The Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 is set to expire on December 31.

It’s not bad enough to lose the home – they get to owe the Feds on top of it.

Congress could extend the Act – but so far there hasn’t been any talk of it in the news.

So do warn your potential clients – the time to list as a short sale is right now. We all know that even after a buyer is found, short sales take longer to close, so there really is no time to waste.

That’s why I wrote a letter and added it to my short sale letter set – and why I’m offering it to you, free of charge.

Click the button, enter your address, and the letter will be on it’s way to you in moments.

Our county and state election primary is next Tuesday and this week our mailbox has been filled with “Vote for me” ads – but a whole lot of people have already voted absentee, so those ads are simply wasted paper, ink, and postage.

It’s sad, because our news coverage here is such that I’d never even heard of a few names on that ballot. If I’d known something about those people, I might have voted for them.

But maybe not – most of the ads don’t say much beyond “I’m wonderful, pick me.” But you never know. A few did state their position on one or two issues.

What does my tale of  ” too late” political advertising have to do with real estate?

It’s just a reminder… Don’t come late to the party!

Don’t procrastinate about contacting that FSBO or Expired listing or any kind of  lead. Do it as soon as you’re aware of it.

Otherwise, those prospects may “vote” for someone else before they even know you exist.

For good ideas on how to get there first, read my weekly real estate marketing ezine for May 9.

And if you don’t know what to do to follow up after you’ve made first contact, go to my prospecting letter page and follow the links to FSBO letters, Expired Listing letters, and any of the niche letters. Read the descriptions and gather ideas – or just get the sets you need and save time by using the words I’ve already written.

Image courtesy of Dreamstine.

Those folks who were selling weren’t going to be able to buy again for a long time.

Well, guess what? A “long time” has now passed. It’s now time to reach out to those former homeowners and help them buy before prices and rates go up.

Even some who lost their homes to foreclosure are now eligible for a new mortgage loan. Better yet, the lenders have eased up a bit on the regulations they put in place right after the crash, so those buyers can once again get into home ownership with a low down payment.

(Thankfully, they haven’t gone back to the “loosy goosy” standards that caused the whole mess, or we’d be headed right back into trouble.)

Remember, your short sale clients are eligible within 2-3 years, and after a foreclosure, the clients you couldn’t help can buy again after 5-7 years.

So that you can reach out and remind them why NOW is the time to get back into home ownership, I’ve written a new letter set. I’m calling it the “Homeowners on the Rebound” set.

This set reminds them of the perils of renting, while reassuring them that with today’s low prices and low interest fixed rates, they won’t be taking the same risks they took before.

Come to Copy by Marte today to get your letters and start turning those former short sale sellers into today’s buyers.

For one thing, it’s fun. We get to read both serious information and pure nonsense, and we get to know people and look forward to hearing what they have to contribute.

For me, it’s educational. Since I write about real estate for agents all over the U.S. and in a few foreign countries, knowing “what’s happening” is important. I find myself fascinated by the differences in real estate practices from place to place, as well as the differences in how different markets are doing right now.

And as the face of real estate changes, it helps me to be able to follow those changes by reading about the challenges agents are facing each day.

But here’s a reason I probably shouldn’t reveal: I’m a little bit lazy, and Active Rain is easy.

As a non-techie, I can go to Active Rain and don’t have figure out how to get where I’m going every time I visit. If I go to Facebook I generally get lost and end up leaving.

What about Twitter? Who can actually converse in 140 characters? Not me. And trying to follow a conversation done in tiny bites is way too time consuming.

And then there’s LinkedIn. I read more and more about how important it is, but it takes way too much clicking around and searching for me. With my Wild Blue connection, I have to wait to get anywhere – and then when I do arrive and find that the article isn’t there, and I have to click and wait yet again… forget it. I’m outa there.

Real Estate Marbles looked like it might be a good place to be, but… Again, it’s too much work.

On Active Rain I can join groups and post to up to 5 each time I write. On Real Estate Marbles I can join groups, but then have to re-post to each of them one at a time. (Unless there’s some instruction I haven’t found yet.) And then, once you post, there’s no one there to reply. Most of my (very few) replies have been advertisements, not comments.

On Active Rain I can follow a conversation – and get an email for each new comment. That’s really useful if you’ve asked a question and are hoping that the original poster (or another visitor) will answer.

Yes, there are those other reasons – we write posts for SEO and to put our services in front of the people who might need them. And Active Rain is a good authority site that helps us all promote our own websites.

But the reasons I choose Active Rain as the place to be are simple:

It’s fun
It’s educational
It’s easy

If you haven’t joined yet, come and get acquainted.

