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I bought a house almost 17 years ago. During the recession the area deteriorated, the value hit bottom and has never recovered. The value took a -$5000 dive in 2008, a -$9700 dip in 2009 and it goes on from there every year. My lucky year was 2015 when the value increased $315, yep that's right, you read that correctly. But, this year it went down $500 so no gain there. I'm $35,000 underwater and still owe $65,000. Section 8 investors have turned this once nice town into a ghetto with 3/4 of the town rentals and it's dangerous to live here. I'm a senior citizen, should be retired but am working 7 days a week trying to save money to move. Moving is the problem.
1. I don't qualify for a short sale - I don't have any hardships other than my life being in danger, that doesn't count. If, by some chance, I could qualify for a short sale, I would be responsible for the balance of a sale and it's almost the same as a foreclosure in ruining your credit. I don't want that. Realtor's tell me, it's simple, just rent for 3 years and then "try" to buy. I'm in my 70's, how many times do I move and I'm not taking the chance on being stuck renting. I've owned my own home for too long and renting isn't an option.
2. I don't qualify for a refi, I am not up to my eyeballs in debt, have never missed a house payment or been late, pay my taxes and house insurance separately on time and I don't have a hardship. My credit, the last time I checked, was good, maybe in the 700's I don't have any bills, cc, etc other than my mtg, house/car ins, property taxes and utilities. the car is old but paid for and runs great so no new car in the future or maybe never.
3. I have a couple of sources of income - social security, my job and another source which comes to
about $32,000 a year. I have managed to save $20,000 and have a small amount of investments I really don't want to dip in to.
I don't want to put the house on the market while I live here. Actually, I want to just walk away and might just live in a motor home or the back of my car. That's about how desperate I'm getting. For my safety I don't anyone coming in my house while I live here. People have been know to go to work in the morning and come home at night with their house stripped. Or in the wealthy neighborhoods with for sale signs, the thieves break in and steal the high end appliances. I'm just not taking the chance on someone breaking in while I'm here. I have focused on saving to move and knowing any upkeep will not give me profit in a sale, I've let the house deteriorate to the point only an investor would want it for pennies on the dollar.
I've been looking at low end houses. How low can you go and not make a lateral move back to the ghetto. I have to make enough to carry 2 mtgs until I can get rid of the one I'm in now and just never seem to make enough money to qualify. I'm looking at $65,000 houses. That's not an expensive house at all. And it's hard to find one that isn't a dump. I've been looking in a retirement community where I would feel safe and some of them are halfway decent for that price. I'm so tired of feeling like a looser. It seems like no matter how much I save, it's never enough. I've been told by well to do friends that I'm not trying hard enough. Can anyone think of any other ways I can get a mortgage? I've run out of thoughts on this.
If you are worried about people breaking in get an alarm. Simplisafe costs about $200 you put it in yourself and can see the videos on Youtube, it's easy and it costs $15 a month for monitoring and you don't need wifi to use it, it uses it's own system.
Can you rent out your home so it covers the mortgage and upkeep and move? You can even rent to those section 8 people I hear in many places they pay rent higher than the going rate, also they have to maintain the home or they lose their benefits.
Try to move to where the cost of living is cheaper, or buy a mobile home on your own land or in a 55+ place where you own the lot and only pay $50 or so for HOA fees a month.
If you like Florida there are a lot of small nice towns with homes under $50K, you mortgage would be about $500 a month total.
I bought a house almost 17 years ago. During the recession the area deteriorated, the value hit bottom and has never recovered. The value took a -$5000 dive in 2008, a -$9700 dip in 2009 and it goes on from there every year. My lucky year was 2015 when the value increased $315, yep that's right, you read that correctly. But, this year it went down $500 so no gain there. I'm $35,000 underwater and still owe $65,000. Section 8 investors have turned this once nice town into a ghetto with 3/4 of the town rentals and it's dangerous to live here. I'm a senior citizen, should be retired but am working 7 days a week trying to save money to move. Moving is the problem.
1. I don't qualify for a short sale - I don't have any hardships other than my life being in danger, that doesn't count. If, by some chance, I could qualify for a short sale, I would be responsible for the balance of a sale and it's almost the same as a foreclosure in ruining your credit. I don't want that. Realtor's tell me, it's simple, just rent for 3 years and then "try" to buy. I'm in my 70's, how many times do I move and I'm not taking the chance on being stuck renting. I've owned my own home for too long and renting isn't an option.
