This is what you call bridge financing to allow for the purchase of the new house . Unless your old house is selling or closing at a specific date, they will not fund the new house. In the meantime you would have 2 mortgages, 1 for the new property - with interest only payments (bridge) and one for the old - full P I. It is always prudent to sell first before buying as this creates additional cost. You can also rent one of the properties if you plan to keep it longer.

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We bought our current house seven years ago. we are thinking of upgrading to a newer house. with our current house we could probably get $240,000.(i am low balling the price big time!). we only have $155,000 for our mortgage. we would probably pay closing costs, real estate agent fees, and moving costs out of pocket. my husband makes a little over $100,000 a year. we have no debt except the mortgage. we also invested our own savings into the house, about $27,000 worth, for home improvements. if you averaged out the money we put into our current house for improvements ($27,000) over the past seven years we lived here, we could have afforded a mortgage that was at least 350 more per month more than it currently is. i was looking at houses on the internet that run for about $325,000 to $350,000. like i said we currently have no other debt, have been putting the highest possible amount we can each year into iras, for retirement, put in the max for our 401k, and have been putting money away for the kids college. we also have a lot in savings and drive used cars. (no car payments). i know taxes would go up about $2000 a year more because we would be getting a newer house. what do all of you think? i would rather upgrade now while interests rates are probably as low as they are going to go. i don't want to wait another couple of years and get stuck with a high rate? is it time to think of selling?

Buy what you need, avoid debt and live comfortably. A 15 yr fixed rate mortgage is the best thing ever invented.

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I recently bought a new house and i am living in that house. i bought the new house before selling the old house. i know, a mistake!! the old house won't sell!! it has been on the market for more than 60 days with no offers. i can't afford to keep paying two mortgages. the old house has a first and second mortgage. i don't know what to do. i can't rent it for as much as the payments are and i'm draining my savings paying mostly interest. if i have to let it go and the bank forecloses what happens to my new house and my other assets?

If it doesn't sell, then rent/lease it out. Charge enough rent so you can pay the mortgage on that house and maybe even have some extra left over. Leasing can be a great long term money maker.

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My husband and i have two kids and when we had our second his mother bought us a trailer home. she wanted us to go to college and have a little home to live in when we moved. the problem was i didn't really expect to stay here for so long. it's been two years and because my husband was unemployed we incurred a lot of debt. we've been paying if off, but it's still pretty outstanding. we have really good credit, but our debt is still pretty significant. my question is my husband has a va loan that we haven't used and he doesn't want to use it on a house. he want to use it on a investment property. he also has this trailer and he doesn't want to sell it and pay off our debt because he thinks it's dissrespectful. i'm going to school and so is her. and he works. i'm fully wiling to work so that we can get a house too. my point is he says he won't use his va bill and he won't sell this trailer..so what should i do. i have begged him to help me get us a home, but he says that i'm not seeing the big picture. our educations are years away and i can't live here any longer. we've been here for almost three years. now we are outgrowing the place and we have to downsize and throw our stuff away so he can have more room for his. he won't fix up the house either, so there are leaky faucets and broken shower. old windows. i don't understand what's going on with him. he won't make our stay here better but he won't get us a house. what should i do? i'm so dissapointed in where i am right now. we pay rent for this lot and utilities. money that could go to a mortgage. we don't have new cars...we make a little over 4000 a month and have about a 1400 with rent utilities and bills-including debt. we can afford a house right? houses here go for 155000 to 250000 for a nice three four bedroom. i'm at my wits end and i'm tired of living in a home that's falling apart. i wasn't apart of the process either. he went with his mother by themselves. i couldn't come. i had to stay there while they went to get it. i had little to no say and as much as i begged him not to take the hand out-that we could use the money for a down payment on a house...he didn't listen to me. please help me someone. i've tried talking to him, but he just won't listen to me anymore. what should i do.

looks like he should have married his mother. Since they are both deciding where you should live,

