What woulld be best course for allowing foreclosure to happen? Should we hire lawyer ? -

Our payment went up 75% due to tax reassesment and had to move because of job so we do not, nor can we afford the new payments. We don t care about the house but is there any easier way to get it over with and try to save some credit or, is it a lost cause? Should we even seek a lawyer or just let it happen? Any comments would be apprieciated!

Try renting the house out until the market rebounds. You may have to contribute a small amount every month, but it s better then losing your credit status. With so many foreclosures these days, it should not be a problem renting.

Well, this is weird because your tax assessment has nothing to do with your mortgage payments. I would check this. The only way that your mortgage payments would increase is if your interest rate is a variable rate. Regardless, why let the house go? Sell it and pay off the mortgage because this will be on your credit history for the next 7 years. It will make it very hard to get decent financing elsewhere.

I worked collections for both Chase, and Countrywide, and to be honest there is not a lot you can do. If you talk with the collectors, then your going to have a lot better chance of them helping you with in the long run, (that s really all were here for). They could do something like payment plans, or Loan Modifications, etc.. See about a refinance, so you can lower your interest, and make payments until you can sell the home. Another good way to save some credit is to do a short sale.. Talk with your lender about a short sale, and if they offer it.. Basically what that does is you can t sell your home for what your loan is worth because the market is crap, so you lower the asking price below what your loan is.. Example: Loan is worth $300,000, you have been trying to sell the home at that for awhile now and no offers, so you lower the asking price to $250,000 and get a offer. Once you have that offer you can then get in contact with your lender again, and let them know and do a short sale which means they will take the $250,000 and cut their losses.. If your not to far behind then you can also do a Deed in Lieu, which is where you surrender the property to the lender to satisfy a loan that is in default and avoid foreclosure proceedings. Any other questions, contact me via msn at sctpenguin@hotmail.com

WOW - for people answered and each one is different. No wonder our financial world is in the mess it is in.

Your only way to save any credit is to do a short sale make sure when you list the home you go with a Realtor who knows the ins and outs of a short sale because if they don t it will drag on for a long time the other thing to do is call your lender if you have an 80/20 mortgage and ask them to forgive the second mortgage.