Posted on: 26th Jun, 2006 12:02 am
Hello All,
I am new here, and feel very fortunate to have found this place. I hope I can get some responses to help me out, as I know NOTHING about forclosure, bankruptcy or anyother thing like that.
Here is my story and problem.
I decided to leave my mother's apartment and buy a house last year. I started looking around September.
I found some nice houses that were in my price range, but none really stuck out to me. A month went by, and I was actually starting to lose interest in moving into a house. Then in late November I found a decent looking house that was in my price range, that was right up the road from my mother's apartment, and it also had special downpayment assistance available for those with qualifying incomes.
I checked it out, liked it, and got pre-approved for a loan. I wemt through the process of trying to get the downpayment assistance, and I found out that I made/make only about 55% of the median income and qualified for $18,000 in downpayment assistance. I was very excited. I went through with the home inspections, etc, and I ended up buying it.
The house was $73,000, and with the downpayment assistance I only needed a $55,000 loan, so my payments were/are low
The conditions of the downpayment assistance is something like:
If I stay in the home less than5 years, I have to pay it all back
If I stay in the home 5 years, I pay 50% of it back
Each year over 5 years knocks off an additional 10%, until it reaches 10 years then I don't have to repay any of it.
Sounds good. I was even thinking of making enough extra payments so when the 10 years is up and I'm forgiven of the assistance I'd have my mortgage paid off too, sell the house for a straight profit, and then put most or all of it ass downpayment for a brand new home built wherever I chose.....Didn't work out like that.
Here are the problems...
Let's sum it up first by saying, the Home Inspecter SCREWED ME BAD.
I moved in. I see that some how the seller had her carpet laid on top of the REAL carpet where it was't noticeable, but now it was taken up and I'm left with stained carpted that ABSOLUTELY must be replaced. Oh yeah, ALL through the house (living room and 3 bedrooms). That will cost me about $1000.
NEXT
I come home from work one day and my front windows are all knocked out. Turns out that the previous owner had problems with someone who thought that she still lived there. Welp, there goes $200 a window for some good replacement windows.
NEXT
I come home from my mother's apartment after a heavy rain, and I see that the property has poor drainage. BIG water puddles ALL OVER the yard. I'm starting to get aggrevated.
NEXT
THe seller's stove, which was left in accordance to our agreement, stopped working. Since it was a gas stove and gas prices are outrageous and gas is dangerous I bought a new electric replacement stove( $750).
NEXT
Since the original stove was gas, I needed an electric line ran from my breaker panel to my stove so that my oven would work. I knew/know a guy that would do the work for just the cost of the supplies. Great! So he comes over and decides that running the line under the house in the crawl space would be the best way. So, I go to unlock the crawlspace to let him in and....BAM! I didn't know my house came with a swimming pool in my crawlspace!? Water ALL OVER the crawlspace from the previous rain when my yard puddled up, about 2 inches deep. The vapor barrier was useless against that much moisture. It was floating in the water. We shine a flash light under there and we see a water line on a couple of the peirs that proves that this has been a recurring problem, AND it has been worse at one time or another. I'm thinking how in the *blank* didn't the home inspector see that this house has water issues. Also one of the peirs had crumbled a bit at the base, probably from so much standing water over a long period of time. But, the inspector never mentioned ANY of this.
NEXT
I call the home inspector and tell him about it. He comes over and pumps the water out and urges me to get a sump pump and a sump pit. He offers to help me do it. So I buy the sump pump, pit, gravel, pipe, and accesories ( $400). We end up only having enough pipe and gravel for the back wall. So, that's all we did. BUT it did/does help get rid of a lot of the water.