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Basically, we want to move. our house needs more repairs than i am qualified to do, but the house is still in decent shape, good roof, central heat/air, etc. it just needs some work that i'm not skilled enough at doing (sheetrock, a little plaster to fill in imperfections, etc.). the plumbing is just about all galvanized...they would have to change all of that out. we've tried a couple, but the pipe basically breaks off rather than unscrews...so all of it has to be replaced to change out a specific pipe. we're just sick of the place and want to find something further out. we live in decatur, ga not far from atlanta, ga. we have about $53k left on the mortgage. hopefully we can sell it for close to that as a fixer-upper for some kind of contracting company or something, and use it to pay off the mortgage. we'll have around $8-10k to put down as a downpayment on the other house. not looking for a mansion. just a simple 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with fairly recent pipes up to code. i'm handy with fixing up general stuff, so it doesn't have to be perfect. we're looking at $60-100k max for the house, and have found some decent ones that we're going to go look at in person. i've looked at houses online in other areas where it says you have to put down x amount down (some as low as 3%). some say you have to be "pre-qualified and pre-approved." some say you have to be pre-qualified and pre-approved with x mortgage company. how does that work? my mom was thinking of getting a mortgage through her job's credit union or through something like bank of america, which she has done various business with for decades and has an awesome history with. would we be forced to go through the specified mortgage company only, with no other option? also...what does "pre-qualified and pre-approved" mean exactly? you call them up, give them your info, income, etc. from some of the stuff i've read...they tell you "how much house you can buy" and give a max price they'll cover. however...lots and lots of people are buying houses well out of their budget - so how could they tell you that you can only buy a house with a max specific price if people with million dollar homes are paying a monthly mortgage just like a typical person? neither can "afford it outright." so that makes me curious how a bank of mortgage company can quote a price that you can "afford"...when nobody's income can buy a house outright, for the most part (unless they're rich, of course)?

Ok, first of all, hire a Realtor. Because the housing market is not in the best of shape, there is a good chance, that you can get the seller to pay your Realtor's fees. Here is what I would recommend you do: 1.) Tell your Realtor what you are looking for, and have him/her do the legwork for you. They will come up with a variety of properties in your price range, and help you negotiate down prices so if something is too expensive but you really want to buy it, they might be able to talk the seller into dropping the price. 2.) Demand a home inspection. These usually cost a few hundred up to a few thousand dollars, and you can reasonably expect that the seller pay for these. Make your contract for sale contingent upon a satisfactory home inspection. Your realtor will explain how to do this. You should insist that the home have good pipes, electrical, a solid roof, etc. Also, the property should be free of mold and mildew. If the home you chose fails the inspection, you have the right to walk away, and you won't be out a penny. 3.) Once you find a home that suits your needs, you will need to do the following. Once again, especially if you are looking for a fixer upper, you should make the purchase contingent upon clear title. You may be able to get the seller to pay for the title search (any title agency will do this for you) and the seller will be required to clear title if there are any issues. Again, your Realtor will explain the specifics here. 4.) So you need to be precluded in order to make your purchase. Basically that means that you can ONLY make an offer, if you can prove that you have a lender wiling to give you the money. That means that the seller does not want to go through the hassle of buying title searches, paying for contracts, hiring home inspectors, fixing up the property . . . etc. If you can't ever get a mortgage. I would steer clear of any deal where you have to purchase your mortgage from a specified company. The choice of lender should be yours alone. By all means, have your mother go through go through Bank of America, but remember that she might get a better deal somewhere else, so have her shop around. She may want to go through a broker whom she will have to pay at closing, but he/she will probably get her a good deal. Have her find out what she can get through BOA and then contact Brokers and see if any can get better deals. Anyhow, that's the basics. Although I am partial (I am a Title Agent,and do business with Realtors every day) you are usually better off using a Realtor, than trying to do this on your own. Especially if you are unsure about any part of the process. Before you do any of this, however, you should find out how much it will cost you to do basic repairs. You might find that you can increase the value of the home if you have the plumbing replaced before you sell , but again, these are questions that the Realtor should be able to advise you about. Good Luck

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Part of the reason why i am staying in this unhealthy marriage is because i don’t have anywhere else to go (literally) and i don’t want to ruin my credit (now that it’s starting to improve) by just walking away from the house. we bought a new house almost eight months ago. neither of us can afford to pay the mortgage alone, and it’s too early to refinance the house. even with refinancing the house it still won’t reduce it enough to where either of us would be able to afford it. i would love to stay in the house and make the payments, but i can only afford around $800 or $900 per month maximum (and we’re paying $1,525 per month including insurance and taxes). we are with countrywide. does anyone know from experience or from working in the real estate or financial industry what can be done? if i want to keep the house will they work with me to come up with an affordable monthly payment, or will i be forced to sell it or walk away. we’ve made every payment on time. we paid $138,000 for the house and have a 5.5% fixed interest rate on an fha loan. the term of the loan is for 15 years. principle and interest is somewhere around $1,100 and the insurace and taxes are around $425 combined. that together equals $1,525.

