ON Canada - did you talk to the bank prior to skipping a payment? You may want to consider refinancing your current mortgage if the rates would make sense. Email me if you are in Ontario and I will be more than happy to review your consideration victor_catalan@centum.ca - Victor Catalan (647) 378-2143.

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Rural or city? i have the option to pay cash $19,000 city house with problems (i'm sure. i plan to have the structure fully examined.... roof i think, needed, for $12,000 next year... and.. the crazy thing is the septic in city limits???! what?!! sounds like big $10,000 trouble. i called the city environmental health inspector about that. the septic has not been pumped in a long time, but it was new in 1996. it is a mere 800 gal that may be overflowed baffles -structure-by the renters 3 adults and one child. (as i understand it, i may need 1000 gal tank for family of 3, house built before 1971 with non low flow water gadgets?) other house: $60,000 (not "expensive" to the rest of you, but we'll call it that for this question.) house could have a new roof. (in theory.) i have seen several nice "perfect" $60,000 houses. any one will do for this example. how long will the "new" roof last? in 30 yrs i will have to replace it anyway, right? so, do i go with the current headache house of $19,000 cash replacing both a roof and septic in 3 yrs. but no house mortgage payments. or do i buy the "perfect" no maintenance house? and make payments for the rest of my life like most grown adults tend to do? of course, we worry about the economy and our source of income. what if it goes away????? we only make $1000 to 2000 per month "fixed income", and we would need to pay the heat, elect. ,phone, and food.($200-300 per month, we are good at budgeting with beans, i guess. vegetarian and vegan.) we currently have no car in the city. but some of the $60,000 "perfect" houses could be located in the city or rural area that we long for . (we grew up there. it's a familiar loved favorite small hometown area....) so, we would need to add the expense of a car to that budget as well. we could find a $60,000 house with a decent roof in the city , but it would not be our "perfect dream house". do you have any advice for me? i'd really love to hear it. we are just a single mommy and baby. sometimes daddy can be included in the budget, but the pre approval loan is for $65,000 based on my income alone. ($1500 per month, yeah, extremely low, but very high down payment). if you run the numbers: $60,000 house minus the $10,000-19,000 cash down payment (could save $9,000 towards car) and then minus the $6000 cash back from the government obama house stimulus plan,... the loan would be for about $44,000 (depending on my downpayment.) if i buy the "problem" house at $19,000, add a new roof for $12,000, then add a new septic or city sewer pipe hook up -i called- both equal $10,000 (and need to be approved by city). so, both houses ,actually end up costing the same around $44,000!!! isn't that crazy??!! can you believe it? so, should i go for the "expensive " $60,000 house???? what do you think? can i make payments for the rest of my life???? (i'm 33 now. i'll be 63 when it's paid off! yikes!!!!) we could always sell the problem city house and move back to the rural country side, but ... who knows what the house market will do. now is the time to buy (and sign and finish by dec. 1) .... i've been looking for over a year now. free college tuition option in the city, by the way. very very very low taxes in the rural area (1/3 of the city taxes). if we buy a $60,000 house in the city, we can rent it out to "college friends' if we have trouble paying the mortgage and loose our source of income someday. we live in a college city. we could buy a $60,000 house by the noisy college district. (i don't mind the noise. they are not doing crack, just drinking and studying sometimes.lol) we might like to walk to attend a college class or two anyway. we all get disability. our finances will never get "better" than this. this is our best options. yes!!! time is valuable! i've worked many many odd jobs!!! but now, i'm on disability...we have nothing but time. i can make phone calls during the child's two hour nap. but yeah, even stay at home mommies value time. time is of the essance! it's difficult to just get laundry and dishes washed sometimes. yeah, we have problems. but i have help/support of a good mental health system, family, friends, etc.

It depends on how much patience you have.............

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Hi, my boyfriend and i have decided to purchase a home together. we are both residents of the state of wyoming. there was a program put out a few weeks ago that had a 2.5% interest rate, but the income cap was 63k/year, and with both of our incomes, that put us over the limit. also, we wanted to use his va eligibility, but the va would not let me on the mortgage because i am not his spouse and do not have va rights of my own. we made the decision to get the spirit of wyoming! loan program and use the va loan to save the extra interest and not have a down-payment required. now, we're in a bit of a dilemma

You can not legally have what you want. Even if you could, there is all that loan fraud and defrauding the state government to contend with. He can not give you a lease because of the VA, and it would not entitle you to squat anyway. The only way to entitle you to 50% is to put you on the deed. But, the VA will hear about that and call the loan due. I do not know if your state has any kind of lien because of that deal (they do if he has a time limit to sell), but if they do they will be informed as well that there are now 2 owners, not just one. There is no way to make you financially responsible for the property unless you are on the mortgage itself.

