Proficient Note Buyers - Mortgage Note Buyers, Mortgage Buyers, Owner Held Notes, Real Estate Mortgage Purchases

Whether you're buying or selling, the real estate game has changed. To win, you've got to learn a new playbook.

Are you really serious about selling your home in this market? Then be prepared to try anything - and everything.

Not only are lenders (slowly) concluding it was risky to have borrowers overloaded with debt, they are also seeing, in the recent tide of foreclosures, evidence that when homeowners have none of their own money tied up in a house, it's emotionally and financially easy for them to walk away. They "were homeowners, but they really weren't homeowners..."

A growing majority say they won't buy a home anytime soon, the latest sign of increasing pessimism about the nation's housing crisis, a poll showed Monday.

"I think we are a ways from the bottom -- and a long way from any indicators that would even hint at an upturn,"

"I think we are a ways from the bottom -- and a long way from any indicators that would even hint at an upturn."

These days, bankers and mortgage companies often find that by the time they get the keys back, embittered homeowners have stripped out appliances, punched holes in walls, dumped paint on carpets and, as a parting gift, locked their pets inside to wreak further havoc.

What started in subprime is likely to continue cascading into the markets and keep the economy down until 2010, economist Paul Krugman forecasts. Bottom line for homeowners: An average drop of 25%.

A problem with risky mortgages has led to a global financial crisis. The bigger issue: Experts don't know when it will end.

"Some of the street's biggest lenders started to pull in their credit lines very quickly. It has been a selective but noticeable process and that is because the banks themselves are in trouble."

Mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures will continue to rise for a while longer and further declines in house prices are likely, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday.

2007 year-end results are in and the news is bad: Major housing markets were down even more than anticipated.

The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) is urging the federal savings and loans lenders under its authority to refinance loans by reducing mortgage balances to the current market values of the homes. Thanks to falling home prices, many homeowners are now stuck with mortgages that are actually worth more than the houses themselves.

Plans for sweeping government bailouts and wholesale rewriting of mortgage terms that were unthinkable at the start of the U.S. housing crisis are gaining traction as other efforts to stabilize the market fall short.

When Mary Kamanu paid $409,000 for a house in Folsom, California, she never imagined that three years later it would be worth about 20 percent less and she would have to pay the bank more than $80,000 just to sell the place.

The economy and the markets may be in for a hard fall. Here's how you and your family can land safely.

More and more borrowers are watching their house values sink while the cost of their loans skyrockets. What to do? Skip out on the mortgage all together.

Why home prices could drop 25% more on average before the market finally hits bottom

Authorities in economically stressed cities see an increase in torched houses. Is the nation's mortgage mess transforming more Americans into criminals?

The risk of foreclosure is on a rapid rise nationally and, with a possible recession at hand, this spike in mortgage-defaults could last for years.

Prices of homes sold in December registered the biggest year-over-year decline on record, according to an industry trade group, and 2007 is the first year on record that has seen a drop. A report issued Thursday showed the problems in the housing market have not yet bottomed out.

The worst housing financial crisis in decades is only going to get worse, a Merrill Lynch report said Wednesday. The investment bank forecasted a 15 percent drop in housing prices in 2008 and a further 10 percent drop in 2009, with even more depreciation likely in 2010.

Stocks fell sharply worldwide on Monday following declines on Wall Street last week amid investor pessimism over the U.S. government's stimulus plan to prevent a recession.

More than three out of four Americans believe that a recession has already started or will hit in '08. Half have cut their spending, which could make a slowdown worse.

Sometimes the only way to stop a snowballing problem is to go back to the top of the hill and find out what started it.

Even a few months ago, it seemed like a good idea to hold a debate between real estate bulls and bears. But with home sales spiraling and the outlook getting gloomier, it was hard to find a single optimist at a recent panel discussion on the forecast for the housing market.

Lennar Corp.'s November sale of 11,000 properties in eight states set a price that may mark the bottom for the U.S. housing market: 40 cents on the dollar.

Contracts to sell existing homes fell in November and there could be darker days ahead for home values, which are expected to post their biggest decline on record this quarter as a full-year rebound in prices now isn't expected until 2009.

The Bush administration is working to combat the country's severe housing crisis but there is no simple solution, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Monday, adding that a correction in the housing market is "inevitable and necessary."

Consumer bankruptcy filings rose 40% in 2007 as housing-market turmoil and increasing consumer debt levels led more people to seek protection from creditors.

Americans are falling further behind on consumer loans, with late payments rising to the highest level since the nation's last recession in 2001.

Market strategists expect a volatile year for stocks and that the housing market will swoon. Sound familiar?

Michigan and Ohio share something with Florida and California - some of the nation's highest rates of foreclosed homes and delinquent mortgages. But the reasons for their woes are as different as their climates.

More than 1 of every 3 workers at retirement age in the 2050s will have nothing saved in a 401(k)-style account, according to a government study.

Instead of panicking and dumping stock funds in a downturn, be cool and rethink your strategy.

More trouble looms for the nation's battered housing market next year, even as the pace of home sales inched up in October from the depths of this summer's mortgage meltdown.

Your gut instinct may tell you it is not being able to make the mortgage payments. Even though we have been inundated with media coverage about this, the truth is: The main driver of foreclosures is the change in real estate prices.

According to new home price data released yesterday, homeowners in at least 17 states lost money in the housing market over the last 12 months as home prices declined. California had a double-digit decrease; Florida and Nevada were not far behind.

Consumer confidence fell more than forecast in November as Americans struggled with surging fuel costs and falling home prices.

This useful tool provides the forecasted price changes in real estate for 379 markets nationwide. Check it out.

(Fortune Magazine) That's the question homeowners are asking in the midst of the worst real estate slump in decades. Our exclusive calculations can help you figure out what your house will be worth in coming years.

As housing markets deteriorated over the summer, and a liquidity squeeze buffeted credit markets, delinquencies and defaults jumped. And now one forecast predicts that these numbers will climb even higher over the next six months.