Posted on 10/10/2011 11:27:43 AM PDT by RetiredArmy
Need assistance from the FRpeer Nation out there. I have a dear friend whose son has lost his job and will have to relocate to take a new job. This person owns a home and has a family.
The deal: the market here is in terrible condition and there is little if any hope of selling his home. He has considered walking away from the mortgage. Just pick up and tell the mortgage company what is going on and that he is simply leaving, here is the house, come and get it. Then rent on the other end.
My friend is in a condition over this. He thinks his son should just hang in there. But, the son insists on doing this. I told him that I was glad that I did not have that decision, because in this day's markets, I would be in the same boat. I would probably not be able to sell either.
So the question is, what happens if this son walks away from his mortgage? Just tells the company come and get it, I am gone. What is his legal consequences? Can the mortgage company just sell the house for what they can get for it and hold him responsible for the remainder or what?
If any of you out there can provide me information, or a place that I can pass on to my friends to assist them and their son, I would be most thankful. Thanks.
We also live in Alabama, have 2 mortgages because my husband’s job relocated us. We rent a house, but get $650 less than the mortgage amount. It is killing us, because this is money we could be banking and saving, also I am in need a newer vehicle soon and can’t do it financially. However, that being said we are hanging in. Still have the home listed for sale with the renters in it. They have us between a rock and a hard place and know it, but I am still not @ the place where we walk away. When we first put the house on the market, the market was hot. Unfortunately Obama had put that stupid “stimulus” in place to hand out $8,000 for home purchases. Went to new, green homes so our home which was built in late 90’s was not considered green. People were building homes in the area instead of buying, and the value of our house went down. :( 2012 cannot get here soon enough!
So, we put it on the market on January 1, 2006. That very day we had five people come in and look at the house and had FOUR offers. We sold to the highest bidder. Then we rented. Thankfully, we decided to heck with it, we had had it with living there (my wife had been there nearly all her life) and we left. Came back to Alabama in 2006. It turned out to be the very best things we could have ever done. God blessed us and we are now back here in Alabama and very happy. We bought a new home here in 2007, found a wonderful church to join into, and are enjoying retired life. I have lots of family around so we have that here also. Thankfully, we got out of WA state just in time. Otherwise, in this economic climate, we would be stuck there for the rest of our lives. Basically, we just got in before the door slammed shut!!!!!
The lender can still come after you to pay the difference between what the house sold for and what you owe, even if you walk away. Imo, the only real legal recourse is to file for bankruptcy.
Glad it worked out for you. IMHO Alabama is a fine state to live. We were in Montgomery area for years, then central Alabama and now settled near Huntsville. We love it here. Just going thru one of those rough patches..thankfully we didn’t have much debt thanks to Dave Ramsey...hopefully your friends son can hang in there. We will add him to our prayer list.
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