Hindsight

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
If you are making current financial decisions based on the fact you want to buy ANOTHER house in the future, then you've got it bass-ackwards. You have a choice:





1.) Be enslaved to an asset which will be worth less than the balance when you need to refi in the future.





2.) Swallow your pride, move into a rental for 1/2 the costs, and start saving money.





Given the two realistic scenarios, I say choice number ONE is the most irresponsible. If you let The Fair & Isaac Company rule your life, it will be miserable. Save in other areas as well, not just your housing payments. We have no idea what the future will bring. Homes may fall precipitously like in Japan and you may see increases in your income. The way the fed gov't is going, we may be given a deed of trust for a home for free in the next few years.





Moral of the story? You paid way too much for a stucco box, with bad financing terms. Don't base your family's current financial decisions and financial future upon a future purchase of another stucco box.
 
<em>For those of you who is giving the "walk" advice..... have any of you gone though this process?





</em>Yes, I did. In 1996. The condo I had bought in 1989 (70K), was selling at auction (same unit, different foreclosed owner) for 3K in 1996. You do the math. That's right, I said three thousand dollars. It was a no brainer.
 
The experience was fine, I just stopped answering the phone.





I was able to buy again, with a slightly higher interest rate, 4 years later. I just had to write a letter to the lender explain why I had done what I did.





This was the only ding (ok, DENT) my credit has ever taken, I was back up to decent scores within 3 years...as the time went by, it kept climbing. Dropped off completely after 7 years.





I looked at it like a business decision. Yes, I fretted about the morality of the whole thing, but to this day the condos aren't selling for what I originally paid for mine. Again, whip out your calculators.
 
Was that condo you bought for $70K in California? What did the condo that started at $3K end up getting sold for at the auction? Seems like a $70K condo would be easy to payoff in a few years on a normal salary in the 1990s?
 
The condo was in Connecticut, it was a 1bd/1ba 1972 apartment conversion (ok, so I was really young and didn't know any better). I was paying 11% interest on the 30 yr fixed I obtained....11% was the going fixed rate back then. The condo that sold at auction for 3K, SOLD AT AUCTION FOR 3K. That's it, 3 grand. No bidders, absolute auction. The opening bid was 3K and it sold for that.



Once slum lords started snapping up the auction foreclosures (see above), the renters began moving in (and we're not talking quality here people). This wasn't the greatest area of CT, but not horrible....but the complex started going under b/c no one was paying the condo fees. Within a couple of years, the place went to sh*t. I stuck it out for 2 years and watched the complex erode. The last straw for me was at 11 PM in the common laundry room of my building (6 units total in each building). I was in my PJ's and a guy walks in and starts to do his laundry. He keeps "Mad Dogging" me, so I return the favor. Then he says, "you don't remember me, do you". Of course, I had no idea who he was. He then informs me that I had arrested him a few years ago for DUI and starts ranting about the unjustice of it all. Now, about 2 months prior to this, I had had my police cruiser keyed and tires slashed, while it was parked overnight outside my unit. (Not to mention the <em>other</em> guy who lived the next building over that I had arrested also).



So, it had also turned into a safety issue for me. No cop wants an arrestee to know where they live....let alone LIVE where they live. Nor to be in an isolated laundry room at 11 PM with one that is pissed at you...talk about feeling vulnerable. I'm usually not armed when I do laundry, the holster doesn't stay put on my flannels.



I called the bank and explained the circumstances, they would not consider a short sale so I never even bothered trying to sell it. I moved out the same month I stopped paying, I left all the appliances and fixtures intact, I vacuumed and cleaned it, I left the keys on the counter....and walked.
 
Aww <strong>Trooper!</strong> I liked you from the beginning but you completely won my heart with the <blockquote>I vacuumed and cleaned it</blockquote>comment!!! I think all conversations about the morality of walking should include a cleanliness loophole. Anything can be forgiven if you cleaned up first. It's the first rule of mommyhood and we'd all be well served by sticking to it.



Glad you made it through that experience and can share your wisdom and encouragement with all here at IHB.
 
I represent a couple of small inexpensive condos, and they are run by a bunch

of ferocious old people, and let me tell you, without them, they would drop in

value in a flash. Tho I wouldn't want to live in a condo because of all those

ferocious old people. . .



They keep everything ship shape, and lien late payers in a flash.



God I hate looking at this ugly greyish purple color while typing. I was an art

major long ago, and this color should be banned and cease to exist, and not

be visible to my sensitive eyeballs.
 
[quote author="lawyerliz" date=1207472806]How the f**k do I get back to the threads?</blockquote>


At the top click which section you want to go to.



Home > Forum Home > Real Estate > Orange County Real Estate > Thread



Thread you won't be able to click since you are already in it, but each other link should be clicky clickable
 
troop- good story. so i guess those who are thinking of walking now should cause by the time the house market recover your credit should be good again. all well ends well.
 
<blockquote>so i guess those who are thinking of walking now should cause by the time the house market recover your credit should be good again. </blockquote>


"Seasoning" for foreclosure, deed-in-lieu and short sale has recently been increased by Fannie Mae from four years to five years. Those who stiff the lender will be out of the mortgage game--institutionally speaking, that is--for five years from default resolution date.



(Oh, I see that alan already mentioned that above.)
 
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