mudechevy

Does that mean since we don't live in the city limits of Orlando it can be more than 1/2 an acre?

Actually they cannot garnish wages of any Head of Household in FL unless you specifically sign an agreement that lets them. FL is a very fair state on debtors. That's good to know!

I did have a very small cd. I cashed it in today to make the payment before it goes 30 days past due.

What cash? The retirement fund? That is protected if you file BK. If you short sale you may be on the hook for taxes unless you can prove insolvency. Most people can. What other debts do you have? How much equity in the house? It might make sense to file BK to clear your books and start over. The house appraised for $440k this year. We owe about $200k. The only other debts are credit cards, about $12k right now.

Thank you for your nice replies. I will keep it all in consideration. I'm happy to hear there is hope regardless of what we decide to do.

Living out of a motor home is not an option for us. If we were older, no kids at home & retired I would be willing to do that. Our savings is 1/2 in IRA's and 1/2 in mutual funds. I would be taking a lot of the mutual funds and leaving the IRA's. Here's what I got on wikipedia. I really don't understand if our savings would be excluded. In 2005, Public Law 109-8[1] amended the Bankruptcy Code, by exempting most organised retirement plans, even those not subject to ERISA, and accorded them protected status, claimable as exempt property by a debtor declaring bankruptcy under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Now, most pension plans have the same protection as an ERISA anti-alienation clause giving these pensions the same protection as a spendthrift trust. The only remaining unprotected areas are the SIMPLE IRA and the SEP IRA. The SEP IRA is functionally similar to a self-settle trust, and a sound policy reason would exist to not shield SEP IRAs, but many financial planners argue that a rollover (or direct transfer) from a SEP IRA to a rollover IRA would give those funds protected status, too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_Reti...me_Security_Act

It's a motor home, not a mobile home. There is a difference. We could not live in the motor home. We live in FL. I am sure if I just let them come and get it, like craigg said, we would owe them $100k or more because of the market.

Absolutely NOT. I hope you won't blow through all the cash you've saved trying to save this RV. If you were to have an emergency, you wouldn't have any money left to save your house and buy groceries. I would short sale it and work out payment arrangements for any difference before I'd spend my savings. I could be wrong, but isn't the '2nd home deduction' pretty much a thing of the past? Just mho. All that cash is the 1st thing they would take with a bankruptcy and it would cost us more than that if they were to repo it and bill us for the difference. I would think that taking a chance on using part of it to get through this time would be a better option if we can't short sale it. That was the whole idea of the post..if we CAN'T short sale it. If we CAN short sale it, I'm wondering if the govt. would tax the difference as income. That was my 2nd question. I think you misunderstood. Sorry if it was worded incorrectly.

I think I would dig into the retirement before I even thought about asking family for a loan. I asked about deferring payments and they will only allow me to do 1 payment and we have to show them that we would be able to pay after the 30 days. I don't think people will steadily be building houses that quick. Even if they do, they are paying peanuts compared to what they paid a year or 2 ago. I just don't see us being able to afford this payment until the market smooths out. Who knows how long that will take. Another question..If we CAN do a short sale, do you know if this would be considered a 2nd home and if we would have to pay taxes on the difference?

Yes, motor homes do cost that much and no, it's not plated in gold. Yes, it obviously was a big mistake and I'm willing to pay the price for that. My husband is a framer. We would have never bought a motor home had we expected to be out of work for more than a few months. Our credit scores are both over 740 until it hits 30 days late. Would you all use your retirement savings to save your credit? Let's say it doesn't sell through a short sale in the next few days. George, renting is not an option. Our insurance doesn't allow it. And I have no idea about bankruptcy. I thought I read somewhere that if you have more than $100k debt you can't file one of them.

I didn't know where this post should go. I assume it's like an auto loan. If you know of a better place for it, by all means. I can use any help I can get. Thank you!

We have a motor home that we purchased in 2005/2006 for about $237k. We owe $197k. We are just now late on our 1st payment because my husband is a framer and can't find work in this economy and hasn't for quite some time. We've eaten through savings and are selling off things to pay our mortgage and basically living off of credit cards and maybe a job a month now. I know, credit cards are a last resort but we have to eat and use gas to find work & get kids to school. The bank suggested we short sell the motor home but we can't seem to find a buyer. What do you suggest we do if we can't find one? We will be 30 days late soon. Our credit is excellent(for the next week or 2 anyhow). I know we'll take a hit but I don't want to owe the $80k or so that will be left on the loan if they repo and sell at wholesale. We have a 1st mortgage, no car payments, retirement savings of about $70k that I'd rather leave as a last resort. Is bankruptcy an option with this high of debt? Would a repo be better? I don't know what to do.