NEXT
During the next rain I notice that the pump is cutting on about every 10-15 minutes. So I'm very curious as to how THAT much water can find it's way under my house THAT fast. So I go out in the rain and look at what's going on. Welp, my gutters were leaking. No water coming out of the downspouts, the water just leaked right next to the foundation. But what I noticed next was that on the back of the house the gutters don't go all the way to the edge on the right side, so water was running straight off of the roof and falling right next to my foundation. Turns out that the gutters had little army men and toys lodged right in the way for the water to flow down the downspouts. But even when I unstopped them, they still leak too much. Now I need new gutters. $$$
NEXT
I notice that water sits right next to the foundation on the right side of my home. Not is it only from the gutters not running the length of my roof, or them leaking, but my neighbors house is higher than mine on that side and I'm getting a lot of his runoff. But the real pain is that I have no grade on the sides and the back, my lot is perfectly flat on those points, so the water has nowhere to go but just sit next to my foundation.
So now I need to have some grading done, or atleast a swale...$$$$$$$
NOW
A storm came through while I was at work and damaged my shed. And also, now my car is having problems.
I still need the carpet, $1000. The estimates for the work under the house average about $3000. The grading estimates average about $1700. I need new gutters, front, back and downspouts, $400. I don't know what is wrong with my car yet, but that will be money too.
Here is a BIG problem with getting that list^ done. I have a credit card that is $100 from being maxed out ($1900).
AND since my downpayment assistance counts as a Second Mortgage, no lender will give me a loan. They all say that they don't want to be 3rd in line to get their money if something goes wrong. Having a near maxed out credit card didn't help that either.
So, I'm 24, live by myself, have NO WAY of getting these URGENT improvements done to my house, I'm in credit card debt, and all the while with each rain my house is slowly getting more water damage. Eventually I'll have to pay for water damage repairs which will be $1000's if I can't get these things done.
It would take me atleast a year to get the waterproofing done under my house, and that's with all my money focused on THAT and nothing else, except for bills and food. All the while I'm walking on plastic in my house over the horrible carpet.
So lets say a year is passed, I saved up the $3000 for the waterproofing. Ok, NOW I have to focus ALL my available money on the grading, which will take about 6 months, and I'll still be walking on plastic.
As bad as that seems, that is BEST CASE SCENERIO. That's if NOTHING else goes wrong, and if it did, it would take evern longer.
How to get rid of mortgage and house payments?
I don't have the money for all these repairs, and I don't want to sit back and watch my house deteriorate and end up costing me even more. Eventually I would have to fix way too much just to be able to sell the house. It is pointless spending all my money and all my years JUST fixing things. I JUST WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE. This has been a terrible expereince for me. I very much want to get back to my apartment lifestyle, which suited my income much better. No repairs, nothing.
PLEASE, SOMEBODY HELP ME!!
I don't know ANYTHING about what I need to do.
I'm thinking of filing for the chapter7 bankruptcy, if it will keep me from having to pay back anything that the mortgage company or the downpayment assistance people might try to make me pay.
But then, would I be able to get into an apartment?
Should I get an apartment RIGHT BEFORE I file for bankruptcy?
Should I get an apartment, let the house foreclose, and then if they try to get me to pay the remainder of the balance and/or the $18000 back, THEN file bankrupt?
I don't know what to do. All i know is that I wanna GET OUT OF HERE.
Please please please help me!!! :(
I am new here, and feel very fortunate to have found this place. I hope I can get some responses to help me out, as I know NOTHING about forclosure, bankruptcy or anyother thing like that.
Here is my story and problem.
I decided to leave my mother's apartment and buy a house last year. I started looking around September.
I found some nice houses that were in my price range, but none really stuck out to me. A month went by, and I was actually starting to lose interest in moving into a house. Then in late November I found a decent looking house that was in my price range, that was right up the road from my mother's apartment, and it also had special downpayment assistance available for those with qualifying incomes.
I checked it out, liked it, and got pre-approved for a loan. I wemt through the process of trying to get the downpayment assistance, and I found out that I made/make only about 55% of the median income and qualified for $18,000 in downpayment assistance. I was very excited. I went through with the home inspections, etc, and I ended up buying it.
