Staying as long as possible or move???

[Richie00]

we are getting ready to file Chapter 7 and will not be keeping the house. We are almost 2 payments behind on our second mort (citi) and 1 payment behind on our first mort (AHMSI). We were causually seeing what kind of rentals were out there and found something in the right location and a great price $650 less than what we were paying here, a landlord who is ok with our credit and a house double the size of what we have now. The landlord may let us start the lease in Sept which is 2.5 months from now.

Do we take something that is affordable stable and really big and give up the possibility of losing the large sum of money we may be able to save by staying longer? We have three kids and pets so we need to have something to go to when we need to leave. I dont want to have to find a quick rental and just cant get a gauge on how long we may actually be able to stay. We live in Md.

Anyone with insight into this please help!

[tjsmiley]

I'm going through the EXACT same situation. It's a tough decision because you don't know how long you have in the house before the foreclosure is completed. Me, I am staying to save the money, then when I know the date I need to leave by, I'll make arrangements. Your situation is a bit different in that you have more people to house than I do (family of 2 here) so you may want to really consider taking that rental deal. How bad would you feel if you passed it up, then later down the road you couldn't find something comparable and had to cram everybody into an apartment?

How much do you need the money? How much discomfort are you willing to put up with in order to save it? I'm in Texas, so my foreclosure won't take long. You're in Maryland, which may make a difference. You could be there a year or longer before having to leave. I would LOVE that situation.

Good luck in whatever you decide.

[jacksjean]

I'm in the same boat as Richie (or was, that is). My last payment to Ocwen was 10/10. BK7 was filed in 12/10 and discharged/closed in 4/11. One week after the discharge, we moved to a 3/2 rental home in a much nicer neighborhood, only a few miles from school and work, allowed pets, was 100 feet smaller and $500 cheaper a month. In 6/11 a NOD was filed. In California, our family would have had 90 days to NOS and 21 days from that until eviction was eminent. I'm glad we didn't stay the additional ~4 months. I keep checking everyday for similar rental properties and none are available. It was nice to pocket the mortgage money from 10/10 to 4/11 (which ultimately went to fixing our car, actually buying something "posh" (Nook ereader) and putting $3000 down on the rental (first and huge deposit). If we had stayed in our home the additional 4 months we could have had somewhere in the neighborhood of $7500. But the peace of mind I have now knowing that I was able to keep our pets and move up in terms of housing is worth more than the $7500 in the bank.

[panda]

After enduring the long horrible road of bankruptcy, and all of the nightmare and stress, the peace of mind in having a place to live that will not be yanked out from under us is priceless. We can afford that now and do not have to live in our house saving money waiting for the foreclosure.For others it is not quite this simple, but for us getting rid of all of our debt made it possible to move on and away from this terrible time in our lives. And quite honestly we could not be happier, except for the day the foreclosure actually happens as that is the last event we are waiting for to close out this chapter in our lives, and it may well take many many months for that to happen for us.

[Billssuck]

I haven't made a payment since 4/10 on the first with BOA and 5/10 on the second (originally with BOA). Anyway, we decided to stay put and save until the auction date is set; then we'll move. So...we have saved quite a bit and still nothing from the bank; no relief from stay or NOD as of date. I think we have at least six more months if not longer so we're staying put. But...we're lucky in that our family is only 3 members and we have no pets. We're trying to down size now in preparation to move to a smaller, less expensive place. I really believe the bank may be waiting until our ch13 is discharged and then will proceed; I also think we're caught up in the robo signing of MERS paperwork when Countrywide was bought out by BOA. Who knows...we're just waiting it out.

[helpmeout]

Before moving, I would ask your attorney (my BK attorney was dead on accurate about how long it was before the bank may start foreclosure) to see how long it is likely to take the bank to foreclose and then make your choice. Personally, if it was longer than a year, I would stay and save the money.

[daylate]

Run some scenarios. What would you have saved 6 months in? 12 months? If those sums are attractive and you think you can proximate the house you'd be passing on then stay;if not go. To me this comes down to money vs peace of mind. And you need to look inward and see what exactly would you do with the money. Save it? Catch up on medical expenses, car repairs, really important stuff? Or would you overspend on nice things. Tough call. Good luck.

[Richie00]

thanks for the replies... my attorney says it could be anywhere from 3-6 months from the first missed payment. that seems short to me, but I am wondering if it moves quicker when you file bk because they know we are behind and not planning to reaffirm the house no have plans to pay for it.

[Flamingo]

we are getting ready to file Chapter 7 and will not be keeping the house. We are almost 2 payments behind on our second mort (citi) and 1 payment behind on our first mort (AHMSI). We were causually seeing what kind of rentals were out there and found something in the right location and a great price $650 less than what we were paying here, a landlord who is ok with our credit and a house double the size of what we have now. The landlord may let us start the lease in Sept which is 2.5 months from now.

Do we take something that is affordable stable and really big and give up the possibility of losing the large sum of money we may be able to save by staying longer? We have three kids and pets so we need to have something to go to when we need to leave. I dont want to have to find a quick rental and just cant get a gauge on how long we may actually be able to stay. We live in Md.

Anyone with insight into this please help!

Foreclosures are moving faster in some areas of the country moreso than others. I personally know someone who had to let their family home go that was left to them and their siblings upon the death of their mother (with a mortgage and second mortgage attached), they could not afford to keep it and tried to sell it but in this economy could not, and had to let it go missing the first payments in 6/10. The Sherriff's sale was 5/11 and the Sheriff's sale was announced listing that and other properties three weeks before the sale took place. Prior to that there was no notice of when the home would go to Sheriff's sale. So it all concluded in less than one year after the first missed payments.

[IamIrene]

In a similar spot as well. I'm a little concerned about what to expect from our servicer after discharge. We decided to pay & stay and have maintained our payments throughout our chp7. Our servicer, though, is the cut-throat Aurora Loan Services (Lehman Bros). If you aren't familiar with them, here's a link to an eye-opening article about their practices: Aurora Loan Services - How Lehman Brothers Rips Off Homeowners

I'm not sure what they are going to do after discharge. I half expect them to suddenly start holding my payments in a effort to make us go into default which then, of course, starts the foreclosure process. If this happens, my husband and I have more or less already decided to stay as long as we can and build up as much money as possible, even challenging them to "produce the note" or claim possible fraud and submit a QWR. We'd like to get a forensic audit done on our loan - it is one of those scary, subprime/apr loans done back in 2006 - we were flipped two or three times already.

Staying for even a year's worth of mortgage payments would make it worthwhile for us. But it is nerve wracking none the less because we have two kids, and a wonderful family dog. I get concerned about finding another place that would take us (with chp7 and foreclosure) and our sweet dog as well.

[AlmostAmos]

It I were in your shoes, I would stay. I made the wrong decision almost a year ago & left my house. I had two mortgages on the same property w/ CitiMortgage. I stopped paying 01/2010 and filed BK7 07/2010. The house is STILL not foreclosed (no sale date even) and we could still be living there RENT FREE. Instead, I rented the house across the street and have paid the owner $1600/mo. I call the one across the street my "home in the country". Kind of sucks that we could have $20k in the bank if we had just decided to sit & wait it out. I was scared that I might not be able to find a house to rent w/ my BK history. Now that I've been out of BK for a bit, I realize that my worries weren't realistic. Money talks & there are quite a few people who need to rent properties out...