We are heading down this path it seems....mainly due to a hinky second mortgage that WE agreed to(we are to blame for agreeing) and a series of job issues....
First the job issues.
The business my wife worked at for 11 years closed up one Friday eight months back,quite shocking but she got another job that day but it was not the same salary and no commission to speak of so that hit our pockets.
It was also over 40 miles away so it cost around $80+/week in gas....then just a few weeks back that business told everyone they needed to take a paycut,another $5000 hit to us.
My new job was 'full time' and started out low(bottom of the totem pole) but I figured I would advance as I was told...quickly realised full time was 30 hours/week and most people there had been there for years and knew an easy gig when they saw it...STILL sitting at the bottom paywise and the corporation has turned around and issued a statement freezing pay increases...In my profession jobs are slim as it has been hit by everything going on.
So all in all we have probably taken a hit in excess of $25,000 a year....and are slowly drowning.
We had the house on the market for over a year and lowered the price almost 20% over that time...no takers to speak of.Took it off the market to refi.
On to the house/mortgage situation...
We tried refinancing the house and the appraisal came in $30,000 UNDER what we owe($198,000) and that was what we basically had it last listed at....So cannot sell the house,cannot refi,cannot realistically keep paying and surviving....
So anyway,back to the hinky 2nd mortgage.
We went to Wachovia,our bank for 20 years in 2006 and after a week or so they came up with the loan in question,short term,high payment(almost $1400/month) and interest but we could do it.The initial amount was $75,000.It is now down to $57,000 or so.
We paid for over two years but then with the new appraisal we wanted to question the amount and asked for a copy of the Wachovia appraisal and were told it was destroyed...we then asked for copies of our loan papers(thinking the amount of the appraisal would be on there somewhere) and were surprised to find no amount and no specific property listed as collateral.
We then called the bank and after some confusion on their part the loan was indeed using our house as collateral(although not listing it specifically) but there was nothing to show how much the house was worth or where they came up with the amount...neither of us recall the house being appraised to come up with the amount that could be borrowed and to be honest it seems no appraisal was done.
Remember,this was in 2007,NOT the gold rush days where anybody with air in their lungs would be loaned money.
So....adding the initial amount of the 2nd and the amount of the 1st came to $216,000, about $12,000 more than the appraisal done in 2006.
At present we owe $198,000, our house appraised at $168,000 and the appraiser actually said it wouldn't sell for that in the current market.
We called about a deed in lieu of but Countrywide requires the house be listed for 90 days BEFORE they will discuss it.Wachovia has stated it might be willing to do a loan modification but it would only be temporary.
On top of all that,we do not want to live here,that being why the house was on the market.
Looking back to when we first listed it,I intially wanted to list it at what we owed plus fees,in other words just get out...was talked out of that as the house was 'worth more'...
Hindsight and all that however.
So...any thoughts,ideas or suggestions?
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