Rona is here and ready for your questions

Positive> what do you mean by that?

Liz,
That is a matter of negotiation. Sometimes, the seller tries to pass those fees to the new owner. Disclose everything you know about the fees and negotiate as best you can.

Joy, Yes and no. I am seeing silly over-priced listings, I am seeing houses badly set up for showings, I am seeing under-priced houses set up for bidding wars. Marketing is all over the place.
In some "hot" spots, where inventory is low, there are some slightly rising prices. I hope this stops soon.
There is lots of activity around greater Boston. Much less for my agent in metro-west.

If you are buying REO, or any bank-involved property, there are some added complexities:
The bank has not heart. Your negotiation will be more cold.
Your wait time between questions is longer.
The lender can change it's mind. (sort of mind)
The whole process takes longer.

Zillow or any of the other on-line computerized valuations systems are pretty inaccurate. I have heard as much as 10% off in either direction. The problem is that you need to see the properties, especially around here, to know the value. Condition can change the picture by $10s of thousands and so can location.

Auctions are not happening. The lenders found them too expensive and too full of tire-kickers. There are some on-line sites, but I am finding most of the properties are being handed to brokers and ending up on the MLS. I search the MLS for "short", "bank". "foreclose" and "REO" and I pick up almost everything I find on the other sites.

Bad showings include houses that are needlessly dirty, have people sleeping in them in the middle of the day, have mess around that could be picked up, have keys that don't work, have actively wet basements or no electricity.

I haven't been to that auction house. I met with an auctioneer recently who said that the lenders are mostly buying the paper back (not selling it at auction) because they are not getting enough money from the bidders.
Right now, lenders are being very tight with discounts on properties in their portfolio.

a pre-qualification means that the lender thinks you might get a loan based on what you told him/her and your credit report. It is a waste of paper.

A pre-approval that is based on only the information above is really a pre-qualification. See comment above.

A real pre-approval requires that the lender verify your personal information. Then the letter can say that you will get the loan pending: P & S, a successful appraisal and final verification of your employment at closing.

 The lender requires you pay for them to have an attorney to do the closing. Is that waht you mean? I recommend you have an attorney read your P & S agreement and HUD-1 also.