But with so much to choose from, how do you do it?

You can begin with what you know.
For instance, a neighborhood or a type of property that you know well.

You can begin with the niche in which you have the most experience.
If the “luck of the draw” has had you working in one particular niche more than another, you can focus on it.

You should begin with the property and people you enjoy most.

When you’re working with the kind of property you like and the kind of people whose company you enjoy, you’ll be more successful.

Why? Because your enjoyment will show, even if you don’t talk about it. Your enthusiasm and your growing knowledge will draw even more clients to you. And those clients, having enjoyed your service, will send you referrals.

What you should NOT do:
You should NOT choose a niche based on price.

Yes, you can make larger commissions selling higher priced properties. But if you don’t enjoy it and don’t know it well, every day will be a struggle. You’ll close fewer transactions while enjoying it less. And your clients will know.

We all give off vibrations. If yours show that you love your work the results will be far different than vibrations that show you’re stressed out – or in over your head.

Let your real estate website and your agent bio reveal and promote your niche – and grow your business in a direction that will bring you joy.

It might be by:

• finally creating their own website
• joining Active Rain and blogging or commenting
• commenting on blogs that allow them to leave their URL
• answering real estate questions on real estate portals
• setting up a business page on Facebook
• joining LinkedIn
• joining Real Estate Marbles
• posting to social sites they already joined but haven’t used

And I issued a challenge: Do 2 new things this week to make yourself more visible, then come here and tell us what you did.

You’re invited to join the challenge, whether or not you read the ezine.

Yes – that means you’ll get a link from here.

When you write your comment, be sure to include your name, your role in the real estate industry, and the city or area you serve.

I see it online. I see in in print ads. And it’s not just real estate people telling it – it’s everyone from our local accountant to garage mechanics to insurance salesmen to building contractors.

It annoys me first because it’s a lie. It annoys me second because it’s a lazy way to advertise your services.

What is this lie?

“I can handle all of your needs.”

I wrote about it in this week’s real estate marketing ezine, but the same principle applies to any business.

Whatever it is that you do, take the time to tell your readers. They know you can’t do it “all,” so don’t make them guess about what you can do.

• Luck
• Location – and market conditions in that location
• Skill
• Persistence
• Hard work

And of course all those things do play a part. But what lies at the root of those things?

Success comes from expecting success

And according to Dr. Maya Bailey, writing for Realty Times, going even one more step deeper into the reason you’ll find fear.

Fear alters your beliefs and controls your thoughts. Your thoughts control your actions – and your energies. When your energies are rooted in fear and lack, the Law of Attraction will obediently bring you more of them.

Read Dr. Bailey’s article - her words are very much worth your time to consider.

First, show them how the law of supply and demand dictates that rents will continue to rise. In some communities it is already cheaper to pay a mortgage payment than a rent payment. If foreclosures continue, so this trend should also continue.

Get the numbers for your own community and show them the comparisons.
Then talk about the fact that mortgage payments build equity for you while rent payments build equity for the landlord.

But here’s what’s really important:

As long as you don’t plan to move, it doesn’t matter if your home increases or decreases in value over the next couple of years. If you want pride of ownership, love the home, and can comfortably afford the payment, that’s what matters.

Next, when you own your home you don’t have to answer to a landlord. You can paint the walls, change the light fixtures, and drive nails to hang pictures. You can even move a wall if you really want to.

On top of that, when you own your home and have a fixed rate mortgage you don’t have to worry about the monthly cost going up or being evicted because your landlord failed to make payments (or wants his kids to move in, or sells to someone who wants to live there themselves.)

Of course there are tax advantages. I found a website that shows how much tax you pay after deductions – and it can be eye opening.

For instance, for the year 2011, a married couple filing jointly will pay $22,372 on an after deductions income of $100,000. Pretend for a minute that they have $16,000 in deductible interest and no other itemized deductions. After eliminating the standard deduction of $11,400, they’d still have an additional $4,600 in deductions for income tax purposes. Their tax bill would drop to $16,100. That savings of $6,272 comes to $522 per month that could go toward a house payment, savings, vacations, or whatever else they liked.

And of course, if they have other itemized deductions, such as employee business expense or medical bills that would normally be swallowed into the standard deduction, their savings will be even higher. And this doesn’t consider state taxes – if you have those, they might save there as well.

Check out that website I found, and use it to show your fence sitting buyers how much they’ll save.

http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_brackets.htm

What if they said:
“Scientific discovery reveals the secret to hypnotizing buyers into choosing your home – and paying top dollar!”

But then… someone commented with an idea that’s part hype and part good sense.

Read the post and the comment, then tell us what YOU think.