All Forum Posts by: John Backus

 Thanks. I would like to believe I have done everything I can to NOT walk away from my obligations. My credit score is high because I always DO pay my bills, and have never been delinquent on an account in my life. At the end of the day though I have a family, and I am not exactly going to sell off our current home and put us on the street because I really want to pay back the bank. And just for the record, we may not share the appreciation on our properties but that certainly doesn't mean banks are eating all the costs when things go south. In case people have forgotten, when banks go under taxpayers like myself bail them out. I'm not the type to use that as an excuse to not pay my bills, but please don't try to make it out like banks are some innocent victims that wouldn't dare put their burdens on others when things don't work out.

Back on topic though, while I am willing to look at all possibilities, I really don't think my property manager is the issue. She has been pretty good to me, she has been the one covering the cost of the expensive repairs as it is and letting me pay her back in payments interest free. The house is just in terrible shape, our first realtor took us for a ride.

The front porch was leaning badly and sinking into the ground. She was concerned not only that it was a safety hazard which could get a sued, but also it was starting to come down and if it fell it would have torn the front awning down with it. This is a photo before it got really bad, and you can see it leaning in the bottom right. So $6,000 later we replaced it. 

porch now

Here are the most recent photos she sent of the roof.

I'll be honest I have no idea how it got that bad, it was in good shape in when we moved in 2008. Bad storms I'm guessing.

Here's just a few of the basement photos she sent

I don't think she is wrong about any of the repairs being necessary, I just can't afford them. And that's the issue. I would just leave tenants in the home until I pay off enough of the loan to sell it, but the tenants are complaining and at some point here I won't even be able to have renters, and the home is only going to decrease in value as it falls apart.

The $60,000 quote came from a market analysis the property manager had done on the home, and it is right in there with every AP like zillow etc (I know they aren't typically accurate, but the market analysis should be). And in the state the home is in now I doubt it could even be sold for the $60,000. There's just no way around it, in 11 years all we have done is lose money on the house.

Thanks for all the help. I will PM the address to the Lansing guys and see what they think. At this point it looks like a real estate attorney is my best bet.

Hello, I'm looking for some advise on what to do. In 2006 my wife and I purchased our first home in Lansing, MI. Honestly, I believe we overpaid unfortunately, and it cost us $107,000. We had an FHA loan with no down payment.

Enter 2008, the economy tanked and particularly in the state of MI work was non-existent. My wife and I found jobs in Phoenix, AZ and moved out of state. The home directly next to us sold that year for $4,500 (nope, not missing any zeroes, gotta love Michigan), so needless to say we opted to rent our house out and hope that some day the economy picks back up.

Since that time everything that could possibly need to be done on the house the renters have complained about and we have had to fix. The rent we receive for the home is $80 shy of our mortgage, so as it is we are losing money every month. in the last couple years we have had to scrape together over $6,000 for a new front porch, $1,500 for a new water heater, hundreds for a new window that allegedly broke during an earthquake, a new washer. a new sink and so much more. I am now being told by the property manager I will need to put a new roof on the home and something will need to be done about the leaky basement that is causing mold. It would cost us thousands to make the repairs.

We have tapped out our savings on this home, and it is currently worth around $60,000 while we still owe $90,000 (and even that would be assuming we put a new roof on and figured out what to do about the basement). We have no money left to make the repairs. Last I looked my credit score was around 815, with my wife's around the same. As much as it pains me to ruin our credit, something has got to give at this point and it is either this home that we don't even want or our current home in AZ.

At this stage I would love to just walk away from the disaster that is that home, but I have seen that in MI the lender can come after you for the lost funds even in the case of a short sale. I would hate to destroy our credit, then have my wages garnished and end up in a situation where I can't afford my AZ house either.

I am just looking for advice on where to go from here. Speak with the lender? Get a mortgage attorney? Stop making payments?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. We are doing well in our current home and state, but that bad purchase in MI will be haunting us for the rest of our lives!

Hello, I am looking into buying a summer home in northern Arizona. Unfortunately, prices for most homes in the areas I have been looking at are pretty high and the properties out in the woods like I want are rare. I have found a great property that fits my budget, but there is one serious issue with the home, and I am trying to figure out if it would be a deal breaker.

The home is up on concrete piers, which is typical for the area, and it is on a decent slope. All the piers to the home are leaning in the direction of the slope. The home itself is level, and all the doors etc inside work fine, but the piers on both sides and running down the middle all have an obvious lean to them. I have included a photo to give you an idea of what I am talking about, but it is not the best unfortunately. You can see the deck in the photo, and one of the posts is not even on the concrete pier anymore. Not sure if that happened after the photo was taken, or if it just isn't visible in the picture, but obviously a concern.

Typically I would just walk away, but all the homes in my price range have issues so I have got to narrow down my purchase on what items can be fixed, or forget buying a second home altogether. Just curious what people here had to say about the piers as far as how to go about fixing the problem, or if it can even be fixed. Definitely not opposed to getting a professional, but not if it is going to cost a fortune.

Thanks for any help!