The house was $73,000, and with the downpayment assistance I only needed a $55,000 loan, so my payments were/are low
The conditions of the downpayment assistance is something like:
If I stay in the home less than5 years, I have to pay it all back
If I stay in the home 5 years, I pay 50% of it back
Each year over 5 years knocks off an additional 10%, until it reaches 10 years then I don't have to repay any of it.
Sounds good. I was even thinking of making enough extra payments so when the 10 years is up and I'm forgiven of the assistance I'd have my mortgage paid off too, sell the house for a straight profit, and then put most or all of it ass downpayment for a brand new home built wherever I chose.....Didn't work out like that.
Here are the problems...
Let's sum it up first by saying, the Home Inspecter SCREWED ME BAD.
I moved in. I see that some how the seller had her carpet laid on top of the REAL carpet where it was't noticeable, but now it was taken up and I'm left with stained carpted that ABSOLUTELY must be replaced. Oh yeah, ALL through the house (living room and 3 bedrooms). That will cost me about $1000.
NEXT
I come home from work one day and my front windows are all knocked out. Turns out that the previous owner had problems with someone who thought that she still lived there. Welp, there goes $200 a window for some good replacement windows.
NEXT
I come home from my mother's apartment after a heavy rain, and I see that the property has poor drainage. BIG water puddles ALL OVER the yard. I'm starting to get aggrevated.
NEXT
THe seller's stove, which was left in accordance to our agreement, stopped working. Since it was a gas stove and gas prices are outrageous and gas is dangerous I bought a new electric replacement stove( $750).
NEXT
Since the original stove was gas, I needed an electric line ran from my breaker panel to my stove so that my oven would work. I knew/know a guy that would do the work for just the cost of the supplies. Great! So he comes over and decides that running the line under the house in the crawl space would be the best way. So, I go to unlock the crawlspace to let him in and....BAM! I didn't know my house came with a swimming pool in my crawlspace!? Water ALL OVER the crawlspace from the previous rain when my yard puddled up, about 2 inches deep. The vapor barrier was useless against that much moisture. It was floating in the water. We shine a flash light under there and we see a water line on a couple of the peirs that proves that this has been a recurring problem, AND it has been worse at one time or another. I'm thinking how in the *blank* didn't the home inspector see that this house has water issues. Also one of the peirs had crumbled a bit at the base, probably from so much standing water over a long period of time. But, the inspector never mentioned ANY of this.
NEXT
I call the home inspector and tell him about it. He comes over and pumps the water out and urges me to get a sump pump and a sump pit. He offers to help me do it. So I buy the sump pump, pit, gravel, pipe, and accesories ( $400). We end up only having enough pipe and gravel for the back wall. So, that's all we did. BUT it did/does help get rid of a lot of the water.
NEXT
During the next rain I notice that the pump is cutting on about every 10-15 minutes. So I'm very curious as to how THAT much water can find it's way under my house THAT fast. So I go out in the rain and look at what's going on. Welp, my gutters were leaking. No water coming out of the downspouts, the water just leaked right next to the foundation. But what I noticed next was that on the back of the house the gutters don't go all the way to the edge on the right side, so water was running straight off of the roof and falling right next to my foundation. Turns out that the gutters had little army men and toys lodged right in the way for the water to flow down the downspouts. But even when I unstopped them, they still leak too much. Now I need new gutters. $$$
NEXT
I notice that water sits right next to the foundation on the right side of my home. Not is it only from the gutters not running the length of my roof, or them leaking, but my neighbors house is higher than mine on that side and I'm getting a lot of his runoff. But the real pain is that I have no grade on the sides and the back, my lot is perfectly flat on those points, so the water has nowhere to go but just sit next to my foundation.
So now I need to have some grading done, or atleast a swale...$$$$$$$
NOW
A storm came through while I was at work and damaged my shed. And also, now my car is having problems.
I still need the carpet, $1000. The estimates for the work under the house average about $3000. The grading estimates average about $1700. I need new gutters, front, back and downspouts, $400. I don't know what is wrong with my car yet, but that will be money too.
Here is a BIG problem with getting that list^ done. I have a credit card that is $100 from being maxed out ($1900).
