Let’s just state the obvious: Real estate in Las Vegas is a little messy. We read forum after forum where homeowners are posing this question, “I can’t refinance my home, I can’t sell my home and my mortgage will be too high for me to pay this year what should I do?” Therein lies the great Las Vegas Real Estate Struggle.

We know that a large percentage of homeowners are upside down in their homes. Many of them greedily took out large equity lines that made the situation worse. Let’s not forget there were those who did in fact make wise purchases who too are in a dilemma. As housing prices continue to fall and are now lower than nearly any other city, the home values are not there and there is no room to refinance. The lending guidelines have become strict again and even if they weren’t THERE’S STILL NO VALUE! Many homes are worth less than half of what they were purchased for.

In most of these forums, the comments read “suck it up” “get a job” “you signed the papers” “short sale it” “rent it.” A short sale? Don’t think that just because one sells short that they are out of the clear. The remaining balance doesn’t just disappear. Many cannot pay on the remainder. Rent you say? That may be a valid option IF you can find a renter because everyone is doing this and the rent rates are highly competitive. Ugh. It’s a mess.

Even in the midst of a big mess, mortgage companies do want to work with the homeowners whether with forbearance agreements or setting up a payment plan that will work until something better can be arranged. A recent article by Yahoo! talked about banks cutting the principal balance on mortgages that were high risk such as the deadly Pay Option Arm. Who knows? Maybe yours will be cut or maybe they’ll just work with you through the mess. Regardless, the struggle is real and the struggle exists for the wise and the foolish, the rich and the poor. No one seems to be exempt from this one.

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