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My wife and i are currently in the process of building a home and we need to sell our home before we can close on the new loan. before we got all involved with this we spoke with our realtor and she assured us that we could easily get $x of dollars out of our home, which would have been plenty to cover the down payment on our new home. well, low and behold, our realtor was way off on her assemsment and we don't think we are going to be able to sell our home with enough to cover all of our expenses and may end up loosing a few thousand dollars that is already spent on down payment money. if we end up selling short and not being able to fully cover our mortgage, do we have any options? will our realtor alow us to pay our closing costs at a future time? can we put our closing costs on credit? can we take out a line of equity on our new home to pay off any difference from our old home? any other options i may have that i havn't thought of? there really isn't a "problem"... worse case scenario we don't sell our house... and we don't buy the new house. we have no problem affording either mortgage, we are not risking foreclosure. but we are really looking forward to getting into a nicer house, when is much closer to work.

At settlement, you will have 3 expenses, pay off the mortgage, pay the realtor and pay any closing costs. At settlement you MUST have all this money at the table, so no, they will not allow it to be paid in the future. You may be able to get an equity line on the new place, but I'm guessing not. You could get a personal loan to cover the difference. Maybe put it on a credit card.

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My broker put me in what was supposed to be an "investment grade" bond fund. turns out they were playing fast and loose and when the sub-prime mortgage debacle hit, it plummeted down over 50%. he put me in this to moderate my risk. besides not getting what i was sold, how liable are they for fiscal responsibility, prudent man rule, etc? if you have, how did it end up?

there was a huge wave of these kind of suits after the dot com crash.

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Last year we had a morgtaged property that we voluntary surrendered back to our mortgage company because interest rates had risen rapidly,fixed rate was due to end, we had no other choice, the house has only just been sold, whilst the house has been on the market the mortgage company have decreased the value by £20k without even informing us, they say they are allowed to do this? we also owed money for secured loans we had on the property. in total we owe about £70k in debt. iam scared, we have 2 children and currently private rent, i work for a bank and have been informed i will loose my job if i took bankruptcy, my 2 children also go to the onsite nursery at my work too, so i would loose everything, what do i do? may i also add, that yes i work as a call rep for a bank, and my debt was not due to idiocy, it was due to the recession, you know that thing that seems to be making alot of people bankrupt lately, thank you thank to to those kind people who have replied with answers that help me, i would just like to say to the guy that said 'you say your debt is down to the recession' did they hold a gun to your head?!!! if you would have read my question properly then maybe you would of understood, my debt is due to the recession, this is because we had a mortgaged property and the house price has been dropped dramatically due to the current conditions of the housing market, our debt is not due to loans or credit cards, i am not an irresponsible person, and i didnt have any choice with what shortfall i would be left with. so thanks to everyone else for there kind answers. treehouse

About losing your job - do you know this absolutely for definite? Employers can terminate jobs if employees become bankrupt but there should be a clause in your contract to this effect or at least a formal policy. An employer may also use its discretion NOT to fire you. There are other options for dealing with debts. You can negotiate reduced payments, using a personal budget sheet to show what you can afford to pay. If you have no assets, all they can expect to get is whatever you have left over from your income when all your essential outgoings have been met. This is what a county court would order if the creditor tried to enforce. Of course, you would be looking at doing this until the debt is repaid in full. An IVA could be an option, but you need to be able to repay a substantial proportion of the debt over five years - say 20% plus (taking into account that £5000 or more would go to the Insolvency Practitioner rather than the creditors). So it is an option for people with quite a high monthly surplus. Also, 75% of your creditors by value would have to agree to it. About the mortgage shortfall itself, there are some rules about what lenders have to do in such a situation. You could ask them for a breakdown of all the costs involved, valuations obtained, how the sale was arranged. You might be able to challenge some of it or negotiate down the amount claimed - but mortgage shortfalls are generally pretty substantial and you may find they haven't done anything you could challenge under the rules. You can get advice from National Debtline, which is a free, independent and confidential debt advice charity - on 0800 808 4000. Their website www.nationaldebtline.co.uk has lots more information about bankruptcy, mortgage shortfalls, and dealing with your debts generally.

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I did ask this before but left something out heres the story, my husband lost his job so at this stage we are falling behind in the mortgage - my pay check alone doesnt cover everything. now im thinking that the only option is to move into my parents house and rent our place out to try to catch up with the mortgage. only problem is, i know my husband wont have it - he'll move into his own parents place and me and our son will move into my parents. what should i do? now, if he does move into his parents house, he'll be sleeping on their couch, they live in a 2 bedroom flat and already have someone renting the other room. my parents have two spare bedrooms.to me, this is going to risk our marriage - which is already under enormous pressure as you can understand with financial worries. i dont want to loose our house, and even if we did sell, with the way the property market has fallen, we'll end up with a debt that we have to pay back with nothing to show for it. i would have sold the house and just rented ourselves if the property market was better. what do you think? oh, and to make the mess even bigger, im pregnant with our (very much wanted and planned i might add- things were different back then)second. im dreading that if we do rent our place out, the shortest lease would be for 6 months, so that means that i will still be living at our parents house when i give birth to this baby. i dont know, everythings a mess. 29 minutes ago - 4 days left to there is no where else we can stay - we dont have any sisters/brothers with room, no friends with room and if we were to go and rent it would totally defeat the purpose of renting our place out.

