Advise on short sale (Tampa: short sales, real estate, foreclosures)

[TechRider]

I work for a BIG company in tampa bay and I (along with 100s of others) were officially notified today that Dec 31st is the last working day.

My wife also works but her contract ends in Dec too

I have a house and mortgage is $2200 per month. (Outstanding loan in 250K, current value is 160K, so far paidoff 80K)

I cannot continue with my house anymore and do not want to walk away either.

What is my option?

If I have to get my bank (wells fargo) to agree for short sale, how should I proceed? Do I need to hire an attorney or review my loan docs etc?

Someone was saying banks will come after your assets, wage garnishment etc.
I dont have lot of assets may be ~25K and family (2 kids) to support.

Tomorrow I am supposed to pay my mortgage for Sep 2010 but I am going to skip it.

Please let me know any inputs.

Thanks,

[Island_Guy]

Originally Posted by TechRider

I work for a BIG company in tampa bay and I (along with 100s of others) were officially notified today that Dec 31st is the last working day.

My wife also works but her contract ends in Dec too

I have a house and mortgage is $2200 per month. (Outstanding loan in 250K, current value is 160K, so far paidoff 80K)

I cannot continue with my house anymore and do not want to walk away either.

What is my option?

If I have to get my bank (wells fargo) to agree for short sale, how should I proceed? Do I need to hire an attorney or review my loan docs etc?

Someone was saying banks will come after your assets, wage garnishment etc.
I dont have lot of assets may be ~25K and family (2 kids) to support.

Tomorrow I am supposed to pay my mortgage for Sep 2010 but I am going to skip it.

Please let me know any inputs.

Thanks,

That's sucks. Sorry about your situation man. Do you work for PWC ? I'm not certain on what the Banks can do as far as taking your assets. It might depend on the short sale situation. We almost purchased a home from a seller about to sell short 2 months ago and they immediatley got an attorney. I advise you to do the same. Maybe someone can give you a good attorney reference specializing with short sales. Good luck and hopefully someone will give you more advice. Based on your ID I know a couple of good IT recruiters in the Tampa area, not staffing firms, that will be glad to work with you.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by TechRider

I work for a BIG company in tampa bay and I (along with 100s of others) were officially notified today that Dec 31st is the last working day.

My wife also works but her contract ends in Dec too

I have a house and mortgage is $2200 per month. (Outstanding loan in 250K, current value is 160K, so far paidoff 80K)

I cannot continue with my house anymore and do not want to walk away either.

What is my option?

If I have to get my bank (wells fargo) to agree for short sale, how should I proceed? Do I need to hire an attorney or review my loan docs etc?

Someone was saying banks will come after your assets, wage garnishment etc.
I dont have lot of assets may be ~25K and family (2 kids) to support.

Tomorrow I am supposed to pay my mortgage for Sep 2010 but I am going to skip it.

Please let me know any inputs.

Thanks,

I'm sorry to hear of your situation. I had something similar happen to me a year ago. However it sounds like you're pulling the trigger too early. You are still working, as is your wife.

By all means, DO NOT miss your mortgage payments until you absolutely, positively have to. Continue making your payments until December (make Sept/Oct/Nov payments) and if you have not had any success with finding another job, file for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy.

Chapter 13 enables you to keep your house (and your 80K in equity), and keep your life without losing everything and you don't have the perpetual credit black eye to deal with. Under the plan, you make payments that you can afford based on your income, which you will each have with your Unemployment Compensation at the very least. You're basically restructuring/reorganizing your debt within a new financial framework. Your 80K in equity will work in your favor.

Do not, I repeat DO NOT, contact Wells Fargo yourselves. They are the absolute devil in terms of repossessions/foreclosures and while they fumble around "trying to help you" they'll work behind your back to get your house sold via Sheriff's Sale. Google the words Wells Fargo and foreclosure complaints, and see what pops up.

Contact a few reputable attorneys who specialize in Bankruptcy (any reputable one will offer a free consultation)and see who will offer the best/most flexible price as well as advice.

DO NOT work with a firm that has "bankruptcy packages" similar to those that advertise "cheap divorces" for $99, etc. The Bankruptcy laws are numerous and always changing, and you need someone who knows the system.

