Someone came by and took pictures of our house

[debtmonster]

We're over 90 days past due on the mortgage. Somebody came here and took pictures of our house a little while ago and took off. Think it was the bank? He parked down the road and walked here on foot. The neighbor said he saw him take like 20 pictures or so and was wondering what was going on.

Think those pictures will be used for the auction or is it so the bank can see the current condition of the house?

[StartingOver08]

The servicer of your mortgage sends a 'property inspector' by so they can charge fees

Once you are behind in the mortgage, the servicer that collects for the lender loves to add fees to your loan. They like these fees because the actual lender (investor) pays a small amount to the servicer to collect your mortgage payment. However, when you are in default, the servicer gets all the fees or most of the fees associated with collecting on a defaulted loan. For example: property inspection fees, BPO fees, etc, etc.

The person taking the photos was either an agent doing a BPO (Broker's Price Opinion) exterior only or a 'property inspector' (not like a real inspection, just photos to show general exterior condition). Some servicers send out property inspectors 1 to 2 times a month when a loan is in default and some send out for several BPO's during the entire term you are in the house and not paying.

Be friendly to these people if you run into one - they are harmless.

[debtmonster]

I wonder if they are worried about the contents inside of the house? What about all of our appliances and what not? I was planning on taking those when we move out as I have read lots of people do. Or is this part of the "cash for keys" deal as long as they see the place being taken care of by looking at those photos?

How much do banks typically give you when doing the cash for keys when they want you to move out?

[StartingOver08]

Cash for keys is a different deal.

I don't know any details about cash for keys.

As to appliances, yes they are usually taken (at least the washer, dryer and Refrigerator) are gone by the time the property is foreclosed or bank owned. In many instances all of the applicances are gone.

Most of the time the property inspections, especially in the beginning, are exterior. Usually the BPO's are exterior too. Unless you are getting a value for a short sale, then there are interior BPO's. Servicers rarely send a true appraiser (because they have to pay good $$ for the appraiser!)

[debtmonster]

So would I be foolish to leave the appliances? We have stainless steel Maytag and Bosch in our kitchen now.

[relief13035]

So would I be foolish to leave the appliances? We have stainless steel Maytag and Bosch in our kitchen now.

Definately foolish to leave those! Heck, I'm even taking the nice ceiling fans from my rentals. I paid for them.

[debtmonster]

Definately foolish to leave those! Heck, I'm even taking the nice ceiling fans from my rentals. I paid for them.

Does it matter if we used money from the 2nd mortgage to pay for them? We wrote checks from the equity line to pay for some stuff a couple years back.

[JoeBankrupt33]

I don't think you have anything to worry about. The 2nd mortgage has your home as collateral, not the things that you purchased with the money. My 2nd mortgage company would have to reposess the Mickey hats we got at Disneyland 3 years ago.

[AngelinaCatHub]

The law usually reads, that anything you can plug in that is portable (that you purchased), can be taken. Anything wired in, as in lights or airconditioner heaters are improvements to the building and cannot be taken. Fans? That is a fine line, if you have a fixture to replace them with, that would be good. No, don't make me quote laws. I was told this a long time ago. (Shhhhh, take what you can legally get away with). (Don't quote me) LOL. 'Hub

[debtmonster]

What about dishwashers? Those are "installed", not simply plugged in.

I wonder if we can leave a big hole there, or could I pay $50 for a used dishwasher to throw in the hole?

[SubPrimeME]

What about dishwashers? Those are "installed", not simply plugged in.

I wonder if we can leave a big hole there, or could I pay $50 for a used dishwasher to throw in the hole?

Take everything but that! That is a fixture, and when you start messing with water/gas, they might get upset. I grabbed my washer/dryer/fridge/range/ceiling fans(cap the box), hell I even took my good blinds as they matched the new place perfectly. I would have taken more but I didn't need anything else.

[Trixie007]

We seriously thought about selling the Jenn-Air oven/ranges that were in both houses (he-he-he), but opted to just leave them. After we moved to WA, DH's cousin's wife called me and asked if she could have our pewter chandelier's... I told her go for it as long as they put replacements in (her BIL is an electrician). Sheesh, I should've charged her a couple hundred bucks!

[debtmonster]

Take everything but that! That is a fixture, and when you start messing with water/gas, they might get upset. I grabbed my washer/dryer/fridge/range/ceiling fans(cap the box), hell I even took my good blinds as they matched the new place perfectly. I would have taken more but I didn't need anything else.

I paid $1,000 for that Bosch dishwasher and that wasn't paid for by the 2nd mortgage. I paid cash. There's no way I would want to leave it. They have a valve next to the sink. I can disconnect the power and turn off the water. It won't leave any water running. Then I can find another dish washer that works or not and put it in the hole. We may have to switch appliances with someone that we may have to move in with. They will get all of our stainless steel stuff and in return, we take their crappy stuff and put it in place of ours.

[dingdong]

You know what works well, Garage SAles and Craigslist.

Buy a Dishwasher at a garage sale or on Craigslist and plug it into the space a few weeks before you have to move, put the good appliances in storage for a couple of weeks or in the garage.

If a BPO agent or inspector comes out, they will want to take pics if they plan on offering you a cash for keys deal, that way the appliances will be the same that are in the pics and you won't have any issues.


The BPO agent/inspector has to send pics to the lender to prove that someone is living there and that the place is in compliance with the CFK deal and allow the lender to release the check.

The day that you move out, the BPO guy (realtor) comes out checks to make sure all applicances are there and that all furniture/debris etc has been removed, then they give you your check.

[debtmonster]

How will filing Chapter 7 affect all of this foreclosure process? I'm 90 days behind and I am supposed to respond to a lawsuit on March 11th and I have no idea what to write.

I think my lawyer will file my Ch. 7 in July because I had a big bonus in December. I made almost $8,000 that month. But from January to June of this year, all of my gross income should be under $3500/mo. and the median income is about $4200/mo. Plus I have business expenses that come off the $3500, so that brings me down more.

If they offer us $500 bucks for the keys for cash, that won't even put a dent in the moving costs. A moving truck with movers and paying for storage will be an E-A-S-Y $2,000+ for us to move almost 350 miles from here.

We need to stay here for a very long time. I need to save up cash to buy another car since we will lose the ones we have in the bankruptcy. Plus I owe the IRS mega bucks and I don't want to pay interest and penalties. I need to pay them off super fast as a priority.