Give up house? long sort of

[dogbone33]

Who all would give up there house in this situation? We owe about 62k on the first mortgage and 12k on the second. The house now is prolly valued at 50k or so, in Ohio the market is horrible! And from what I read we could not get rid of that 2nd mortgage. The house is in ok shape. Need a new bathroom, it is upstairs and it was leaking to the downstairs kitchen! We have plastic up around the tub until we get our tax return (if we get to keep it). The drain in the basement is always clogging, and when hubby did the roto Rutter thing it looked like tree roots.... We need new windows downstairs, only have 2 bedrooms, and we have a boy and a girl (which are too young yet to care but soon we will need to do something). I like my house it is just I am afraid we will never get out of here. We have a fenced in yard, and I have done a lot of landscape to it. We also have 3 dogs, which would prolly make renting impossible. Hubbys family has his grandpas house up for sale for almost a year and nobody has looked at it. Its a really nice house. It's paid off so I thought maybe we should tell his mom and rent that. But I don't think she would allow dogs. So I don't know what to do, we are filing next week.

[StartingOver08]

It is very hard to mix family and business. The first thing you should do, if you are really considering not keeping your home, is speak to your DH's family about the home that has been on the market for a year. If you can make arrangements to move into that home with a rent that you and DH's family can agree upon, then consider doing so.

However, it can be very, very difficult when working with family. Any sort of business relationship, including (especially) one with family, needs to have an agreement in writing. It is especially difficult if the property is owned free and clear and family is looking to sell the house in order to obtain proceeds - the family might think you are standing in the way of their proceeds...so tred carefully.

In fact, you may want to also search for other rentals that will allow your dogs within your price range to see what is available. It might be a better idea to work with a property that is not owned by family.

[JRScott]

Currently in a Chapter 7 you couldn't strip the 2nd Mortgage, though in a Chapter 13 I think it is still possible to strip them.

Considering repairs your current house probably has little to no equity.

It really I suppose depends on whether she'd let you rent it with the pets. Is she aware of your financial situation?

I would not reaffirm either mortgage on your home even if you decide to keep it, just do a walk through.

Is your MIL willing to take the older home off the market? Could you afford to buy the home from her in the future perhaps?

[dogbone33]

Currently in a Chapter 7 you couldn't strip the 2nd Mortgage, though in a Chapter 13 I think it is still possible to strip them.

Considering repairs your current house probably has little to no equity.

It really I suppose depends on whether she'd let you rent it with the pets. Is she aware of your financial situation?

I would not reaffirm either mortgage on your home even if you decide to keep it, just do a walk through.

Is your MIL willing to take the older home off the market? Could you afford to buy the home from her in the future perhaps?

I don't want to buy that house! If I ever get a new house it is going to be out in the country! She knows we are struggling but not that we are filing. My dh said no we aren't moving. I don't think we have walk throughs in Ohio? I have to do some research. We go see our lawyer Tuesday.