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NYMD67, just ignore the poster who continues to cause trouble. She doesn`t get it... and never will. You`ve got a lot of stress on you as it is. The last thing you need is another person causing you more stress.
I assume you are talking about "mamma_bear"
I don't think she's causing any trouble. She's giving her opinion. Nothing moral or demeaning about her comments. She even stating that in her statements; she's not attacking the OP.
Now back to the topic:
The issue at hand is NYMD67 still had assets.
Right now, let's compare two situations:
1. Person with zero assets who's underwater say 100K. They have nothing to lose. The banks will work with these people sooner than say:
2. NYMD67 who has (had) some assets still left. She may be underwater also. But the banks want to completely wipe her down to the point where she has the same amount of money as the person in number 1 (zero assets).
That's why NYMD67 started this topic. I see her point. I also see mamma_bear's points.
What's done is done (NYMD67 has been depleting her assets down to the point where she can no longer afford to pay for that second empty home). I wished she would have come to this board two years ago (I think she started posting about a year ago? not sure but I've seen her posts about this for at least the past year).
But she's doing what the banks wanted her to do. Keep feeding them money until her assets were/are drained to zero.
I wish I can turn back time and told her to siphon her assets 2 years ago to something that can't be traced. There are so many savvy people who slowly withdraw money, hide the cash. Stop paying the mortgage for 18 months. There's no way the banks can trace your gold coin collection (that you purchased with the money you slowly hid from the bank).
As I stated before, if NYMD67 has any assets left (outside of retirement) she needs to contact an attorney ASAP. She can't keep (and I know this sounds bad); but she can't keep whining about her situation. It's a horrible situation in which she played right into what the banks wanted her to do up to the point where she's about to go down under.
Please NYMD67, if you have not done so, please contact legal help. Most lawyers charge between $1000-5000. But it will be the best money you will have spent. You need legal representation. There's nothing else I can say at this point.
I don't think there's much more discussion we need on this topic. We can discuss the morals all we want and complain about the banks, self-responsibility etc. But that's not going to help. Get legal help now NYMD67 and good luck.
We can discuss the morals all we want and complain about the banks, self-responsibility etc. But that's not going to help. Get legal help now NYMD67 and good luck.
It's not about morals. It's about money.
I think that's what the OP does not understand. She thinks that because she thinks she has taken the moral high ground that the bank will cut her some slack. It won't. It doesn't care about morals. I suggested (in another thread) that the OP get legal representation but she does not want to do that. I am sure she has her own reasons for that.
NYMD67, just ignore the poster who continues to cause trouble. She doesn`t get it... and never will. You`ve got a lot of stress on you as it is. The last thing you need is another person causing you more stress.
I am not causing any trouble. What have I written that seems to be "causing trouble"?
i do get it. I was in a similar position to the OP years ago. But I would not have dreamed of asking for my mortgage debt to be forgiven.
I saw this situation coming 3 years ago, and unless you are in it yourself, I guess you can't understand. Good for those of you who own homes outright; good for you who do not have to move for a job change. We are the group of people who are being screwed the most in this housing debacle. OP, we will get no sympathy unless it's from others like us. After we rent this out for a year or two, if it has lost even more value, we are walking away. Plain and simple. Our parents think we are "stupid" for even hanging on a year or two; they think we are blowing our savings all in the name of trying to do the right thing. I see our neighbors, illegals from a country south of here, who somehow got into a 3400 sq. ft. home in 2006 with no jobs and have never paid their property taxes. Their house has been to auction twice with no offers, so they are still in it-- living over there like nothing is wrong! And we are slaves to Sh--imortgage... foolishly making our payment every month.
I saw this situation coming 3 years ago, and unless you are in it yourself, I guess you can't understand. Good for those of you who own homes outright; good for you who do not have to move for a job change. We are the group of people who are being screwed the most in this housing debacle. OP, we will get no sympathy unless it's from others like us. After we rent this out for a year or two, if it has lost even more value, we are walking away. Plain and simple. Our parents think we are "stupid" for even hanging on a year or two; they think we are blowing our savings all in the name of trying to do the right thing. I see our neighbors, illegals from a country south of here, who somehow got into a 3400 sq. ft. home in 2006 with no jobs and have never paid their property taxes. Their house has been to auction twice with no offers, so they are still in it-- living over there like nothing is wrong! And we are slaves to Sh--imortgage... foolishly making our payment every month.
It depends. Do you live in a recourse or non-recourse state? Do you have assets outside of your retirement accounts.
That's why "walking away" is not as simple as you think it is for many people.
So if you have literally nothing to lose (have no assets), even in a recourse state, walking away makes sense.
But you mention you have savings? How much? If you live in a recourse state, you better watch out. Short of filing for bankruptcy in a recourse state (assuming you have assets), walking away would be a very unwise decision.
