Jeffrey187
New member
- Jan 10, 2009
- 1
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Me and my wife bought a house in late '05, right at the peak of the Tampa housing surge. We probably shouldn't have purchased a house at this time, but we had just got married and needed a place we could live together. We thought it was a great deal after all the junk we looked at. The house is only 6 years old, and we paid about $240k for it. We didn't have much for savings and ended up doing 100% financing with an 80/20 loan. In the last few years we've watched our investment slide to what we predict is probably a $60 (or more) loss in the value of our home.
To make matters worse, we are both self employed. With the economy going south, we've both seen dramatic losses in our income. We're struggling each month to make ends meet. We don't go out anymore, we gave home-made gifts for xmas, and we've cut whatever corners we can. It's just not enough. We're hoping it springs back, but there's no definite outline as to when.
Here's the question. My father is very money wise. He says he's been following the market and watching all of the financial advisors on the news channels say that I should let my house go. He says that I should let the house go into foreclosure, and live in it until they kick us out. I've heard that it can take up to a year to come to that point. In that time he says I'll have saved up a significant amount and I can buy a house contract-for-deed or something. He says that I'm basically just throwing my money into the garbage each month paying for this house.
Now, the other side. My wife completely disagrees and will not even entertain the idea. We were about 3-4 months behind on the house and worked out a deal with the bank that they will 'forgive' our late payments as long as we can start paying again. This does absolutely nothing for us in terms of making the payments more affordable, but does give us some time.
I feel like staying here is just delaying the inevitable and we will lose it anyways, just with less money in our pockets afterwards. Should I let the house go back, declare bankruptcy, or what?
To make matters worse, we are both self employed. With the economy going south, we've both seen dramatic losses in our income. We're struggling each month to make ends meet. We don't go out anymore, we gave home-made gifts for xmas, and we've cut whatever corners we can. It's just not enough. We're hoping it springs back, but there's no definite outline as to when.
Here's the question. My father is very money wise. He says he's been following the market and watching all of the financial advisors on the news channels say that I should let my house go. He says that I should let the house go into foreclosure, and live in it until they kick us out. I've heard that it can take up to a year to come to that point. In that time he says I'll have saved up a significant amount and I can buy a house contract-for-deed or something. He says that I'm basically just throwing my money into the garbage each month paying for this house.
Now, the other side. My wife completely disagrees and will not even entertain the idea. We were about 3-4 months behind on the house and worked out a deal with the bank that they will 'forgive' our late payments as long as we can start paying again. This does absolutely nothing for us in terms of making the payments more affordable, but does give us some time.
I feel like staying here is just delaying the inevitable and we will lose it anyways, just with less money in our pockets afterwards. Should I let the house go back, declare bankruptcy, or what?