The beatings will continue until morale improves
In the aftermath of the mortgage company deciding to sell my house with out, you know, letting me in on the secret; I decided that this was in fact a perfect moment to pause and take stock of my situation.
So I did.
In many areas of my life, things are groovy. I'm down 20lbs. I'm exermacizing. I've got a decent job. I've got great kids, and a great wife. Even my dog and cat are well above average. I've no credit card debt, I'm current on all my bills. There's just one gaping, gangrenous sore on the face of my happiness, and that is the house situation. And it occurred to me, after consulting runes, oracles and qualified professionals, that my current housing situation was not only not all that great it is unlikely in the extreme to improve anytime in the near future. Given my recent unpleasantness in the job market, and the general unpleasantness still extent in the housing market, the likelihood of getting a decent refinance on my home is vanishingly small. So until the housing market rebounds (which might happen before the world ends in 2012, but I'm not betting on it) I am stuck paying a large mortgage on a house that is worth less than that mortgage, and said mortgage is a much larger fraction of my monthly income than it was when I bought the place.
Since I want to enjoy my last couple years before the world ends, and since I want to get some petty vengeance on my mortgage company for stabbing me in the back, I'm moving. It seems that now I can get a house twice as big and almost as nice as the current one for 2/3 the price I paid four years ago. Such is modern life. So, the next few months will be consumed with the vast logistical enterprise that is relocating a household consisting of a pregnant wife, three kids seven and under, a dog, a cat, and all the crap we've accumulated with the efficiency of a black hole sucking in light. Packing, looking at houses, trips to the dump, dealing with realtors and finance, and a thousand other tasks large and small will consume most of the time I don't spend working or sleeping.
So blogging will be light for the near future, as it has been for the last couple weeks. I do intend to finish up a couple nearly finished drafts on formalist type issues. I'll throw up some links now and again. (Isegoria seemed to disagree with my last bunch being labeled, "Of mild interest.") And I'll probably steal some time away from work or sleep to get things off my chest.
o assuage your pain, here is teh funny:
on
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B: It is not in my basic…
B:
It is not in my basic nature to disagree with you. However, in this, I must - your expectation that the lenders should willingly write off the loss in principal, yet not force a move is misplaced.
That said, I heartily agree with your plan to move, for a reason that will seem to, but actually doesn't, contradict my last sentence.
They (the mortgage servicer, not necessarily the lender who owns your loan) have made themselves overt pains in the ass, unnecessarily and perhaps illegally causing you trouble and strife, in the hope of taking your house from you, for some reason. Rather than asking them for relief, you plan to simultaneously improve your situation, at the risk of some short-run logistical pain and medium-run credit rating degradation, whilst also giving them what they want, albeit by busting a flaming javelin off in their ass.
The mere fact that they wanted to be the one to break up with you, yet you're the one asserting a strong pimp hand, is as satisfying as it is unfortunately necessary.
Don't ask or expect them to write off the principal loss - it's not their problem. The fact that they acted like dicks? Yeah, that's their problem, and you're actualizing it for them in a way that would, in a smaller and better world, cause them to rethink the way they treat people, the better to serve both their borrowers and themselves.
Can you buy your house from the Sheriff's sale for half of what you owe? Somebody will, may as well be you.
Sadly, no, that's not…
Sadly, no, that's not permitted. Really, there ought to be more awareness on the part of lenders that they're going to lose money on underwater loans. Why not do a real refinance, write off the loss in principal, and not force everyone to move?