all I know is that in the near future, my house will be worth about $200k LESS than what I owe.
so why keep it? with 100% financing – explain to me the “benefit” of keeping it and paying all that money every month on a house leveraged to $350k that is only worth $150k.
I would think that at some point – I will be able to rent a bigger/better/nicer house for LESS money and since my house is going to be $200k upside down, and I put nothign into it – the most logical and financially reasonable thing to do would be dump it on teh bank and walk.
i really don’t care about what is “right” or what would be the “morally appropriate” thing to do. sad to say it, but if I have to shaft my bank and save my own neck – so be it. it’s money, it was a contract, and it went sour – and unfortuntely for the bank, they were dumb enough to loan me that much money on an asset that just took a dump. I promised to pay, but if I don’t pay, they get to have the house. that’s how it works. it’s all legal.
believe me, if there was a claus that said if my house tripled in value they were entitled to sell my hosue and pocket the proceeds – and it did that – they wouldn’t “feel sorry for me” and let me stay – they’d throw my a$$ out so fast it woudl make my head spin. i’m looking at this STRICTLY from a standpoint of what makes the most financial sense.
the best option woudl to have never bought the house in the first place. i dind’t listen to you guys, did it anyway, so here I am. no point in whining over that now. what’s done is done. you guys were right. i can admit that.
but now that it’s happened – the next question is what is my next option. Keeping or dumping the hosue – to me – is mostly motviated by how upside down the hosue is, how long it will take to recoup that money, and largely – what will it cost me on a monthly basis to replace what I have now.
right now I have what I would consider a very nicely upgraded, nicely loaced, but somewhat “small” house in Harveston. about 1900 sq ft. one story. nicely fixed up. it has all the ‘bells and whistles’ i want in a house.
I pay about $3200-3300 a month when you factor in principal/interest/HOA, etc.
I earn about $140k/year roughly. do the math. even with my tax writeoff – I think I woudl be saving a good $500+/month if I left this house, and rented a bigger/better house that woudl cost me around $2000/month. no HOA, no upkeep – just pay monthly rent.
I could drag out the foreclosure process for a year, pocket about $36000. then paying $2000/month in rent – I’d have a bigger hosue (which my wife wants – we had another baby) – and pay less money.
