[Gatornation]

Originally Posted by theredsnowman

No, I do, which is why I hate banks, more specifically the "home" industry.

Don't quite think you do. You'll pay 40k in interest of 15 year loan on a 150k house. If it takes you five years of paying rent to save up that 150k in cash you just spent 60k in rent.

[stpeteguy]

Originally Posted by Gatornation

. It's just smart business for them.

Exactly!

And it's just smart business for me to do what i'm doing.

[annerk]

Originally Posted by stpeteguy

Exactly!

And it's just smart business for me to do what i'm doing.

The difference is they give you the terms up front and you can choose to accept them or not sign to begin with. You accepted them and now you're not living up to your responsibility. You can try to spin it anyway you want, but bottom line, you agreed to the terms and now you are walking away from the agreement for no reason other than selfishness.

[stpeteguy]

Originally Posted by annerk

you agreed to the terms and now you are walking away from the agreement for no reason other than selfishness.

Yeah, I know. I should've done it sooner.

[StreetSmarts]

StPeteGuy, screw the banks man. Are you kidding me? Should you feel bad about leaving the banks hanging? Absolutely not. Forget about moral obligation and all that BS. How moral are the banks and the execs that run them anyway?

[Cruzincat]

Originally Posted by annerk

The difference is they give you the terms up front and you can choose to accept them or not sign to begin with. You accepted them and now you're not living up to your responsibility. You can try to spin it anyway you want, but bottom line, you agreed to the terms and now you are walking away from the agreement for no reason other than selfishness.

It's easy for someone who is not in a difficult situation to criticize someone who is, and decides to do what is best for his family when times are tough. Maybe StPeteGuy is taking the easy way out, but, given the shaky future the housing market may have ahead, it may be the best insurance he has. I would have more respect for his critics if they are going through a similar situation and are fighting to avoid default.

I, however, am in a situation that could go either way in the next 5 - 10 years, so I can relate. I have no trouble making my mortgage payments (plural) for the (one) house I own. At least as long as my wife and I continue working anyway. Neither one of us are in perfect health, and, if either one of us lost our income, we would quickly be in trouble. We are within 5 years of retirement. In the last 4 years, I had hoped we would have downsized, but that is impossible since we are now about 25% underwater. We would prefer to stay here, but there is no way we could afford to on our retirement income.

My wife is in constant back pain and should be on disability, but before she can go on disability, she has to make every attempt to get better, which may include surgery that often makes people worse off. But, my wife is a stubborn moralist, like Annerk. If it weren't for that, I would be making my preparations to walk away. If we did it now it would be more difficult than to wait until we retire, but our future would be more optimistic, since we would still have a good income for a few years to allow us to get set up for retirement.

So, do I "make" my wife keep working so we can meet our obligations and possibly turn her into an invalid, or do we "take the easy way out?"

[skylinet]

I know this has has been posted before, but short selling your home is often a much more effective way of doing things. If you are still financially stable and not in a hardship, you may have to come up with some money to get a complete release from your loan. It usually beats having a large judgement over your head or having to file bk.

I've worked on over 60 short sales in the past couple years and every situation or reason for doing it is different. We just had a guy that made $350k a year get a full release out of his property that he could still afford for a $10,000 contribution of which the buyer paid $2000. Some people would look negatively at a person like that, but he bought the condo for his daughter at $320,000 at the peak and it sold for $107,000. There are some situations where it doesn't make any financial sense not to try and get out.

In some cases the banks are offering cash move out programs right now up to $20,000 as well. They are also much more willing to work with people with short selling their home than they have been in the past. I've seen people short sell their home and pay their mortgage until the day they moved out.

If you want to stay in your home their are other options like refi and loan mods, but the success rate on those are pretty low still.

Ignoring the problem or "Screwing" the banks really isn't necessary if you meet with a qualified attorney/realtor/loan person and figure out a plan there are much better ways of doing it.

[theredsnowman]

Originally Posted by Gatornation

Don't quite think you do. You'll pay 40k in interest of 15 year loan on a 150k house. If it takes you five years of paying rent to save up that 150k in cash you just spent 60k in rent.

You must factor in several other costs associated with owning a home for an accurate comparison. Owning a home is not as simple as paying the mortgage. The money saved by not owning a home should not be simply buried in the back yard, as you seem to suggest.

[Gatornation]

Originally Posted by theredsnowman

You must factor in several other costs associated with owning a home for an accurate comparison. Owning a home is not as simple as paying the mortgage. The money saved by not owning a home should not be simply buried in the back yard, as you seem to suggest.

Sure. I didn't mention any of tax breaks you get when owning a home either.

[StreetSmarts]

Originally Posted by skylinet

I know this has has been posted before, but short selling your home is often a much more effective way of doing things. If you are still financially stable and not in a hardship, you may have to come up with some money to get a complete release from your loan. It usually beats having a large judgement over your head or having to file bk.

I've worked on over 60 short sales in the past couple years and every situation or reason for doing it is different. We just had a guy that made $350k a year get a full release out of his property that he could still afford for a $10,000 contribution of which the buyer paid $2000. Some people would look negatively at a person like that, but he bought the condo for his daughter at $320,000 at the peak and it sold for $107,000. There are some situations where it doesn't make any financial sense not to try and get out.

In some cases the banks are offering cash move out programs right now up to $20,000 as well. They are also much more willing to work with people with short selling their home than they have been in the past. I've seen people short sell their home and pay their mortgage until the day they moved out.

If you want to stay in your home their are other options like refi and loan mods, but the success rate on those are pretty low still.

Ignoring the problem or "Screwing" the banks really isn't necessary if you meet with a qualified attorney/realtor/loan person and figure out a plan there are much better ways of doing it.

That makes me sick considering we dont make anywhere near that, I lost my job in FL, and took another job in another state. So we knew we had to short sale / foreclose on the house. Nobody bought it. Hired an attorney to protect us from the bank, but the bank wanted a 50k deficiency note, we said NO. So now we're filing bankruptcy. We feel like we have no other choice.