Scuff Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 And not as a short sale? I don't think we'd qualify fir a short sale. Dh is working and we have enough coming in. We're in the hole about $30-$35K. Has anyone been able to roll that into a new mortgage? Or are we just out of luck? We can't really rent without putting work & $ into this house. (new cabinets in the lower and new kitchen and br plumbing in the upper.) Since the house is only worth about $20K, I can't really see putting $10+ worth of work into it. And I doubt this area is going to recover much. (neighborhood has gone downhill in addition to the housing crash) We'd love to get out of the middle of the city and have a little more space to roam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Princess Peach Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 If you owe more than it's worth, it's always better to stay until the market improves. We were able to sell our house and almost break even. We had to bring about $3000 to the closing. You could try to put it on the market and see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 We did but there were a lot of other factors that made it worth it for us that were unique to our situation. It was somewhat painful, but in the end very worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scuff Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 (edited) Do you mind sharing how you were able to make it work, Alice? If it's not tmi for the internet? I don't know if it is better for us to wait out the market. This city will be the last to recover. We're a step up from Det, bt just a step up. And we're surrounded by cities that are a step up from us, but just as cheap right now. People will choose to move there before they move here. Houses we were looking at that were $150-200 before are now $75-100. I don't know that it's good to wait until they go back up to hopefully recoup the $20 more we might be able to get then. Kwim? It probably would be wiser to rent. But then we'd have to put $ in and a big part off me just wants to be rid of it. We would never sell for what we owe, so there is no putting it up for that amount and seeing. No one would even look at it for that amount. Edited April 10, 2012 by Scuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Do you mind sharing how you were able to make it work, Alice? If it's not tmi for the internet? I don't mind sharing, I just don't know that it's particularly helpful as it's kind of unique to our situation. We had another property, a condo that we had a fair amount of equity in. We sold them both and used the money from the condo sale to pay off the difference between what we got for the house and what we owed. We were also able to borrow money from dh's father. He was elderly and the terms of his will were well known. Dh's siblings all agreed that we could take an "advance" on dh's inheritance and borrow from his dad and then pay back the estate. We did that and then dh's father passed away a year later and we paid back the estate immediately. For us it was worth it as we were really at the time that was best to move for us. We were outgrowing the house. Also, our house was already at the top end of the neighborhood due to a lot of improvements we had made, we didn't want to do anything else to it. It was very much a starter house and it was right at the time that the tax credit was available for first time buyers, so we realized we had a much better chance of selling for a slightly higher price that spring (since buyers would know they were getting a credit they were willing to pay a bit more). Home prices hadn't started to go up yet in other neighborhoods so we were able to find a place at a very reasonable price. I think ultimately though it came down to that we were willing to walk away from "a loss" because we knew it would put us in a house that was a much better fit for us. So I wouldn't say that it's never a good idea to sell underwater...working purely the numbers it is always better but sometimes there are other factors that just make it the right time to move. Good luck! As grateful as I am for the house we ended up with , I HATED the whole process of selling and buying and moving. I have told my husband that I fully intend to grow old with him IN THIS HOUSE. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandsam Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 My hubby is a realtor and works with short sales. We had a cabin we sold while $5000 upside down. I can share some thoughts. For the cabin we sold, we opted to bring the $5000 to closing and keep our credit clean. It was an acceptable cash loss. We have another cabin that we are $50K-75K upside down, and we are planning to short sale that one and take the credit hit. Don't get me started on cabins... If I were you, I would either stay in your current house and ride out the market, or short sale your home. Short sales hurt your credit for 3 years; foreclosures are 7 years. Being 30K to 35K in the hole is alot. I doubt you will be able to roll that into a new mortgage. You will need to provide the cash at closing to cover the loss. A question to ask yourself once you take this cash hit - will you have enough for another down payment on a home? Another option - You could buy a second home while still owning your current (if you qualify), put down a large downpayment and then borrow back some on a home equity line of credit (LOC). Then you could sell your existing home and use the LOC on the new home to pay off your loss. This would in effect roll that loss into your existing mortgage/LOC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.