Savantrice

Question about how to approach things: I have 3 rental homes (inherited, no mortgages in my name, i'm executor and they are currently held in a trust). I'm current on all of the mortgages, but that may not be the case five months from now. In light of this, I've contacted a realtor and gotten CMA's on the properties. Right now: Property 1: owe $101K on mortgage, CMA value b/t $83-93K Property 2: owe $34K on mortgage, CMA value b/t $60-66K Property 3: owe $54K on mortgage, CMA value b/t $115-121K Probate's over in 3 months...lawyer suggests sending a written notice to the banks holding the mortgages (Chase for #1, BofA for 2&3), at least for the ones (technically) underwater. Give them 90 days to respond, if (1) they dont precludes them from getting deficiency judgment later, if (2) they do we can negotiate a settlement with them. Makes sense for #1, i'm unsure if we should just do the same for 2 and 3 as well? I've never bought or sold a home, so I'm not sure though the latter two have (estimated) positive flow if sold i'm not sure how much of that would be eaten up by realtor costs, etc. I want to get rid of these homes ASAP (by summer), and because there are no credit ramifications I'm trying to decide should we try to sell the traditional way (afraid of how long it would sit on market), do a deed in lieu and just hand these things to bank, or what? Thoughts or suggestions? oh, all three of the properties are in the same south suburbs of Chicago.

ditto on the thanks for the breakdown. it was helpful to read. there was a segment on this very subject on 60 minutes just a few minutes ago...they give it 12 more months before things come to a head... 60 Minutes story

Thanks for the feedback Brian. I do have our attorney doing a bit of research on deficiency judgments, so she'll have that for me when we speak this afternoon. I spoke to another family friend that is an attorney in the next state over and she definitely feels like we should just let the bank do what they will. The one suggestion she made was giving them the "deed in lieu of foreclosure" for the first mortgage...which makes sense I guess, but not sure if that's something that we can do since none of our names are actually on the paperwork. I assumed the deed just reverted back to the bank since my father passed away, but I will ask my own attorney about that today. I also spoke with a realtor familiar with the area and she also seemed to think the best bet would be to "walk away" as none of us are personally liable. There does look to be at least $250K in the estate that has been identified that the bank could go after...which is what my attorney does not want to have us lose, but I dont see any way around it at this point.

Hey all...first time posting in this forum, hoping to get a bit of input on a pretty messed up situation. My father died a few months back, while he was in the process of retiring outside of the country. He stopped making mortgage payments before he died, and also drained the equity out of his house (assume its offshore somewhere, but still doing reconnaissance) and now we (sibs and I as potential heirs...no will in sight) are left holding the bag. The one good thing in all of this is he was the only name on the deed and mortgage, so we are not personally responsible for the mortgage. I recently got served documents from the the bank holding the mortgage that they are filing in court (NoName Bank vs. My Father, with my siblings listed as "possible heirs" and legatees). The documents outline that my father had two mortgages on the house totaling $348K, and based on comps the bank got from a realtor they estimate the value of his house at $145K Severely underwater would be an understatement here. Personally, I'm thinking let the bank take it...try and sell it, whatever. But my lawyer states that, of course, a short sale would likely come in well below the appraised value (nice area, but the house was not kept up by my dad as he was living alone, and he died in it and was not found for a few days ) She is concerned that the bank would still come after his estate for the difference b/t what they are owed and what the house would sell for. We have so many other things we are dealing with right now, the idea of catching up on the arrears and then investing money into cleaning up the house to sell it at a loss doesnt make sense to me. However, I was speaking with friend last night that had to short sell her MIL's house after her death and stated that...they did end up getting nailed (her hubby was on the mortgage in that case), but not by paying the difference to the bank...rather they got hit on their taxes. I guess the difference in value vs selling price was seen as income. If that is truly the case, then it might be worth it. Because paying a percentage of the $200K difference out of the estate would be preferable, compared to paying the full $200K but I'm really not sure if this is how things are done or not. All of this is happening in IL...I'm going to be speaking to the lawyer on Thursday. Any thoughts, ideas, concerns, whatever would be GREATLY appreciated as I am totally out of my element on this one.

