Facing Default, Some Walk Out on New Homes

[DUB]

Facing Default, Some Walk Out on New Homes

When Raymond Zulueta went into default on his mortgage last year, he did what a lot of people do. He worried.

In a declining housing market, he owed more than the house was worth, and his mortgage payments, even on an interest-only loan, had shot up to $2,600, more than he could afford. “I was terrified,” said Mr. Zulueta, who services automated teller machines for an armored car company in the San Francisco area.

Then in January he learned about a new company in San Diego called You Walk Away that does just what its name says. For $995, it helps people walk away from their homes, ceding them to the banks in foreclosure.

Last week he moved into a three-bedroom rental home for $1,200 a month, less than half the cost of his mortgage. The old house is now the lender’s problem. “They took the negativity out of my life,” Mr. Zulueta said of You Walk Away. “I was stressing over nothing.”
Excerpt
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/us/29walks.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

[seekingtruth1]

No not nothing your credit is now shot....if thats nothing more power to ya!

[Issachar]

So just how much does a ATM serviceman earn? If $1200 is less than half of what his mortgage was ....... at least $2400 per month is $600 per week. To clear $600 per week you have to gross (going to vary of course) approximately $800 per week? In a 40 hour week, that is $20 per hour! Just for the house payment. AT LEAST double that to cover insurances, food, utilities, car payment ...... Are we talking $40+ per hour? Can't imagine it.

Issachar

[ANewCreature]

So just how much does a ATM serviceman earn? If $1200 is less than half of what his mortgage was ....... at least $2400 per month is $600 per week. To clear $600 per week you have to gross (going to vary of course) approximately $800 per week? In a 40 hour week, that is $20 per hour! Just for the house payment. AT LEAST double that to cover insurances, food, utilities, car payment ...... Are we talking $40+ per hour? Can't imagine it.

Issachar

the cost of living in SF is among the highest around, but I agree, I can't imagine it being that high! :shocked

At least he used a company - there was a local article about a company that started about a year ago that specialies in cleaning out abandoned homes when the banks foreclose, and it told about peple who leave behind all sorts of stuff - some good, of course, which is salvaged and given to places that serve the poor, but other stuff that's just disgusting, like dead animals (once just the skull of one):runaway, rodents, totally junky stuff; one person, in spite, cause over $1 million in damage to a very nice home by turning on all the faucets before leaving!

[I'm all 67X]

Sounds like a whole new niche of business opportunity...

[Issachar]

I'm all 67X, good point. I know a real estate agent. I'm on it now.

Issachar

[RobertB]

No not nothing your credit is now shot....if thats nothing more power to ya!

Just guessing here, but his attitude is probably carried by many who just walk away from their own indiscretions.

[goinghome]

I don't think I've ever known any person (over age 30 or 35 that is) who has not had a complete credit melt down at least once in their lives. It's not the end of the world apparently. You just wait it out for 7 years (actually credit offers start rolling in 1 or 2 years after a bankruptcy) and start over with better information next time. Credit is pushed in this country like a perfect eternal youth and beauty drug. Everybody's gotta have it, you can't function in normal society without it. It's inevitable that it (and we) will fail at some point in all of our lives, and have to get back up on the horse. We are supposed to pay our debts and I'm not advocating anything wrong here. I'm just saying that it's pretty much inevitable that at some point you and I both will face extreme financial pressure for some reason and not be able to pay our debts, so we need to not judge. It never fails, just when somebody puts another person down for being a deadbeat, something outlandish happens to them and they become a dead beat too. Watch out.

[KnightofChrist]

I knew that there were debt settlement agencies that could get your Credit Card debt cut in half and the interest reduced or waived, but I didn't know they had branched out into mortgages.

We are with Liquidebt right now, paying off our Credit Cards, and have 2-1/2 years to go before we are free. If they had not "reformed" the bankrupcty laws, I would have been tempted to go that way.

[DUB]

I don't understand what this Co. does to help these people. Why does anyone need to pay this Co. so they can walk away.