Foreclosures .. the stories behind the news - Page 2

PJsMommy · 02-20-2008, 03:28 PM

The home we just purchased was a home that was foreclosed on. From what I've heard from neighbors, the people never paid a single mortgage payment and it took over 18 months for the foreclosure process. The mortgage company even gave them $1000. to "clean up" the house and yard. On top of that, I had a tow truck in my driveway yesterday looking for their car because they haven't made a payment on that since October...so sad. I think alot of people just got in over their heads.

KathrynHannah · 02-20-2008, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aliadam

So are there any foreclosures in Canada?

I don't know. I even tried to look it up. I've never heard of one happening here. Borrowing here is much more difficult so even if there are, I think it would happen a lot less. But I really don't know. I'm trying to do some research on it.

BabeInTheMoon · 02-20-2008, 04:59 PM

One of my best friends just went through a foreclosure. She and her dh bought their house in the spring of 06. A week before they went to sign the papers she lost her job. They signed the papers anyway, figuring that she could replace her income fairly quikly. Well, that didn't happen. A couple of weeks after she did find a new job, her dh hurt his back and needed surgery... so, they were back down to 1 income plus medical bills again. It was no surprise to me when they got the notice. They were able to do a short sale with friends of her neighbor buying the house.

If hindsight were 20/20 I bet they would have baked out of the deal in the first place. Their housepayment took up 70% of his take home income alone.

Sun11598 · 02-21-2008, 12:10 AM

We let a home go into foreclosure.

When our second child was on the way we were also in the process of trying to get my dh's nephew out of foster care and just couldn't see how a family of 5 would fit into our home. We found a wonderful neighborhood closer to dh's job and in a different state - so cost of living was lower. We began the process to build a home - listed our house, and prepared for the move. A few months later our house was ready, so we moved - and continued to pay mortgages on both homes. We contacted the mortgage company several times for help - we inquired about short sales and deed in lieu of foreclosure. We were denied at every turn. At one point we were told that because we inquired about a short sale we no longer qualified for ANY repayment options. At some point in the whole process dh cashed out some of his 401k - but our bank put a hold on the check. We called mort. company immediately and were told that they couldn't work with us - they needed money by XX date - we needed like 2 more days in order to insure the check had cleared. We were told there was NOTHING we could do to stop foreclosure at that pont. So we stopped trying. We still had/have medical bills from my ds's premature birth over 3 years ago. We had turned tocredit cards in teh last months of making both mortgage payments for groceries and gas - so we used his 401k withdrawal to pay that off.

And even more frustrating were the letters directly from our mortgage compnay we'd get telling us all our 'options'. When we called the company and said but we were denied ANY options - they'd look our info up and sure enough - there were no repayment (or otherwise) options for our situation. But we still got that darn letter at least 3 times. Our home was auctioned on 1/3/08 - and at this point i have no idea if it sold or for what. We've already started the bankruptcy process to cover the medical bills we still have as well as any deficit there may be between our mortgage on the old house and what it auctioned for.

Thankfully we're in a lovely home in a wonderful neighborhood and had no intentions of moving or needing to apply for credit for anything for several years. Of course, that was before we foudn out about #3 - we still haven't figured out if 3 car seats will fit in my car. But we'll work that out soon.

T-shell · 02-21-2008, 09:14 PM

I have known of two foreclosure cases this past year, but they were both due to divorces. In one case, I think the couple just tried to live too far beyond their means. We had neighbors who lost their home some years back due to expenses of medical issues; we were sad to see them leave.

Lorikeet · 02-21-2008, 10:29 PM

I do not know anyone personally that has gone through a foreclosure, but we have several homes in my neighborhood that have foreclosed. I also live about 30 minutes from Stockton CA which is one of the areas that has the highest number of foreclosures in CA

peacelovemom · 02-22-2008, 04:44 AM

Several of my neighbors are just a few steps away from foreclosure right now. We live in a resort area, and a few years ago, prices were great, and things were selling. Well, NOW it seems like these people just can't believe that their house is not still "worth" $500,000 or whatever like it was 4 years ago...SO they will NOT lower the price while trying to sell....one was approached by a buyer who offerred $325,000 and they said "No way" even though their pay off was only around $150,000...they can not get over "losing" the extra $150,000 they thought it was worth...so now they will get NOTHING.

doodlebug · 02-22-2008, 06:33 AM

We were VERY close to foreclosure a while back. My husband hurt his back and was unable to work. Our boys weren't school aged yet so I couldn't work, as he certainly couldn't care for them with his back the way it was, and going to work just to pay for gas and daycare seemed stupid. As many of you have said, we also tried and tried to work with our mortgage company. We called them the day hubby was hurt, I told them and that he would be out of work for awhile. I asked if they could help us with lowering pmts., delaying pmts. anything.... They did nothing. They got nastier each time I spoke with them. After two and a half months the sheriff came to our door and gave us a notice. It was a foreclosure intent (act 53?) so I called some attorneys and they advised us to file a chapter 13 bankruptcy. So we did. We chose this because we were under the courts protection, the mortgage co. couldn't take our house. Also under a chapter 13 you pay back all of your debts, a chapter 7 is when they are all discharged. We were not trying to NOT pay our bills we just needed some help at the time, and noone would help us. After another month hubby was able to return to work and make our normal amt of money. In a chptr 13 they garnish your wages for your monthly pmt, according to what you make and can afford. We finished our term and our banckruptcy finished. It was the scariest time of our lives!!

Sun11598 · 02-22-2008, 09:57 AM

doodle - we're currently filing chapter 13 as well. We're not including our current home (mortgage is current - we've never been late). And we didn't include our old home - we WANT it to be gone - but we'll include the deficit between what it sold for and what we owe.

We were told with ch. 13 that they do significantly reduce the amount you owe tho (by up to 70-80%) we were just thinking *maybe* a 20% reduction. So you don't pay everything back, just the reduced amounts. And there's no interest allowed to be charged while your in bankruptcy.

desertmom · 02-22-2008, 10:06 AM

sun, I'm curious...why choose chapter 13 over 7? It seems that credit-record-wise, they view a bankruptcy as a bankruptcy and that's that. With this FICO scoring system they go by numbers and there's no leeway for a person to use judgment. And both stay on your record 10 years, right? By the way, in many states, homes are exempt from bk anyway, if it's your primary residence.