It will be a big relief.

The cash is earning 5% -6% in rewards checking accounts and that really offsets the gains on the small debt relief.

They need to understand that they are getting immediate relief from their mortgage payments, you will boost their credit score and it would not make sense if you did not make the payments, because you don't make money until you sell the house.

If they fail to make payments, as most do, the trustee may file a motion for dismissal or the lender may file for relief of stay.

I discovered this forum a couple of months back and breathed a sigh of relief.

The only requirements he must meet for a fully tax deferred exchange areThe value of the relacment property must equal or exceed the value of the relinquished property.All of the equity in the relinquished property (or all of the exchange proceeds) must be held by a Qualified Intermediary and reinvested in the replacement property.The replacment property must be identified in writing to the Qualified Intermediary within 45 days following the relinquished property settlement.The replacement property must be acquired within 180 days of the relinquished property settlement The equal or greater debt requirement that applies to a direct exchange is not applicable to a delayed exchange because there is no debt relief in a delayed exchange.

It's just temporary relief for some of these companies.

I had planned to move into it and sell my res, to take advantage of the tax relief, then sell the rental in a few years.

dmj4, neither bill--Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 and Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008--is a friend to investors.

I agree loan mod's do not work, first of all most are not "modifing the loan" what they are doing is lowering the interest rate and payment and making the rate fixed for a priod of time (2yrs, 4yrs or even 5) the majority of this loan mod's the principal still stays the same so if person owed 600K on thier home they will still owe 600K at the end of thier agreement, now what about property taxes as far as I know you can not "modify property taxes" when a lender agrees to a loan mod. they will now include an escrow account and the homeower will now have a much higher payment with a new lower interest rate, what does this mean to all of us more short sales, now one thing I have not seen discussed here is the Mortgage Relief Act this is very important to keep in mind, according to the IRS this will end on December 2010, so let's a homeower can get a loan mod in 2008 and he loss his or job in 2011 the IRS says now you will get a 1099 for difference of what you bought to what the bank took it back at, what does this mean the howeower would have been better to have completed a short sale in 2008 so that could qualify not to pay taxes on the 1099 they got.