Lastly, don't panic. It's easy to say that but some of the worst financial decisions are made in panic-mode. Research as much as you can and protect your own interests first. The mortgage company or no one else for that matter (other than your attorney) will be working in your best interests from here forward.

Let me know how this goes for you, and by all means direct message me if you have more questions. It's a scary situation but there is some hope on the other side.

[phonelady61]

Yes you need to get a real estate attorney and go and do exactly as he tells you but I can tell you that the bank can and might come after you for what is left and remember when you do your taxes you make sure that they do all the forms for the short sale with the Irs . but most definately get a real estate attorney and do exactly as he or she tells you . Good luck and I know this sittuation sucks and I hope you get another job soon .

[kbrkr]

Not to sound insensitive, but have you tried the Real Estate forum also on this site?

//www.city-data.com/forum/forec...stem-work.html

[StreetSmarts]

Kyle gave some good advice. We moved to Asheville NC and short sold our house in FL. We dont have Wells Fargo, we have someone else. And they came after us. Our house's value dropped like crazy, and I was laid off from work. We hired a RE attorney to help. I advise you get one too. The banks are not being nice, I can tell you that man. We owed 80k more than our house was worth, and we had to short sale so we could move to Asheville as I got a job offer. We wanted to move up here anyway, but it was also hard for us to stay in FL without me working, so I started applying for jobs up here. Like I said, we owed like 80k more than our house was worth, and they came after us for about half the amount.

We had 2 choices, pay it or file for Chapter 13 or whatever. We chose to pay back the amount, which is a long term thing with 0%. It's a small payment each month, but WE felt like it was better than filing for bankruptcy.

I hope it works out better for you than it did for us. Not sure how Wells Fargo operates. If you both lose your job, maybe they'll work with you. It takes forever to get a short sale approved by the way. Good luck.

[TechRider]

thank you all of you for the suggestions. I am going to find a real estate attorney tomorrow, btw, I do have a group legal plan (all these years I was asking my self why am I paying from my paycheck for group legal plan. now time for redemption)

I certainly don't want banks to come after me, for the peace of mind.

I will keep posted

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by TechRider

thank you all of you for the suggestions. I am going to find a real estate attorney tomorrow, btw, I do have a group legal plan (all these years I was asking my self why am I paying from my paycheck for group legal plan. now time for redemption)

I certainly don't want banks to come after me, for the peace of mind.

I will keep posted

A real estate attorney is not what you want...you need a bankruptcy attorney. They can fill you in on ALL of the options.

[bentlebee]

Careful which real estate lawyer you listen too. Remember nowadays you can have years later a mortgage lender coming after you for the money you owed. Bankruptcy is not something you can do so easily as want you to believe. They will look at how much you have spent before and where the money trail leads to.

IMO the best thing to do is to go the short sale route with a good realtor who has done it more then once. List your home, try to get a reasonable offer and have the realtor contact the bank. Then try to take a small judgment so they never can go after you for more.

We recently had a buyer take a $ 90K judgment instead of $ 400K that he still owed. he was very happy to know that in the future he can sleep without having to be scared to get the mail and being shocked for a higher amount...in the short sale that I bought the owner took a $ 23,500 judgment...so you can see that you don't have to take a huge judgment.

Or you can walk away and take the risk of them going after you for even more.

Sorry to hear about your job lost but perhaps you can find another job

[TechRider]

Originally Posted by bentlebee

Careful which real estate lawyer you listen too. Remember nowadays you can have years later a mortgage lender coming after you for the money you owed. Bankruptcy is not something you can do so easily as want you to believe. They will look at how much you have spent before and where the money trail leads to.

IMO the best thing to do is to go the short sale route with a good realtor who has done it more then once. List your home, try to get a reasonable offer and have the realtor contact the bank. Then try to take a small judgment so they never can go after you for more.

We recently had a buyer take a $ 90K judgment instead of $ 400K that he still owed. he was very happy to know that in the future he can sleep without having to be scared to get the mail and being shocked for a higher amount...in the short sale that I bought the owner took a $ 23,500 judgment...so you can see that you don't have to take a huge judgment.

Or you can walk away and take the risk of them going after you for even more.

Sorry to hear about your job lost but perhaps you can find another job

ok..I wanted to get a real estate attorney help me with short sale so that they can take care of everything and not let bank come hunting for me.

hmm..so even if I use an attorney, I am at the risk of being followed?