2. I don't qualify for a refi, I am not up to my eyeballs in debt, have never missed a house payment or been late, pay my taxes and house insurance separately on time and I don't have a hardship. My credit, the last time I checked, was good, maybe in the 700's I don't have any bills, cc, etc other than my mtg, house/car ins, property taxes and utilities. the car is old but paid for and runs great so no new car in the future or maybe never.
3. I have a couple of sources of income - social security, my job and another source which comes to
about $32,000 a year. I have managed to save $20,000 and have a small amount of investments I really don't want to dip in to.
I don't want to put the house on the market while I live here. Actually, I want to just walk away and might just live in a motor home or the back of my car. That's about how desperate I'm getting. For my safety I don't anyone coming in my house while I live here. People have been know to go to work in the morning and come home at night with their house stripped. Or in the wealthy neighborhoods with for sale signs, the thieves break in and steal the high end appliances. I'm just not taking the chance on someone breaking in while I'm here. I have focused on saving to move and knowing any upkeep will not give me profit in a sale, I've let the house deteriorate to the point only an investor would want it for pennies on the dollar.
I've been looking at low end houses. How low can you go and not make a lateral move back to the ghetto. I have to make enough to carry 2 mtgs until I can get rid of the one I'm in now and just never seem to make enough money to qualify. I'm looking at $65,000 houses. That's not an expensive house at all. And it's hard to find one that isn't a dump. I've been looking in a retirement community where I would feel safe and some of them are halfway decent for that price. I'm so tired of feeling like a looser. It seems like no matter how much I save, it's never enough. I've been told by well to do friends that I'm not trying hard enough. Can anyone think of any other ways I can get a mortgage? I've run out of thoughts on this.
The source of your stress is your own lack of flexibility.
Where are you getting the property values you mention in the first paragraph? They sound like tax assessor values, which may or may not have any basis in reality. I'd talk to a real estate agent to get a real idea of the property's worth.
I agree with a suggestion made above. Is the home in an area where you might find someone that would be willing to rent? I can only speak for loan options that I have available to me but even without the home actively rented, we can use 70% of the value rent would bring as income to help qualify for the purchase of your new primary residence.
Might be worth bringing up in a discussion with a lender.
If you are worried about people breaking in get an alarm. Simplisafe costs about $200 you put it in yourself and can see the videos on Youtube, it's easy and it costs $15 a month for monitoring and you don't need wifi to use it, it uses it's own system.
Can you rent out your home so it covers the mortgage and upkeep and move? You can even rent to those section 8 people I hear in many places they pay rent higher than the going rate, also they have to maintain the home or they lose their benefits.
Try to move to where the cost of living is cheaper, or buy a mobile home on your own land or in a 55+ place where you own the lot and only pay $50 or so for HOA fees a month.
If you like Florida there are a lot of small nice towns with homes under $50K, you mortgage would be about $500 a month total.
Please tell us where those are - because I'm sure we are all curious where we can get a home for under $50K and I'm not talking about a single wide mobile home.
Where the heck are you living? Detroit? Chicago? St. Louis? I agree with the previous poster who said get an official appraisal. Then maybe rent it out and have a management company deal with the rest or just sell it. If you have $20K in savings consider yourself fortunate as you can move out of that area and rent while your house is on the market or you are renting it.
Please tell us where those are - because I'm sure we are all curious where we can get a home for under $50K and I'm not talking about a single wide mobile home.
Where the heck are you living? Detroit? Chicago? St. Louis? I agree with the previous poster who said get an official appraisal. Then maybe rent it out and have a management company deal with the rest or just sell it. If you have $20K in savings consider yourself fortunate as you can move out of that area and rent while your house is on the market or you are renting it.
Alabama, North Carolina...almost any state you can find a livable home for $50k and under. I ran a search for Alabama etc and came up with some decent homes. Prices really are dependent on location because those same house would be $250,000 where we are moving to.
For Florida you can find some: https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal..._zm/6_p/0_mmm/
Tons more but you get the idea. CAN you find cheap houses? Easily, but would they be worth it? Maybe. You'd have to put a bunch of work into them
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