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.
I have posted so many posts regarding our current situation with our home that has been on the market since August 2008 due to my husband's job loss and relocation.
There are posts everywhere about it so I am not going to go into major details.
What I will say right now is that we did try to obtain a modification on our home that we are trying to sell (we had to relocate for a job offer my husband finally received, it is out of state.... ).
BOA would not work with us because we were / are still current on our mortgage payments for the home we moved from as well as paying for our new home....
We are being forced into a short sale because of the market environment, right now,there are 14 foreclosures just in the neighborhood we are trying to sell in. I don't know how many in the entire town.
Our house is priced at almost $200k LESS than what we built it for.
So.... we now have potential buyers and BOA STILL won't work with us.
This is copy & pasted from an email that we received from our realtors:
BOA is very difficult to work with. A negotiator from BOA told me that they would rather a property go to foreclosure because they will make more money! The guy told me that they wouldn't have to pay interest, carrying costs, or maintenance. On top of that, whatever they lose in a foreclosure, the Govt gives them via the Tarp Program; plus, if the property has mortgage insurance, the bank gets that too. The banks are the ones making all the money! They're terrible.
Anyway, we're doing the best we can and will see what they do with this counter. It will probably take them a week to respond.
Just curious why you don't just retain it as a rental property and unload it when the market rebounds. Hell even if you take a loss every month it still has to be less than making the full payment every month.
I am sorry, you are trying to sell it 200k LESS than what you paid for? Sounds like your short sale is worse than a foreclosure... if I was the bank, I rather foreclose as well and knowing many scams going around where family tries to "sell" another family member (or friends) their home for substantially cheaper but they retain the "true" ownership just so they don't have to pay that much more... well... I don't think banks are that stupid to fall for it...
I am apparently not smart enough to come up with something as ridiculous as that anyway's..... no scam going on here as your post somewhat implies...
We really do understand that we have a contract that we are lible for, the problem is that the banks are just making it so much easier on the people who are choosing to walk away. There are thousands of people who have walked away because they bought a home they never should have bought to begin with.
Understanding of course, that there is no way to weed out those that did something risky vs. those that are just in a bad situation because of a job loss,illness,etc....
WE bought a home well within our means and we have tried,we have tried & tried to work with the bank, we have remained current on 2 mortgages for almost 2 years now. We tried to get a modification to help us out so that we weren't draining every last dime that we have to continue to pay for an empty home that won't sell because of the market and they wouldn't even talk to us.
The loan mod. "specialist" told us that in order to prove a hardship, we had to start missing payments. We weren't willing to do that so we continued paying and continued trying to sell it.
NOW ,we have potential buyers, SOMEONE wants to buy our house and the banks STILL are telling us to foreclose because they don't want to work with us. YET, they will work with us if we miss payments?
Honestly, what kind of sense does that make?
I was a business person as well prior to staying home with my children, worked for a very large hotel company, I understand the business side of this, but it does not make sense to tell someone who could sell their home (at a loss albeit) that they are just not going to listen,hear or work with us on anything. They want what they want and the other point of this is that the comps don't support what the banks are asking for!
The comps are all foreclosures and they are almost $100-$150 less than what the banks want us to come in at?
How does that make sense?
We have people who are qualified to purchase our home at the list price right now and they don't qualify for anymore, but yet the banks are turning their heads....
How can that be making good business sense?
Again,we understand completely that we signed a contract and if under normal circumstances, we wouldn't be asking for help, that is obvious as we have sacrificed vacations, children's activities,me going back to school and most of children's college funds by paying for 2 homes,2 sets of utility bills,2 HOA fees,etc... so that we could remain "RESPONSIBLE" citizens by paying our mortgage!
Enough is enough though, they have slammed the door in our faces too many times for being responsible and now that we could have an end in site to this nightmare, they want to slam it again.
Our buyers are going to walk away if the banks don't work with us and chances of finding another buyer anytime soon are near none. It has taken us 22 months to find ONE potential buyer....
So to those that think they would handle it differently and willingly just continue to pay for their 2 homes and everything else , and not expect a little "flexibility" on the banks behalf, good for you. You are a better person than I.
My kids deserve to participate in activities and we deserve to be treated as the responsible individuals that we are.
Mommabear, the OP said :"On top of that, whatever they lose in a foreclosure, the Govt gives them via the Tarp Program";
The point was that the banker was encouraging foreclosure over short sales so they could get govt subsidization from our tax dollars. I would think the feds would like to know that they are doing that.
... 200k LESS than what you paid for?
... worse than a foreclosure ...
... family tries to "sell" another family member ...
Short Sales do not mean sell for less than market.
A Short Sale is a sale that will not satisfy loans secured by the property.
It doesn't matter if the new buyer pays $200k less than the original
purchase price. It also doesn't matter if the buyer is a relative.
A creditor approves a Short Sale if they think that they will lose
less on such a sale than they would if taken to foreclosure.
A Short Sale is a sale of a property for the current market value.
A Short Sale also does not mean that the Short Seller has no continuing
obligation to pay the outstanding loans. It only means that the creditor is
willing to release the security from the loan in order to bring in the money from
a sale. Creditors may or may not forgive the unsatisfied mortgage balance.
