short-sale house : COJ advice?

Vegas real estate is a mess.  We paid $353k for our house at the height of the bubble (as they like to call it) and quickly became $220 K plus under water by the end of last year.

We did a loan re structure with the first that helped a little, but then decided that it was all over for us.  We sited the home for sale and got nothing.  We called and cried, and called and cried and finally found an agent that specialized in short sales.

In two months it was over.  Sold for $130K.  Credit ding yes, but not that much.  We closed December 31 and are already getting credit offers in the mail.  The credit cards have already increrased those limits they decreased immediately after, and renting is actually pretty sweet.  I simply call the landlord for repairs or problems. 

Bank of America was a REAL PAIN.  One week before closing they started demanding more cash to them.  We played hard ball and warned them that what they were going to get was a set of keys and no money.  They finally backed down and we closed.

Be careful with your closing, as our property was our primary residence we ended up not liable for the balance thru some government declaration.  I made sure to get from both the first and second a statement of "payment less than total but accepted at payment in full" and a record of this statment on the credit report.  Some banks talk about taking the difference of sale and balance due and calling it earned income on a 1099 and then letting the IRS deal with it.  And we all know how much fun they are.

Good luck

Asking for the bank to accept a short sale when you have two new cars in the garage is outrageous.  

I am living this hell right now.

I know people that have had easy ones and ones that have been put through the ringer.

I wish that I got a lawyer from day one.

I actually have an offer, but I need to deal with some other BS.

Specific advice.

If you deal with Wells Fargo, verify, verify, and VERIFY everything that they say.

They have given me so much incorrect information it is unbeleivable.

I don't think most of it was them being shady.

I just think that many of their employees are idiots and would rather guess than admit that they don't know the answer.

+1

I'll throw out there to not worry about the credit aspect too much.  Credit scores come back very fast.  I had several apartment buildings that sucked is down 10 years ago and I had a Horrible credit score in the low 400's.  Once we got out from under the apartments and paid everything off our credit score was back in the mid 700's within 6 months.

Good luck, and I wish you the best.

I think his point is that two new cars does not demonstrate an attempt to live below one's means. But the bank will do what's best for them. I have not been in this position, so I'll try not to judge, as the OP has been making payments and keeping up the house for 16 months, and deserves some credit for that.

and all of those who have investements/pensions/IRA's etc invested in funds which make up a majority of the stock ownership of these banks.

Its not simply the "banks" money you're talking about. 

X2, not sure how the bank, it's investors and your neighbors are responsible.  While I have not walked in your shoes, it seems that buying new cars just prior to telling the bank to shove it is a bit unfair.

I think you are doing the right thing here and hopefully the bank will see that. It seems like after all of the hard work you have done to try and get it sold/rented and kept it maintaned you are left with a few options - short sale it or hand the keys over to the bank and walk away from it. At least with the Short sale the bank gets some money and does not get saddled with realestate/non liquid inventory.

Right now I am not sure how much harm a short saled house will do to your local market/neighbors that has not already been done. As long as the property is in good shape and not allowed to become and eye sore then property value, I would think, would not be overly effected by a short saled home. Good luck with it and hope things turn around for you soon!

I am addmitedly no expert, but the house across the street from me went into foreclosure, then the bank went under, so it was sold via government blind auction for WAY under what anything in the area was going for... this was about a year ago.

I went to re-finance my hosue a few months ago, assuming the worst that my property value would have taken a sharp hit, but it was appraised at slightly higher than when I bought 5 years ago.

Just one example, but that kind of thing did not affect my property value.

Telling a Bank to shove it is unfair?  I forgot that the banks treat their customers so fairly that they deserve our outermost respect

I hope the OP does what is best for him, his family and his future.  Being unfair to a bank that helped create this mess we have in the housing market would not take my sleep away for a single second.

Agreed, the OP needs to do what is best for his family.  Having said that, when I bought my house and signed my contract to pay back the loan this was not done at gun point.  I agreed to terms based on current market value of house and rate at which I would repay.  The banks served only as enablers to our bad decisions allowing us to over extend ourselves.  I was qualified for a loan on a house almost 2.5 times that of which I bought.  No idea how they calculated that because I would have certainly been a slave to my home and the bank had I hit that price point.

Both of my cars are older than the ones the OP traded in and one is sitting in the garage not running at the moment.  Like the OP, it's also an Audi and the cost to repair is really high, will do the repairs myself to save a grand, I am not a mechanic but hopefully Google will get me through it. Would like to buy a new car or two but current economic downturns suggest large purchases should be a cash and carry transaction until things stablize.