**(PRWEB) March 15, 2007 — For over two years Americas Watchdog & its National Mortgage Complaint Center have been warning that if a very greedy mortgage industry was allowed to continue with ridiculous mortgage products or programs, at some point the entire economy could be put at risk. The last two weeks of declines on Wall Street are but one indicator that the self-inflicted damage to the economy has started. According to Thomas Martin President of Americas Watchdog, “things are about to get much worse”. Americas Watchdog has five simple tips for consumers or industry insiders to prepare for the next two very turbulent years of record real estate foreclosures and Wall Street mayhem.

1.    If you have an “Option Adjustable Rate Mortgage” try to see if your current lender will assist you with a conversion to a more stable fixed rate product. Option Arms were always a ridiculous mortgage product & should have never been offered to the average consumer.

2.   Homeowners who purchased in 2004, 2005 & 2006 may literally have no ability to refinance their home if they used 100% financing. In many regional or local real estate markets prices have dropped 10% or at best prices are flat. If you do not have to sell your home….. don’t. If you can no longer afford your payment; Americas Watchdog suggest that the consumer attempt to do a work out with his/her/their lender. For many consumers a “deed in lieu of foreclosure” might be your best option if your lender is not willing or able to do a work out.

3.   Congress has been heavily funded by the mortgage industry (campaign donations). The practice of any industry buying Congress needs to stop and homeowners need to be afforded the right to a transparent mortgage transaction where all fees must be disclosed. As an example at the present time only mortgage brokers are required to disclose a kickback for increasing a borrowers interest rate. Banks or mortgage bankers are not required to inform the borrower of this extra income. The fee is called a “yield spread premium” and Congress needs to immediately require that consumers get to see exactly what the lender is making on the mortgage transaction to include all banks and all mortgage bankers.

4.   Home Builders need to get out of the home lending business. Aside from inflating appraisals, homebuilders have been gouging consumers with undisclosed yield spread premiums for years. The mortgage industry is currently being crushed with calls on non-performing loans. Homebuilders could be next. What will homebuilders do when Wall Street comes knocking with pay back provisions for non-performing loans. Many homebuilders could end up going the way of New Century Mortgage. Appraisal fraud in the home building industry is a massive national problem that has received little to no attention.

5.   Consumers with 401 K investments along with pension fund advisors need to wake up & examine their portfolio’s. Wall Street Investment Bankers are largely to blame for much of these problems because they either financed it, or they put the deal together. While much of the mortgage industry is going down the tube, Wall Street Investment Bankers are recording record profits. What is wrong with this picture? Americas Watchdog also believes that the shake out in the mortgage industry will result in “flat fee mortgage lenders” much like what happened to the stock brokerage industry after the “Dot Com” bust. The flat fee approach is the future of the mortgage industry.

Americas Watchdog is all about consumer protection and corporate fair play. If as a consumer you feel like you were cheated in the mortgage process or by a homebuilder you are welcome to contact the National Mortgage Complaint Center at http://NationalMortgageComplaintCenter.Com . If you are an insider with a mortgage lender, a national homebuilder or a Wall Street Investment Banker & you have proof of wrong doing you are welcome to contact Americas Watchdog at http://americaswatchdog.com

**This information is provided as a source of knowledge from Qnovations Corporation - Miami, Florida USA and is not necessary the opinions of ERA Showcase Homes or Mark Handlovitch, CRS, GRI.

I’m sure you have heard the term “curb appeal” but have anyone ever spoke to you about “couch appeal”? That’s right, couch appeal. In the past everyone was worried about how their house looked when a potential buyer drove past but now with the internet it is “couch appeal” which matters most. Don’t get me wrong, it is always important to have great curb appeal but now with 78% of the potential buyers going to the internet first, couch appeal is more important. Gone are the days where buyers are looking at 30 homes over the weekend. Now buyers have the ability to view multiple photos or take a visual tour of any potential home right from the comfort of their own home. This has helped buyers reduce the number of homes which would be a “waste of time” to see based on floor plan, street view or style. This has also helped home sellers reduce the number of unwanted traffic through their home. Buyers and Sellers are limited in the amount of spare time they on weekends and evenings so minimizing the number of prospects who might never have wanted to see the home had they known something via photos or visual tour.

When getting your home ready for sale in a buyer’s market keep in mind that the competition is tough. You have to really step it up when it comes to the “couch appeal”. Gone is the day that buyers will walk in and say “we can fix this or that” because now they drive down the street to the plethora of homes on the market and say “well we don’t have to fix this or change that”. The basic idea when it comes to “couch appeal” is keep it sweat and simple. Remove the extra end tables in the living room, or the oversize ottoman in the family room. Clean off the counter tops, dressers, refrigerators, tables and that favorite place you put the mail when you come home from work. Moving furniture around in a room may make it appear larger than it is or taking a few pictures off the wall will give the impression the rooms are larger. Paint those rooms which haven’t been painted in 10 years which still have the kid’s growth chart marks on the wall. Keep in mind that what ever you do will help and this is a temporary situation, after the house is sold you can go back to living comfortably and not worry about traffic flow.

Don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions about how or why it is important to do certain things to prepare your home.

Best of luck and good selling.