I frankly can't imagine that a bank would not approve a Short Sale and that
they are not approving Short Sales faster vs. most foreclosures, but the
whole system is so screwed up that I'm not surprised that things today are
so skewed - mortgagers don't owe money to the loan servicers, loan
servicers make more money by stonewalling than ending a toxic situation
and people live in their defaulted houses for, often, 12 months or more.
It really makes no difference if the seller has no assets or has sufficient
income to service the deficiency. A solvent seller would want to protect
their credit rating. An insolvent seller isn't going to make good no matter
what. It's irrelevant if the insolvent seller is irresponsible or not. For the
creditor, the loss has already happened. Playing games is a state of denial.
Bottom line here...It`s not the ops fault. It`s just the way the economy is and even those who did everything right are taking a hit. You can`t keep blaming people just because they bought a house. Those of you who point fingers you have 5 pointing back at you because I know that you haven`t done "everything" right in your life.
Mommabear, the OP said :"On top of that, whatever they lose in a foreclosure, the Govt gives them via the Tarp Program";
The point was that the banker was encouraging foreclosure over short sales so they could get govt subsidization from our tax dollars. I would think the feds would like to know that they are doing that.
Is that illegal? I am not familiar with the ins and outs of bank regulations however government programs frequently leave loopholes like that open because these programs are rarely well thought out.
.........the problem is that the banks are just making it so much easier on the people who are choosing to walk away. There are thousands of people who have walked away because they bought a home they never should have bought to begin with.....
The bank doesn't care if you did anything wrong or not.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYMD67
NOW ,we have potential buyers, SOMEONE wants to buy our house and the banks STILL are telling us to foreclose because they don't want to work with us. YET, they will work with us if we miss payments?
I am not an expert but sometimes the banks may make more money if they foreclose on the house and collect on mortgage insurance (if there is any). They also may believe that they can foreclose on your house and sell it for more than they will ultimately get in a short sale right now. It's all numbers. They don't care about you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYMD67
We have people who are qualified to purchase our home at the list price right now and they don't qualify for anymore, but yet the banks are turning their heads....
How can that be making good business sense?
They may have reason to believe they can make more money in a foreclosure than a short sale. Is your mortgage in a deficiency state? Can they come after you later?
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYMD67
So to those that think they would handle it differently and willingly just continue to pay for their 2 homes and everything else , and not expect a little "flexibility" on the banks behalf, good for you. You are a better person than I.
My kids deserve to participate in activities and we deserve to be treated as the responsible individuals that we are.
It's not a matter of what you "deserve". The bank doesn't care about your kids.
They don't care if you are responsible or not.
They are looking at it from a purely numbers standpoint and they will work out the solution that is best for THEM. If they think it is best for them to foreclose that is what they will do. If they think is best to work out this short sale they will do it.
I highly recommend that you get a lawyer to work with you. It's amazing how the other party reacts when they realize that you have representation.
Bottom line here...It`s not the ops fault. It`s just the way the economy is and even those who did everything right are taking a hit. You can`t keep blaming people just because they bought a house. Those of you who point fingers you have 5 pointing back at you because I know that you haven`t done "everything" right in your life.
Really, you have six fingers? Also, some of us have every right to be critical. Personally, I paid cash for every house but my very first one when I was 19 years old. I pay cash for my cars too.
Forbes had a recent article about this "catch 22" situation at the banks right now on foreclosures and protecting the banks. The banks DO make more money, a lot more money, when a house is foreclosed on because of the "loss protection" scheme in the TARP funding. It's to their benefit to let you go upside down as much as possible because they get paid based upon the original loan amount against the shortage when the house sells. The program has nothing to do with borrower insurance, it's all about TARP money and it's a money machine for the mortgage holding banks.
The marketplace and your possible short sale circumstance are actually going to work against the bank's financial interest. Which is why they don't want you to go down that path.
Essentially, the bank can foreclose on you and then sell the house for whatever shortage it can bring in the market at this time. Then the TARP money kicks in to reimburse the bank for the difference, which is all pure profit to them. They are compensated on the basis of the original loan amount, not what you've paid it down to at the time of the foreclosure. They get an opportunity to collect twice on a note; once from your payments with interest, and once from the FED for a fictitious loss. The bank has no interest in selling your house for the highest possible amount, because they are being covered by the fed funds for the total paper loss.
The intent, as I understand it, was to keep the banks solvent and allow them as much flexibility as possible to work with distress situations. However, the actual wording of the bill has placed the banks in the position of making more/easier money by simply allowing the situation to deteriorate to the bottom and then getting compensated by the fed funds for the total ... fictitious paper loss. They can actually make more money in this program than if you keep paying on your note, which only returns an interest payment over many years. With this program, they get all the money in one immediate payment.
When I read about this in Forbes, I was truly shocked. It was purely a gift from the feds to the banking businesses, solely at taxpayer expense, and without any real mechanism to encourage or force the banks to help borrowers. You can thank our current administration and Congress for this outrageous program, which is helping to sink the housing market in a lot of communities.
I've oversimplified how the deal works for the banks, so I suggest if you really want to understand what's going on at your bank and where their profits/allegiance lies, seek out a copy of the article. I think it was in the last issue of Forbes, and a new one just hit my mailbox today. For whatever reason, the financial press has been pretty much ignoring this story, which is really about legalized and federally funded theft of a nation's private assets.
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.
