Can't sell FL home - considering foreclosure

[Out O' Money]

I did something stupid in November - I accepted a great job in NC and ASSUMED I could sell my townhouse in FL before I ran out of money. I'm running out of money and need to decide what to do very soon.

I have great credit. I am current on all of my debt. I cannot afford my rent AND my mortgage. There is slim to no chance that I will sell the townhouse -which has already been listed for 2 month - in the next 6 months (there is an exact unit listed for $20,000 less than mine and I am still bringng $10,000 to closing if I get list price). I want to cut my losses as soon as possible. At this point, I'm upside down in the townhouse and feel like I'm just flushing money down the drain when I write the mortgage check.

Here are my questions:
1. Deed-in-lieu: are banks (Sun Trust in particular) actually doing this? What does it do to my credit score? Do I have to pay taxes (1099) for this?

1a. Is it possible to do a deed-in-lieu if you have a first and a second mortgage through the SAME lender?

2. Foreclosure: do I need to get a lawyer and if so, how do I find a good one in Pinellas county Florida? Is there a way to excellerate the process so that I can start repairing my credit quicker? I'm not living there so I don't care if I foreclose tomorrow.

3. What does it mean to have "bad" credit? I know this is a niave question, but I've never had "bad" credit. How does it affect your life?

4. If I am up to date and stay up to date on all my other payments and actually pay down my credit card debt, how quickly will my credit score recover?

THANK YOU for your help - at this point, I just don't know what to do!

[Out O' Money]

One other thing - if I sell it before the foreclosure is final but after the foreclosure process is initiated, does my credit still get dinged?

Thank you - I really appreciate and respect your advice!

[breezyday]

No updates?
Would love to know what happened!

[HHM]

One other thing - if I sell it before the foreclosure is final but after the foreclosure process is initiated, does my credit still get dinged?

Thank you - I really appreciate and respect your advice!

Yes.

[HHM]

I did something stupid in November - I accepted a great job in NC and ASSUMED I could sell my townhouse in FL before I ran out of money. I'm running out of money and need to decide what to do very soon.

I have great credit. I am current on all of my debt. I cannot afford my rent AND my mortgage. There is slim to no chance that I will sell the townhouse -which has already been listed for 2 month - in the next 6 months (there is an exact unit listed for $20,000 less than mine and I am still bringng $10,000 to closing if I get list price). I want to cut my losses as soon as possible. At this point, I'm upside down in the townhouse and feel like I'm just flushing money down the drain when I write the mortgage check.

Here are my questions:
1. Deed-in-lieu: are banks (Sun Trust in particular) actually doing this? What does it do to my credit score? Do I have to pay taxes (1099) for this?

1a. Is it possible to do a deed-in-lieu if you have a first and a second mortgage through the SAME lender?

2. Foreclosure: do I need to get a lawyer and if so, how do I find a good one in Pinellas county Florida? Is there a way to excellerate the process so that I can start repairing my credit quicker? I'm not living there so I don't care if I foreclose tomorrow.

3. What does it mean to have "bad" credit? I know this is a niave question, but I've never had "bad" credit. How does it affect your life?

4. If I am up to date and stay up to date on all my other payments and actually pay down my credit card debt, how quickly will my credit score recover?

THANK YOU for your help - at this point, I just don't know what to do!

1. It's possible, but rare. Your best chance is if you do NOT have a 2nd mortgage, but it still dings your credit and YES, you will get 1099'd on the difference.

2. No, you don't need a lawyer (unless you want to stall the process), and no, there is no real way you can speed up the process.

3. Well, if you learn from your mistakes, and stop using credit, bad credit doesn't effect you at all. (since you don't need to borrow money). The main thing to keep in mind, bad credit is temporary, assuming you take steps to not repeat the mistakes that got you into this position in the first place.

4. Faster than if you didn't do that, but otherwise, there is no specific timeline I can give you.

[JRScott]

Okay this thread was 5 months old before it was bumped.....

However if this is still a problem, you might look into a short sell if that is possible. It is where you get the lender to agree to accept a lower price than what is old when you have a buyer willing to pay that price. Since the 1st and 2nd are owed by the same company it is possible you might could do one.

However I suspect it being 5 months old as a thread that this may be resolved by now .