Ten things to do if you believe home values will take a dump

I happened upon this post over at Millionaire Mommy's blog. It's an excerpt she posted from economic consultant John Talbott's book, The Coming Crash in the Housing Market : 10 Things You Can Do Now to Protect Your Most Valuable Investment.

The notes made are hers, not mine. I'm leaving them in as they're the part I found to be the most educational. Please be sure to check out her blog for more great tips. Apparently this woman is a self-made millionaire. You go girl!

It's never too late to protect yourself. Yes, the market took a dump already, but these are good tips to follow if you don't expect the housing market to rebound any time soon.

Here's the list:

Decrease your exposure to residential real estate (done - we sold our home and rented instead)

Move from a higher priced area to a lower priced area (done - we downsized our home and our lifestyle)

Manage your debt leverage better (done - we became 100% debt free)

Hedge your exposure to residential real estate (done - since we sold our home, we hedged the other way -- we invested in real estate ETFs, REITs and mutual funds while they were still trending up. When the trend turned downward, we sold our real estate holdings with the simple click of our mouse button. Therefore, we profited from the still-climbing real estate prices even after we sold our home-- without getting stuck in a home that wouldn't sell after the housing bubble had popped.)

Plan now in case of a major transition event (done - we prevented job layoff troubles in two ways: first, we were self-employed; second, we saved enough money that working became optional)

Examine other contingency plans (done - we considered lots of 'what if' scenarios using Money's Lifetime Planner tool)

Maintain adequate insurance (done - term life, medical, disability and liability policies in place)

Investigate bankruptcy protections now (we skipped this one)

Become more civically involved (an evolving and growing process for me)

Reassess your life priorities (done, consistently)