CMRJoe and 2008 sorry to hear about your situations. djrob thanks for posting what I told you, (I think you confused me with sdrealtor)…
So guys, (both of you) my standard advice is to put it on paper (or spread sheet) to let the numbers sink in. It is a pain in the butt to do and as Raybyrnes said it may very well be an exercise in futility, but it is something you should do. I hate to be an anal engineer type but I always am surprised at decisions people make without really studying the numbers…
Okay so let’s think about the rent scenario. You guys can very well rent these homes for awhile, yes it would be a long slow bleed. How much over several years? What sort of tax benefits would you see? Can you afford it given your current and proposed future income? If you run this out over several years is it realistic? Compare this to the sell now scenario… Which makes sense to you? Be realistic when you consider the sell now scenario with regards to what you will actually sell the home for. I know all this is a chore and you may not likely gleam anything new out of it… yet it may help you decide…
Now other alternatives… Like Porkman said, you can walk away… take the credit hit… keep your money and move on. There is nothing wrong with that. Life is not 100% based on your credit rating.
I am not advocating renting, or selling, or letting it foreclose, or selling it short… I am advocating investigate, list out and study all of your alternatives in detail. When you think about where the market will be in a few years… it is likely that the market will be in a worse spot then it is now. Yes we may get a little bump between now and then but it will not be a major big run up… it will not be pervasive and cover ALL property types. It will likely be a bump in certain housing types in certain areas…
Hang in there…get that spread sheet out…
SD Realtor
ps – I am not a loan guy but I do not think CFHA is assumable. As always I could be wrong.
