Voluntary Real Estate Forclosure

[mefford509]

We (my husband and I) own a 100 year old 4 bedroom house in Nebraska that we bought in 1998. We left in 2002 to go to New England to help my widowed mother. The house has been rented to a friend, at less than the cost of the mortg. We had intentions of returning, but Tom landed a job out here in New York that had much better prospects than anything he had back in Nebaraska. We have kept the mortg current until recently and just received news that the tenant is leaving. We are currently 2 months behind, and have not the ability to move back,bring the mortg current without rent , nor the $$ to improve the house for sale since the tenant has not kept his part of the verbal agreement to do the painting and such that we asked in exchange for the reduced rent. I have read on the internet that you can approach the bank and try to Voluntarily give the house back to the bank. Is this an actual thing we can do? Do I need to hire a lawyer to attempt it? I have put a for sale by owner sign out, but unless someone has $35,000 cash, I do not anticipate it selling. (35,000 is all we owe, its tax value is 52,000)
Sincerely Nina Mefford

 

[Michael Wechsler]

We (my husband and I) own a 100 year old 4 bedroom house in Nebraska that we bought in 1998. We left in 2002 to go to New England to help my widowed mother. The house has been rented to a friend, at less than the cost of the mortg. We had intentions of returning, but Tom landed a job out here in New York that had much better prospects than anything he had back in Nebaraska. We have kept the mortg current until recently and just received news that the tenant is leaving. We are currently 2 months behind, and have not the ability to move back,bring the mortg current without rent , nor the $$ to improve the house for sale since the tenant has not kept his part of the verbal agreement to do the painting and such that we asked in exchange for the reduced rent. I have read on the internet that you can approach the bank and try to Voluntarily give the house back to the bank. Is this an actual thing we can do? Do I need to hire a lawyer to attempt it? I have put a for sale by owner sign out, but unless someone has $35,000 cash, I do not anticipate it selling. (35,000 is all we owe, its tax value is 52,000)

Nina -- where did you read this? If you are looking at foreclosure, you can certainly do things to minimize the amount of money it will cost you. This does not mean you can just "give the bank the house" and walk away from any further obligations. This also doesn't mean you won't make money from an eventual sale, whether you sell it or through foreclosure. You can talk to the bank and work out an arrangement but your putting the house on the market is the right step. If it gets sold for near the tax value then you may have some new found money. Good luck and let us know how things turn out or point us to the text you are talking about with the information you are quoting from.