• First,  Congress recently voted to extend two home buyer tax credits: the $8,000 credit for first-time home buyers under contract by April 30, 2010, and a credit for repeat buyers who have lived in one residence for five consecutive years of the past eight.
• Second, interest rates on thirty-year home mortgages have recently fallen to below 5%, a rate not seen for over fifty years.
• Third,  banks continue to put newly foreclosed homes on the market, and there will be a good supply of foreclosed homes on the market for some time.

If you’re a buyer, use the Private Sale Partners website as your first source for homes that have been well-priced and well-prepared by our well-educated sellers! Use the search tool to define whether or not you’ll search for a foreclosed property. If you are looking at a foreclosed property listing, scan the listing details for the agent’s contact information. You’ll need to contact the agent by email to view the property, as foreclosed property listings don’t have access to the PSP Home Sales Hotline to take buyer calls.

Unfortunately, it is rare for a lending institution to notify Private Sale Partners when the property has been sold, so you may find that a foreclosed property you’re looking at has already sold, but keep at it! A good buy is worth some extra digging.

If you don’t find anything in your desired neighborhood on our site, then you may want to enlist the services of a professional agent in your search, usually at no cost, since sellers normally pay the agent’s commission. We hope you’ll contact one of the thousands of agents in the PSP agent network to help you in the search. They work with the well-regarded national agencies of:

• Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate
• Century21®
• Coldwell Banker®
• ERA®
• Sotheby’s International Realty®

If it’s a foreclosed property you’re looking for, ask if there’s an agent in your local office who specializes in foreclosed homes. Our experienced mortgage bankers can also help you find the right broker and the right financing.

An FHA mortgage remains the best option for most home buyers. An FHA buyer must live in the home purchased, so you may qualify for a great deal on a foreclosure while an investor would not. Not only do FHA mortgages offer great rates and small down payments, FHA also provides additional loans under the 203K program which provide money for the fixing up that foreclosed homes often require.

Since late fall of 2009, investors have been aggressively bidding for foreclosed homes, driving prices up slightly. In the short term, prices are likely to come down again as more homes are foreclosed and the supply of homes increases.

If you’re a seller, this is also a great time to have your home on the market. Buyers will be out in force scouting for a good deal. You’ve got to price aggressively to compete with foreclosures on the market. But you’ll have an edge over most foreclosed homes, and you’ll be able to command a higher price if your home is well-prepared and it is obvious to a buyer that it will take less time and money to make it move-in ready.

If you are looking to buy or sell a home, the first quarter of 2010 may well be the best time ever to do so. Happy house selling or buying!