The OP had to have assets outside of retirement so continue paying their mortgage on their 2nd home for the past two years. That's why it's never a clear cut answer for some people.
And yes, I was in your same situation. Move for another job in another state. I rented it out for a year but my renters lost their jobs so couldn't afford the rents. I ended up losing $137K on my home when I sold it last year. That's cash. My downpayment ($60K) plus principal payments I made the past four years. But I manned up. That's what my emergency savings is for. I have way too many assets they can go after. That's why I brought $37K to the table just to close the deal.
I think he means he sold his house and instead of walking away, he brought $37k to the closing table to be done with it and accepted the loss.
Exactly.
As I told the OP in another post, another option us to sell at a loss. Taje the adjusted cost basis of the property (value it was when she first started renting it out). She can write off just about the entire loss simce it's considered an investment property (assuming she file a schedule E before).
You can easily prove your home was worth "x" amount in 2007-2008 prior to the credit crash.
So if the OP is say $100k underwater and the adjusted cost basis is "x" amount when she rented it out in 2007/2008, she can write off just about the entire loss plus real estate commission selling.
So you can turn a negative to a positive. It's still a loss but you can still recapture some of you losses.
Like I sold at a $137k loss. After recapturing loss depreciation, my CPA determined I could write $124k on my taxes thus past year. I had disallowed passive losses that were readied to the cost basis (since my income is more than $150k). So I still had over a $40k real tax savings by writing off the loss of the property. I was an accidental landlord just like the OP because if a job
relocation.
The OP just needs to get legal help to determine what's best for them financially. We don't know how mug they have left. Maybe they can't bring anymore money to the table (it seems that way). Maybe they don't want to sell their current home (with whatever equity is still left in that home).
Good legal help for her situation will cost between $1000-4000. It's money worth spending.
I agree however, employees of BOA are responsible for representing the best interests of the shareholders of BOA not the general public. Sometimes what is good for the general public is not good for an individual entity.
I agree, but the OP cannot un-ring a bell. She chose what she chose and now she has to deal with what she chose. There is no point in beating her up about a poor choice (to buy a second home when the first was not sold was huge mistake). It does not solve her problem to beat her up.
Why should the bank do anything for any of us? I truly is not their responsibility to make sure people get a fresh start. The bank is a private institution that is set up to make money, not to give people fresh starts. They have a massive problem with their other customers if they just let people walk away while the rest of us pay our mortgages. Why should the OP be forgiven hundreds of thousands in debt when people like me have to pay? What is special about her and people like her? For every decision they make to let someone off the hook there is someone else who continues to pay and says "why should I pay?"
The banks should be hold accountable because they were loaning money to every bum that was asking for a loan, knowing that sooner or later they would default. They did what they did because the were selling the loans as security bundles to investors. Doing so they won't lose any money and can collect a profit for handling the loan as servicers. So when someone tries to put at fault the consumer you better think twice. If I offer you 5,000,000 dollars with no collateral would you take it. Of course you will unless you are an angel fallen from heaven. So it is my resposibility to make sure you have assets and collateral to pay me back.
Also remember that we the people gave this institutions lots of tax payers money, since most of them were in the verge of BK. So if is fair to help the Banks, why is not fair to help the people. Every person have a unique case, and of course some people got advantage of the situation, but the banks did too. There is not worth institutions than banks, they take your money for a small fee and small paperwork, but when you need money they come with a notebook and nail you with big interest rates. Our country is going down the drain and no one is doing a thing. All politicians are just that politicians, nothing gets done. ALL of them, period.
I agree with Momma Bear in the fact it's not personal (although it may feel that way), it's bottom-line driven for the bank, who reports to the stock holders. Don't forget, Bank of America has one of the largest stables of appraisers.....they know the market value of that home. Other banks depend on BPOs. BofA get a BPO and then verifies it with an appraisal. I promise they're not arbitrarily raising the price randomly. They have a number to net by shortsale in mind. I have also seen them offer interest free notes to meet that number. One such transaction was 25K off. They offered the seller a 0% note for 20 years at 25K and to report it as an installment debt, no short sale or FC. That was $105 a month to save their credit (only the IRS to worry about).
Which brings one question that I have that may have been already answered in this thread is, would you be covered by the Mortgage Forgiveness Act of 2009 (that runs thru 2012)? Do you even know? If not, aneftb is dead on, get legal help.
I am not a fan of BofA.......I worked there for 1.5 years, 2007 to mid 2008 - I know how they work, it's all about who screams the loudest that gets anything done (as an employee). I don't subscribe to bringing in more business than you can handle, then who ever screams the loudest gets what they were promised. When I left, I also closed 3 accounts I had with them and moved my 401k. For anyone that despises them and has an account with them, by choice, shame on you.
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