"To be frank, since the TARP money came in, they are still selling off (properties at auction), but they kind of took a step back." . . .Real Estate Disposition LLC (REDC), which claims to be the nation's largest real estate auction company, held 300 ballroom auctions in 2008 and sold nearly 33,000 foreclosed homes for $3.4 billion -- a seven-fold increase in sales volume and nearly triple the proceeds the company generated in 2007.Company CEO Jeffrey Frieden said he expects to "smash that record" this year as banks and lenders continue to amass a huge inventory of foreclosed homes and are more motivated than ever to sell their inventory. . . .Some observers fear that if the massive amount of debt the government is taking on to stimulate a recovery, inflation -- and higher interest rates -- are inevitable consequences.

The foreclosure wipes out the debt, and the property is now owned by the auction winner.

If you do a short sale AND you get the bank to agree to not pursue a deficiency judgment.You can also get a 1099 for the forgiven debt.

For all married couples, always keep your debt/liabilities separate.

(Loans coming due - balloon payment, ARM adjustment, etc. properties with 50% or less debt financed, etc. and start marketing to them.

You may get a 1099 and owe tax on the forgiven debt.

My problem is when I try to obtain a loan I am told that my debt to income ratio is too high to qualify for another mortgage.

I am working with the owner to find out his current debt situation.

I do think that the government learned their lessons when they let Lehman go BK and they WILL NOT let that happen to another large financial company that has debt spread around everywhere like Lehman did (money market funds almost went under along with faith in the entire system).

Just buying assets at .50 cents on the dollar or better... stay deleveraged..Why would you leveage personally... that defeats the purpose of what you are trying to accomplish..Ie... alot of books and people teach when starting out... to pull cash out of their personal residence...That's gambling yoru sole goal is to get personally free of debt or at a very debt to income... 30% or less or so...So, you build a business that uses leverage to create or find equity and duplicates... and then get equity out...Imagine you were back in times... and you found out you could mine for gold...You go out and find gold... and then put it on the shelf hoping one day it would be worth more... well of course it will....but, the moment you found it... is the moment of highest return...