I really want a CLI on my card (currently @ 7K), and I joined in March of this year. There was a bank snafu in August that caused one of my payments to be returned (said my account did not exist...wtf?), I've never been late though. It was a nightmare to get cleared up (they started putting ten day holds on my payments ) but I think its been resolved. I really want to call and just request a CLI but I'm nervous...their app in March is the last inquiry made on my reports

eeek? Just one more reason not to carry around my cc's...that, and impulse purchases

that's weird. i put in an order for this sometime last week...they were out of stock, but my price was $9.32.

only PenFed

Did your driver's license have the same address on it as the cell phone bill? (trying to figure out if you need TWO things with the same address as the NFCU member, or is one item enough?)

Interesting...would love to know how this works for you! And if they just require one utility bill or more than that...

Sorry, that wasn't thoughtful of me. What prevented you from being all over this merger? just not being on the boards enough. i'm not actively repairing credit anymore so i'm not in this forum as much as others (money management, student loans, even trawl the mortgage forum tho' i'm not even thinking about buying a home). i literally just saw this post a couple days ago...arrrgh. and the crazy thing? i just started dating a Navy man a few months ago and we were talking about his NFCU card that he's had for 18 years (along with other products he has thru Navy Fed). *sigh* shotgun wedding? j/k (kinda... lol) lesson learned: never stop reading the credit board...congrats on getting in all

One of the CSRs I spoke with said that NFCU would welcome us USA Fed members with free checks that include the address, not just the name-only mentioned in the welcome disclosures. But I have not received any checks yet, nor was my funding check cashed. I was offered free name only checks when I opened my checking account last Thursday. I think I prefer name only. I'm gonna take my USAFed checks to the NFCU branch. Im not even opening a checking account That's nothing. Many people are not even in NFCU! *twiddling thumbs, waiting for next merger*

@Kevin...you're awesome Thanks so much for the thorough response! I'll keep all this in mind as we begin to reach out to professionals and update this thread as things progress.

re: FAs....in a post from a couple years ago you said "Personally I don't think it's necessary or always best to insist on a "fee-only" advisor" The few I've looked at near me on the site seem to be fee-based...do you think that's my best option in my circumstances?

thanks for your responses you guys. yes, I'm a medical student, if I follow the current path I will be graduating in 2013. (debating whether to take a leave of absence...my mother is the one that died late August. The questions I'm asking, and figures I mention, is with regard to her estate. My father actually died in late July, has more assets but no will in sight, and family is very fractured as a result. All that to say, I may take a leave of absence if I can't pull it together and focus on school.) @Kev...I actually do live a pretty ascetic lifestyle...not sure what type of part-time work I could fit into my current schedule that would allow enough income to put into a Roth, but that will depend on if I stay or take the family leave from school. I'm assuming I couldnt put in more than I actually made into a Roth, right? Please correct me if I'm wrong. Yes, my mother had the house she was living in, and then three small rental properties that currently have tenants in them...I'm still trying to track down the leases...they are all Section 8 too, so that's added another wrinkle. I'm using one of the accounts I'm trustee on to just pay the mortgages outright. (2 of 3 of the renters pay a negligible amt, and Section 8 makes deposits into an account that is not in her name but an old corporation's name she started...not touching it right now, have no clue how to even begin with that). All the properties were included in the trust, so I'm managing those for now...we are looking to begin trying to sell them next year. Its too much for me to wrap my head around right now, and I'm sure that will be something else that will have tax ramifications...and frankly I cant deal with that right now. Thanks so much for the link for FA I will check it out and forward to my siblings (we all are getting the same amt, but all in different places financially). Just got a recommendation for one from a family friend, so I'll see if he's listed on there as well. Yes, I was thinking of working with my mom's CPA as he has done her taxes for years, my aunts, and a couple of my siblings and they all like him. He is going to do her final taxes, and probably the taxes for the trust as well (to avoid redundancy, heard it was best to have the same person do both). What is the conflict of interest your thinking of with asking him for advice? Sorry, I may be missing the obvious, and I figure its just as risky as finding some random person via yellow pages... Yes, I do know part of the inheritance is taxable. Which is why I havent even filled out the paperwork to make the claim on the 401K and pension because I want to talk to a tax person first. Especially since I no longer have an IRA to roll anything over into (sigh) Disability insurance is actually included in our fees at this school. I think it is fairly nominal (I am not the oldest student in my class, but the average age here is about 25yo), but I'll have to request more information about the policy from administration... @Jen...I hear you about a will and I have been thinking about it a lot. I already know that I would want to split it between my siblings and a couple of my friends and my goddaughter(s).