2001, as new agents signed on in droves, lured by low interest rates and skyrocketing home prices in many areas. It’s likely that number of traditional real estate agents will decline, while new types of real estate jobs will be created to deliver value to Web-savvy customers.

End part 1