AND since my downpayment assistance counts as a Second Mortgage, no lender will give me a loan. They all say that they don't want to be 3rd in line to get their money if something goes wrong. Having a near maxed out credit card didn't help that either.
So, I'm 24, live by myself, have NO WAY of getting these URGENT improvements done to my house, I'm in credit card debt, and all the while with each rain my house is slowly getting more water damage. Eventually I'll have to pay for water damage repairs which will be $1000's if I can't get these things done.
It would take me atleast a year to get the waterproofing done under my house, and that's with all my money focused on THAT and nothing else, except for bills and food. All the while I'm walking on plastic in my house over the horrible carpet.
So lets say a year is passed, I saved up the $3000 for the waterproofing. Ok, NOW I have to focus ALL my available money on the grading, which will take about 6 months, and I'll still be walking on plastic.
As bad as that seems, that is BEST CASE SCENERIO. That's if NOTHING else goes wrong, and if it did, it would take evern longer.
How to get rid of mortgage and house payments?
I don't have the money for all these repairs, and I don't want to sit back and watch my house deteriorate and end up costing me even more. Eventually I would have to fix way too much just to be able to sell the house. It is pointless spending all my money and all my years JUST fixing things. I JUST WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE. This has been a terrible expereince for me. I very much want to get back to my apartment lifestyle, which suited my income much better. No repairs, nothing.
PLEASE, SOMEBODY HELP ME!!
I don't know ANYTHING about what I need to do.
I'm thinking of filing for the chapter7 bankruptcy, if it will keep me from having to pay back anything that the mortgage company or the downpayment assistance people might try to make me pay.
But then, would I be able to get into an apartment?
Should I get an apartment RIGHT BEFORE I file for bankruptcy?
Should I get an apartment, let the house foreclose, and then if they try to get me to pay the remainder of the balance and/or the $18000 back, THEN file bankrupt?
I don't know what to do. All i know is that I wanna GET OUT OF HERE.
Please please please help me!!! :(
Hi Faye,
Your query has been replied to in the given page:
http://www.mortgagefit.com/predeal/about50493.html
Take a look at it. I hope it will help you.
Your query has been replied to in the given page:
http://www.mortgagefit.com/predeal/about50493.html
Take a look at it. I hope it will help you.
i am trying to get out of a mortage that is with a x-girlfriend that we have had for some time now, its relly affecting my credit with my debt to income . making it impossible to be approved for anything. i found out not to long ago that she has refinanced already without my knoledge. she does not even live there anymore, her teenage daughter does. i am trying to find a house for my new family and cant. wouldnt i have rights to live in the house or the x was saying that a quit claim deed would take it pff my credit. is this true or can you please give me some advice
stephen, your situation is a bit odd. let me try to get it...did you and she purchase this property jointly, and were you both obligated on the mortgage? that would seem to be what you're saying here.
how she might have been able to refinance without your knowledge or involvement is a mystery - how did you come to know about this? are you certain that you're still an owner?
a quit claim deed only transfers ownership interest in the property to a recipient. so, if you quit claim your interest to her, then you'll not be an owner any longer, and she'd be the sole owner. that has nothing whatsoever to do with the mortgage loan.
also, if she truly did refinance, there's no way that new loan would affect your credit if you weren't involved with it, as you said. i don't have sufficient legal standing to say you have the right to live there or not.
you'd do yourself well to consult with an attorney to get clarification.
how she might have been able to refinance without your knowledge or involvement is a mystery - how did you come to know about this? are you certain that you're still an owner?
a quit claim deed only transfers ownership interest in the property to a recipient. so, if you quit claim your interest to her, then you'll not be an owner any longer, and she'd be the sole owner. that has nothing whatsoever to do with the mortgage loan.
also, if she truly did refinance, there's no way that new loan would affect your credit if you weren't involved with it, as you said. i don't have sufficient legal standing to say you have the right to live there or not.
you'd do yourself well to consult with an attorney to get clarification.
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