Hey that's terrible but if your husband really loves his family (you and your son) then he'd move into your parents place with you no matter what. It's not like it's going to be a permanent thing. He should be hard out looking for another job as well if he isn't already as that parts not mentioned. You mention that you know that your husband won't have it as far as moving into your parents but have you actually spoken to him about it? Maybe you should if you haven't then you would know for sure and work it out from there. Google the name Rick Otton as he's a genius when it comes to selling property at property value. I attended a seminar where he spoke and he offers courses where his students all over Australia do the same thing that he does and they've helped so many people in financial crisis where property is involved. Hope that helps.. All the best :)

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Heres the story, my husband lost his job so at this stage we are falling behind in the mortgage - my pay check alone doesnt cover everything. now im thinking that the only option is to move into my parents house and rent our place out to try to catch up with the mortgage. only problem is, i know my husband wont have it - he'll move into his own parents place and me and our son will move into my parents. what should i do? now, if he does move into his parents house, he'll be sleeping on their couch, they live in a 2 bedroom flat and already have someone renting the other room. my parents have two spare bedrooms.to me, this is going to risk our marriage - which is already under enormous pressure as you can understand with financial worries. i dont want to loose our house, and even if we did sell, with the way the property market has fallen, we'll end up with a debt that we have to pay back with nothing to show for it. i would have sold the house and just rented ourselves if the property market was better. what do you think? oh, and to make the mess even bigger, im pregnant with our (very much wanted and planned i might add- things were different back then)second. im dreading that if we do rent our place out, the shortest lease would be for 6 months, so that means that i will still be living at our parents house when i give birth to this baby. i dont know, everythings a mess. there is no where else we can stay - we dont have any sisters/brothers with room, no friends with room and if we were to go and rent it would totally defeat the purpose of renting our place out.

Why won't your husband move in with you to your parents? Does he not get on with them or will he feel a failure in front of them? Also, why not quickly look into how much it would cost to rent your house and how much it would cost to rent a smaller place? My mate found to rent out her 3 bedroom place she could get £1,350.00 but to rent out a small 2 bed flat it would cost her £750.00. This is what she did and used the extra £600.00 to pay off her mortgage - which worked for them all. Just a thought. Also, why is him sleeping at his parents house and you at your parents going to risk your marriage? I know being away, with your child, is going to cause anxiety to you both but as long as you are aware that it's only going to be for 6 months whilst your sorting out your financial problems this should take some pressure of you both. As long as you both make sure that you see each other frequently your marriage should stay together. Good luck. KD

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Heres the story, my husband lost his job so at this stage we are falling behind in the mortgage - my pay check alone doesnt cover everything. now im thinking that the only option is to move into my parents house and rent our place out to try to catch up with the mortgage. only problem is, i know my husband wont have it - he'll move into his own parents place and me and our son will move into my parents. what should i do? to me, this is going to risk our marriage - which is already under enormous pressure as you can understand with financial worries. i dont want to loose our house, and even if we did sell, with the way the property market has fallen, we'll end up with a debt that we have to pay back with nothing to show for it. i would have sold the house and just rented ourselves if the property market was better. what do you think? oh, and to make the mess even bigger, im pregnant with our (very much wanted and planned i might add- things were different back then)second. im dreading that if we do rent our place out, the shortest lease would be for 6 months, so that means that i will still be living at our parents house when i give birth to this baby. i dont know, everythings a mess.

Even if you weren't expecting (congrats!!!!!), my suggestion would still stand, which is this: Your first and only priority right now is to keep your family (you, your husband and your children) under the same roof. To have him go one place and you go another is not a good plan. If it means that you stay in your home and borrow money from your folks in order to stay there, then do that. If it means that you all move into a small apartment and rent out your home, then do that. No matter where you end up, the main thing is that you are all in the same place. When is the last time that the two of you sat down with a calculator, pencil and paper and really fine combed your budget? How many cars do you have? How often do you eat at restaurants? Starbucks? Does he brown bag it for lunch? How much do you pay for your car insurance? Car payment? Groceries? Do you clip coupons or belong to a store with a club card? (I belong to one over here, and the other day I saved more than I spent - it was like getting free groceries!!). Do you cook? In what ways can you shave your expenses so that you can increase your cash flow? What about taking in a boarder? Do you have an extra bedroom in your home that could be rented out, instead of renting the whole house? I know I've thrown a lot at you, but it might be time to re-visit everything. My heart goes out to you, and I wish you and your family Godspeed. Having been laid off from the best job I've ever had, I can definitely empathize. I still think that it's crucial to have all of you in the same place, no matter what. Anything besides that is not an option. *big hug*