You can file chapter 13 and keep your house with lower payments, you can refinance and depending on what your interest rate is now, if you can get it alot lower (unlikely) it will lower your house note, but not by half. Chapter 13 will not lower it by half either, but it would be considerable I would think without knowing your numbers. Otherwise, sell it and split it, or rent a room out, then you would be paying only half. Edit: refinance for a 30 year loan. At this point its not about what is smart or more expense in the long run, its about keeping it, affording it, and keeping the payment low.

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Hard to explain in the short question space! so, we bought a house together earlier this year, now we are living separately (due to unforeseen circumstances) as he lost his job he is renting a flat and claiming benefits and i am in the house we bought paying the whole mortgage. he needs his money out of the house (that he put in the deposit) or his benefits will stop. i have the means to buy him out, and i can afford to pay the whole mortgage, but the mortgage lenders won't let me take on the whole mortgage as the loan was calculated on our joint income (even though i can afford to pay it all on my income - i've paid more in rent on my own for years). so has anyone been in this situation? i am wondering if i can pay him back his deposit money and we can make some legal signed agreement that the house is now all mine without the mortgage lenders knowing (he is not in a position to buy another house so that wouldn't be an issue at the moment anyway). otherwise we have to sell the house and i'll end up in a flat paying more in rent than i am paying on my own on the mortgage now.... please note i am in the uk so laws may be different in other countries. thanks....

First of all I would be very insistent with your mortgage lender explain the situation and insist on them letting you buy out the mortgage . With your employment and payment history and situation there is no reason for them to deny your request, it is in fact quite unreasonable. Threaten to walk away from the property, banks are inundated with foreclosures and don't want any more on their books. Don't take any BS from them play hardball start insisting on speaking to people higher up the ladder. Stand up for yourself, be forceful and persistent.. Good luck

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So here is my history: in june 2006, when i was single, i purchased a tiny little 600 square foot house (at the height of the market). a year later, i met and married my husband. we moved into his house since it was bigger and put my house up for sale. of course, the housing market was in a free fall at that point, and we could not sell the house -- even after being willing to take a $20k loss, which was all we could afford. after having the house on the market for a year (and paying two mortgages), we decided to rent it out, but could only charge about half of what the mortgage payment was. so we were still paying 1.5 mortgages. after a year of that, my husband lost his job and we couldn't afford two mortgages anymore. we moved back into my shoebox and even though it was an extremely tight fit, we made it work because it was "the right thing to do." we are now expecting our first child. it is clear that we do not fit into this house anymore, but we're stuck with it. so here comes the twist... my husband has been offered a great job that's 4 hours away. we can't turn it down. this is the break we've been waiting for in his career. however, we can't get rid of this house. we owe about twice as much as it is worth. i don't want to be a long-distance landlord, and even if we did rent it, we wouldn't be able to cover the mortgage with the rent. the house is in my name only since i bought it before i even met my husband. so can i just foreclose and take the hit on my credit? and if so, will he be able to buy another house in the new city? or since we're married, does this affect both of us? i'm just not sure where to go from here. we've carried this house for 3.5 years longer than we wanted to. we've outgrown it, and now we have to move away for my husband's job. how do we take care of this obligation? when my husband lost his job in 2008, we sold his house. because he owed so little on his house, we were able to make about $13k from the deal. however, we had to live on that money while he was unemployed. so we only have my house to sell. will we be able to get a loan for a new house if my old house is listed as a short sale? we really wanted to buy a home instead of renting because we can get so much more house for the money now. the housing market is great for buyers, but not sellers. the house is not currently being rented. we have lived in it ourselves for the past 20 months. i'm not saying what i will or won't do. i want to know what my options are. i've read that if you foreclose on a house after buying another, then it is considered a felony, and you can go to prison for it. i've also heard that there are realtors and even lenders who specialize in helping people finance a new house so they can foreclose on their old one. i've just been given a lot of mixed messages, and want to find out what's true and what's a myth. of course we would like to purchase another house in the new city because you can get so much bang for the buck. however, if it's not possible since we already own a house, then it's not possible. i just want to realistically know what we can do with our situation. from the answers below it looks like either trying for a short-sale or foreclosing as a last resort, and then renting for a few years in the new city.

