[minestaken]

Hi Everyone,

I have an opportunity with my employer to live/work in Germany for the next 1-3 years. This is a *huge* career opportunity as well as a life goal. My kids are young, wife is willing, and the company pays for everything abroad (housing, etc.). However they will not buy (or assist with) our house here in MI. Our listing agent suggested a price point that is $10K less that we owe on the mortgage. A hypothetical situation would be that we bring $15-$17k to closing and get out of our house clean (mortgage difference + agent commission). This a barely affordable and would devastate our fiances (likely 401k loan), but would preserve our credit. The second option is of course a short sale. In an effort to gather as much data as possible before making the decision I'd like to seek advice from the forum (of course if this opportunity works out, I'll talk to the professionals on this). Our credit is great, no late / missed payments on anything. So I don't think we could take advantage of the government programs (loan modification or the new Obama plan). So, I'm at a loss here...

BTW, after the assignment, the plan would be to come back to SE Michigan to purchase a house again.

Thoughts?

[mich2fla]

I'm going through a similar opportunity as you are...we might go to Hong Kong by the end of the year for about 2-3 years. We decided to hold on to the house. I know the market will get better and we plan on coming back to the same school district when we return.