All Forum Posts by: Me Me

with regard to the mo. payment vs potential rent question, it's a large difference, almost 50%. my monthly is about 1800, and as rough estimate I could expect to rent it out for between 900-1000 per month.

I do believe I could refi to make things a little better, but I haven't found the right loan yet. BECU said they could get me down to around 1200 a month (and when I was using refi calculators online to get a general idea of closing costs they were around 3-4k). It turned out closing costs with them came out to 7500 (lots of junk fees...), and after all was said and done, the monthly ballooned up to over 1700. It contained PMI which I don't pay now, hazard insurance, which I also don't pay now (due to condo master policy), and a few other things, and taxes- which of course I pay, but those were not figured in to the amount they originally said they could get me.

Paying 7500 bucks to save less than 100 a month doesn't seem like a good deal to me, especially when I don't want to have this condo for too much longer.... Right now my monthly payment consists of P&I, and taxes go to escrow, and that's IT. If I can get a refi with the same deal that lowers my payment to somewhere in the neighborhood of 1300, (and not much more than the origination fee + prepaids for closing) then I'd consider renting it out as an option. I'm not sure how realistic that is, especially with high LTV though... I may just end up having to stay put, but I really hope I can work out a better situation.

In any case, everyone's advice has been very helpful. Was posting in forums to get some better general knowledge to go to a realtor/lender with, and I feel like I've definitely gotten that (this forum was by far the most helpful too :)

Thanks all!

Well it seems like from what the others have said, it won't be a short sale if I'm willing to make arrangements to pay the remaining balance, so I guess that really isn't an issue anymore. It's interesting though, I get different answers in different places. Some say it's becoming common and not difficult to get lenders to agree to a real short sale without hardship, and some are saying it's not possible... I guess maybe it just varies based on lender/area?...

My mortgage is serviced by GMAC, and they did tell me who actually owns my mortgage- are you saying that it's better to try to do any negotiating I choose to do with them and not through GMAC?

Thank you both very much for all your help.

to Scott- yes, as I said in my original post, I have looked into renting the property out as an option, but I'm leaning against that if possible. My monthly P&I versus what I could get for it is pretty terrible, as rates were higher and my credit was not great when I got this place. I would have to get a really good refi to make it work, which is difficult with my LTV. I would estimate it's around 113%- so higher than 110, and under 125%, but apparently my mortgage is not owned by fannie or freddie, so I don't qualify for the making home affordable program wor whatever that's called.

That said, now that I realize I hadn't taken the closing costs into account (and that they were much higher than I thought), it seems both solutions put me in roughly the same boat, at least as far as monthly costs in the near future, and the effect on my ability to purchase a new home.

Just looking at the personal loan products I've seen available, I'd estimate that either option will leave me with a payment upwards 8-900$ a month, which drastically reduces my ability to hit my ultimate goal which was to get into a larger home for the growing family.

Looks like I will have to keep tossing ideas around on this one, but I may ultimately just be stuck for now...

Thank you for the response. There's a few things I'm a little confused about though. 1) when you sell, doesn't the buyer pay all the closing costs (other than the realtor comission)? Also, when I got this condo my closing costs were about 7k for a 235k condo- that's only about 2%. 8-10% seems high, is my situation not normal?

In any case- what you're saying is that if I can pay the difference, either with a personal loan, or asking the lender if I can pay in installments- neither would be considered a short sale? That would be great news.

Is there a reason you'd suggest looking for a loan elsewhere before pursuing it through my lender? I'm kind of curious how that would work... The lender would have to agree to the situation first, I have to see what offers come in, and then attempt to get a loan for whatever the difference is? Then if I'm not approved for the loan would there be any problem with backing out of the sale after thigns had gone that far?...

Sorry, obviously I'm not all that familiar with this kind of situation, which is why I'm looking for help...

If you want to do a short sale but have never been delinquent, have no trouble making payments, and do NOT want the bank to forgive the difference, but allow you to make arrangements to pay it off (assume as a loan or something)- would it still report negatively on your credit? My only reason for wanting a short sale is that I just don't want to own this home anymore, and am willing to take the loss (i'm upside down on a condo by roughly $26.5k.

The two main things that I'm wondering are- will the bank even allow a short sale in this 'no hardship' condition, and if so- can I do it without any negative impact to my credit whatsoever (credit is good now and we're looking to get a larger place for a growing family). I spent good time and money monitoring and fixing up my credit to get it to the 750 range, I do not want to sacrifice that for the advantages of getting out of this condo, but I really don't want to own this place anymore if possible... (and yes, renting it out is another option, I have looked into it, but at the moment I want to look into all my possible options for just selling the place)