None of your options will allow you to buy another house for a few years. If you need both incomes to qualify for a mortgage, your credit score after whatever you do here will be too low to qualify. It is my experience that a short sale lowers your credit score about 200 points, a foreclosure about 300. With that being said, here are your options: Short sale, deed in lieu of foreclosure, foreclosure and bankruptcy. Which one is right for you is a decision you should make after a consultation with some professionals, as all have long reaching ramifications, and not just your credit score. I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but those are the facts.

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What can you do in california if you can no longer afford to pay your mortgage? i bought my house for 500k and now its probably worth only 430k. if i sell my home i will take a loss of 70k plus commision fees. i heard there is a law saying you don't have to pay the difference back in california, instead it just hurts your credit report a little bit. is that true? where can i find info on that , and what can i do?

You don't have to pay the difference IF the bank agreed to the short sale before you signed a contract. Instead the bank writes it off and you receive a 1099 for the difference. You then have to pay income tax to the IRS and the state for that amount at tax time. You received the money already, did not pay any tax on it, and spent it on a house.

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We lived in ga, but we had to move out of state due to my husbands job. he lost his job after being with the same company for 25 years. he had to take a job in md and then transferred to va which is where we will stay until we retire. it is a good job and good community which we like. husband has excellent credit, which may not last very long because we are paying rent in va. we cannot afford the mortgage in ga and the rent in va. we have the house in ga for sale as a short sale so we can sell it quicker. we have had offers, but the mortgage company is taking their time and two offers backed out because they did not want to wait to buy our house. the house we are renting is a nice house, it is up for sale and the realtor just told us the owners have an offer. since we are in contract with them, we have a year until we have to move. but were hoping to not move so soon. the owners wants to know if we want to buy it. they would give us the first choice since we are already renting it. we are undecided whether to ask for a rent to own option, or just move out in a year or ask the owners to pay our moving expenses and try to find another place now. i have been very sick and the moves have taken it toll on me. we have no savings, but we always pay our bills and our credit is excellent. but we know that it won't be soon because we have missed 3 payments on the house in ga. we have exhausted our savings and a portion of our retirement. we only have about 25,000 left in retirement. we just don't know what to do. the loss of a job and two moves have really caused me stress and illness makes it worse. but we just can't decide on what to do.

I am sorry to hear this. I can only tell you that we real estate agents are frustrated with the short sale process too, I understand the banks want to think twice before losing money, but they actually lose more in foreclosure, especially when there are so many other foreclosed houses on the market. Plus our buyers get mad when they wait around for months and the whole thing drags price values down for other sellers. There is talk of a law to force faster decisions by banks on short sales but I am not sure it will come in time for you. I don't know what to say except to call your agent back in GA and have him make some calls to the bank. Can't promise it will help though.

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I tried some of the companies which promise to buy houses but no one calls me back. my mortgage is current and i am in no danger of foreclosure. the house is in good shape, in a good neighborhood, taxes are 1600 and two different cma priced it between 60 and 80k. there was flooding near me in 2006;my house, and the entire block it's on, did not flood but people don't know that unless they look at the flood map;it's also on a busy road. i'd like to move before sept. when my kid starts school again and a regular person, not a buy houses company, offered me 65k for it but i absolutely can't afford to let it go for less than 68k since i have to pay off my mortgage and cover expenses to relocate (my reason for wanting to sell in the first place). 68k is dirt cheap because there are many things a person with money could do to improve it's value and resell (a 3rd bedroom, a pool, a cover for the patio). how and where can i find a buyer for my house before september when school starts? house is listed for 72,900 and 68k is my rock bottom. i do have a realtor, which is part of the reason i can't take less than 68k. i have to pay the mortgage balance the realtor's percentage and get a place to live(not selling to be homeless). the house outfits will not get their way. if i can't sell for 68, i 'll have to keep the house and stay here. 65k did not help me because it would have paid the mortgage and realtor and i would have been out on the street with my kid. yes, it is 68k not 680k. i live in upstate ny in a suburban, ritzi area.

The buy your house places want a bargain and you want full price so they won't ever be interested. Since it is worth 60-80 and you are mid range you can expect it to stay on the market until the right buyer who thinks your house the exactly what they want comes along. If you listed it at 68 you will get offers less than that so you will need to turn them down if you can't lower the price. If you are asking 80 you may not even get lookers.