A little fun, first of all today. It's BAD real estate photo day!

Warning: This house may make you dizzy! At least looking at the photo could!

I wonder what they didn't want me to see? Or was this taken by one of those nocturnal real estate agents?

"Red sky at morning, Buyer take warning?"

While these are so ridiculous they're funny, they're a lot less funny if it's your house! It's almost impossible to over emphasize the importance of good photos online. It can be a tough market to sell your home. Having photos like these is shooting yourself in the foot!

And, lastly, a bit of blatant self-promotion.

The Fauquier Times Democrat ran a story today on my new property management business, as well as my thoughts on the local market.

In the Fauquier Times Democrat Weekend paper, I'm quoted in two separate articles. The first one "Few Find Escape From Threat of Foreclosure" is on page one and continues throughout the paper. The second, "By The Numbers" is on page 3.

The second article is basically information taken from one of last week's blogs. No problems there.

The problem is in the front page article. First of all, thanks to Laura Ruby for putting this together. It's good to see local coverage on this, along with some helpful information. But, there are some inaccuracies in the article that I'd like to address.

Dave Bryan says that "97 percent of homeowners facing foreclosure will, in fact, lose their homes, leaving only three percent who are able to actually come to some sort of agreement with their loan servicer."

I've spent hours trying to verify that number. I can find no documentation to support it. I finally called Laura Ruby to find out if Dave had cited a source when giving her that quote. He said "he had read it somewhere."

So, just let me say that after trying NAR, Mortgage Bankers Association and realtytrac.com and being unable to verify that number, I have serious reservations about it. My experience is that the number is nowhere near that bad. And, I'm concerned because I don't want families to think it's hopeless!

I then made calls to agents, lenders and organizations designed to help people with these issues. No one had specific numbers. But no one believed that the numbers were anywhere near this grim.

Keep trying! It is not hopeless. Every situation is different!

Another paragraph says "When homeowners have a second mortgage, short sales are virtually impossible, as that requires the approval of two loan servicers."

A first and second mortgage certainly make things even harder. But I've successfully done short sales with two mortgages. Again, it's not impossible. But you've got to be willing to take on the battle!

The last piece in here that I disagree with is from Dave Bryan again. "If you get behind two or three months, it's too late. You won't be able to sell it before it goes to foreclosure."

Again, absolutely not true! In fact, you can't do a short sale until you are behind on paying your mortgage! Again, I've done this for clients and it's worked! You do have to very aggressively price your home. If the home languishes on the market for months, eventually it will move into foreclosure. Then you'll have lost that window of opportunity. And, some short sale homes are in such terrible condition that it's tough to price them low enough to find someone interested. But I'd never say it's impossible!

My big concern here is that not enough homeowners are seeking help now because they feel overwhelmed and hopeless. They need to reach out for help early. But most importantly, they need to get help, whether it's early or not! There are very few times I walk away from someone and tell them there's no hope!

Ask for help. Be aggressive! Don't take "no" for an answer! I can't guarantee anyone a win every time, but your odds are a lot better!