Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
All that for this: I'm wondering if there's a better way of going about losing a house or two than to simply stop paying and go into foreclosure?
Sounds pretty obvious to me. You are in above your heads and out of dough. Stop paying on the Phoenix house and go into foreclosure. You can't afford it and you're in negative equity. Even if you did sell it, you'd be $30K or more in debt. Right now you need cash, so it's like throwing money out the door to keep paying on the house when ultimately it's going to go under. Keep the house in Austin and live there.
But I think what you really need to do is put together a budget and a plan, so you can figure out how much money you're going to need moving forward to pay the mortgage on the Austin house and buy food, etc..
Work opposite shifts from your husband so that you don't have to pay child care.
This is a good one.
My parents did this, my husband and I did this, my bil and sil do this now.... it sucks for the couple time, but it is the sacrifices of having a family in a 2 income era. You and DH will manage... it will only be a few years than son will be ready for preschool/kindergarden.
My parents did this, my husband and I did this, my bil and sil do this now.... it sucks for the couple time, but it is the sacrifices of having a family in a 2 income era. You and DH will manage... it will only be a few years than son will be ready for preschool/kindergarden.
Yep, sucks for the couple time all right, but your son will have a parent with him all the time, which is generally better than daycare. Not that there's anything wrong with daycare per se, but it's expensive.
there is some good advise on here, but I am surprised noone has mentioned calling your mortgage company.
Do you have a big mortgage company or are you with a credit union? with your credit score and history of paying there is a very good chance they will work with you if you let them know what is going on. You may be able to get a refinance with a couple of months not paying. or they may give you a couple of months and tack on at the end of the loan. If you have a big mortgage company they will be more willing to work with you.
We live in Austin and won't move back to Phoenix. We owe what the house in Phoenix might appraise for, but it's in an area of many foreclosures and short sales, which are selling for 30k+ less than what we owe. From what I've seen, we owe about 4k less on our Austin house than what it's selling for, but on a 179k house, we can't pay a realtor, warranty, et al with that 4k. As long as our renters continue to pay, we will try to keep paying the $200/month. We're going to list the Austin house on craigslist and hope to sell by owner since we're not upside-down in it. I'd really hate to foreclose just because we can't pay 11k to a realtor!
You need to at least get it on the MLS. You can pay a limited service broker around $150 to get it listed on the MLS for you. Then, you will ge much more exposure. Craigslist is good too.
I agree with:
Find some sort of desperation job that pays enough to support mortgage. Afternoon and graveyard shift is most likely to be available.
Talking to the mortgage holder of the Phoenix house.
Try selling to the renters
Foreclosure at last resort.
Addition - Hire a lawyer
Last edited by GregW; 01-22-2009 at 09:33 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
