No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. The cover art and masthead for the May/June issue of Commonwealth magazine are upside down.

A bit unsettling? Good. That’s what we’re going for.

You see, the number of Virginia homeowners getting upside down in their homes may be diminishing, but short sales and foreclosures are present in every market and will be around for the foreseeable future. VAR is here to help you face these current realities.

This issue of Commonwealth features the experiences and perspectives of REALTORS® who have been involved in transactions with distressed sellers, a comprehensive guide to navigating your legal and ethical responsibilities in short sales from Lem Marshall, and a history of fiscal policies and world events that will help you understand the forces that brought us this challenging lending and housing market.

There’s also the ever-popular Legal Lines column and information about the keynote presentations at VAR’s Convention & Expo 2008. Speaking of Convention, VAR’s CEO, Scott Brunner has a little fun with The Last Word.  Read it and you could win a free Convention & Expo registration. But you’ll have to crack the paper copy, arriving in your mailbox this week, to do that.

Two articles from the magazine are posted here at VARbuzz, “Finding the upside in ‘upside-down‘” and “The subprime meltdown.”