2011 is upon us.  It seems like everyone has predictions for what the year will hold.  I’ve read about how mortgage interest rates will rise to 6.5% by years end.  I’ve read about how the European economy will collapse by the end of the year and the Euro will have to be shelved because industrial countries like Germany are prospering while tourism centric countries like Spain and Greece are falling into bankruptcy.

Me?  I don’t think I care to make any predictions.  Rather, what I intend to do is to figure out how to shore up my finances so that I am in the best position I can figure out how to be.  I am working on paying down my debt.  Credit card debt, mortgage debt, it all needs to either get paid down, or it needs to be refinanced into something with the good rates that prevail today.

I don’t know if interest rates will go up this year.  After all, everyone said last year that they had to go up and they haven’t yet.  But, I can say that they aren’t going down.  There just isn’t room for any significant downward movement.  I think it’s a toss up whether they will go up or remain in the 4% range.  The Obama administration has a lot of reason to keep them low.  We may be moving out of this recession, but we will need a lot more  proof of recovery before the Fed will feel comfortable raising rates.  There is an election in two years and the Democrats took enough of a beating this year.  They are going to have to tread carefully for the next two years.  They can’t afford for the economy to stagnate or falter.  They have to find  a way to prompt growth and raising interest rates is likely last on that list.

But, back to what to do this year.  Once your debt is reduced, what else can you do?  Me, I would be very interested in finding some real estate at a really good value.  Probably a fixer-upper is your best bet.  Something like a Bank Owned property that doesn’t have other than cosmetic damage to it.  It could be a lot of cosmetic damage, but it should not be significant damage like structural problems.  Companies like Realty Bargains have great tools for seeking out Bank Owned bargains.

If you are handy with a hammer, you could buy one of these bargains and fix it yourself.  Otherwise, there are a ton of people who are handy and could help you out.

Paying down debt, or buy a house at a bargain.  I cannot see how either of these can do other than help you prepare for the future of 2011 as it comes upon us.

Continuing to expand its market reach to people looking for houses for sale or homes for rent, HouseHitz.com has begun serving more than 1 million search results to its active user base on a month to month basis. HouseHitz.com has continued to expand its market reach in the house for rent and home for sale search sector since its launch in 2006.

HouseHitz.com feeds properties listed on the site to multiple partner websites such as HotPads, OLX, Vast, Trovit, Trulia, Zillow, Oodle and Rentbits to provide Property Managers, Realtors and Home Owners advertising their properties on the site with the most exposure to people searching the web for homes to rent or buy.

“The Realtors, Property Managers and Home Owners using our site to advertise houses for rent and other properties are reaping the benefits of the network of sites that we feed property information to. It is providing our advertisers with a significant footprint for attracting people searching for homes with very little effort on the advertiser’s part,” says Jom Lynch, President of HouseHitz.com. Jom was instrumental in two other housing search websites before HouseHitz.com, HomesofGolden.com and rent-to-own.us, therefore providing over ten years experience in the houses for rent, houses for sale and rent to own houses search sector on the web.

HouseHitz.com has about 15,000 active users on the site today and is getting over 40,000 unique new visitors, and climbing, every month. Every day, HouseHitz.com sends emails to its active users informing them of new rent to own houses or homes for sale that have been posted on the site that meet the user’s particular criteria. A user only gets emailed if the new posting is in line with the search that the user has saved. Additionally, HouseHitz.com retires users that are no longer actively searching for a home, so the database of house for rent, home for sale and rent to own home searchers is always current. Users can choose to broaden or limit their search according to how it best suits them. Users can dictate city area, zip code area, price ranges, number of bedrooms, a rental or for sale, or they can broaden their search to an entire state. A big plus that HouseHitz.com offers is how a user can manage the notifications they will receive.

The advertisers who advertise houses for sale on the site also have significant control of how their properties are advertised. Advertisers can limit or broaden the number of sites their properties are fed to at their discretion. It is all a matter of economics and time to market. Keeping in mind that the same selections that allow an advertiser to broaden the number of sites their properties are fed to also give the advertiser better position in searches on the site. The more sites an advertiser chooses to feed their ad to, the higher in the search ranking their ad is placed.

Data feeds, along with first page search rankings on Google for terms like “Houses for Rent” “Houses for Sale” and “Rent to Own Homes”, are driving more and more people who are searching for homes to the site every day. This constant increase in traffic is resulting in an escalating number of searches the site provides month over month. With nearly 15,000 active users on the site and 40,000 new visitors a month taking advantage of the user-friendly searches and the easy property postings, HouseHitz.com is providing a strong forum where Tenants, Buyers, Realtors, Property Managers and Home Owners can meet.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/Houses-For-Rent/Homes-For-Sale/prweb4907764.htm

At least that’s what the pundits want you to believe.  Now is the time to buy Real Estate.  CNN money posts:  http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/10/pf/buy_a_home_now.moneymag/index.htm their article in the last few days that now must be a good time to buy a home.

OK, we always believe that now is the time to buy a house but, then we are long term buyers, always.  We have yet to see a time that was bad to buy a house for the long term buyer and the smart buyer.  Sure, some of our holding have gone down in value the last few years, but we bought smart.  So, we haven’t gone to the point of being in any kind of trouble.

But, our question is; is it time for everyone to buy?  Sure, if you are in the market to buy and you have a stable job, YES!  But, how many people are in that place today?  Are you?

HouseHitz is proud to announce that we are now feeding houses for rent and homes for sale to Trovit.com.  When realtors and property managers add properties to our site and choose to make their property a Premier ad, we are now posting those ads to Trovit.com.

This is another of the many sites that we feed properties to depending on the level of advertisement the Realtors, Property Managers and home owners who advertise homes on our site choose.