Comments for Stankavich Saga

Comment on This is the best day ever by Mark

Mark — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:24:05 +0000

Well done Marissa. I fully agree with Renee and Grandma.
Mark

Comment on This is the best day ever by Grandma

Grandma — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:27:38 +0000

You ARE a good mom. Don’t ever think you should have some “real” job. You are doing the most important job you could possibly have.

You wrote a good blog entry too. I liked all of it. Especially the bike train on the way to the library.

Comment on This is the best day ever by Renee

Renee — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:14:21 +0000

Hi Marissa…what a nice post. It brought a smile to my heart and tears to my eyes. I’m glad you remind yourself of the important job that you have and that these years are gone so fast. Rochelle and Chantelle are 2 very, very blessed little girls!

Comment on Changing Lives Through Education by learn to sing

learn to sing — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 22:52:41 +0000

Just wanted to let you know that your page is not rendering correctly on the BlackBerry Browser. Anyway, I’m now on the RSS feed on my laptop, so it works!

Comment on Short Sale Auction for my Previous Home by Mike Stankavich

Mike Stankavich — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:32:40 +0000

Kelli, thanks for your comment. I’m sorry to hear that you are also in a difficult situation.

I did feel that I got my money’s worth from buying Richard Geller’s info product. He offers a nice overview and a fair amount of detail about how to get a short sale done.

I ended up one for two with the lenders. The first mortgage holder forgave the shortfall and reported the debt paid charged off. The second mortgage holder would not release liability for the unpaid remainder. There was about 88k left on that one. After careful consideration, I ended up filing Chapter 7. In the process, I stopped paying all credit cards and payments on the old house for several months, so my credit is pretty beat up right now. But I really don’t care – I’ve had it with credit. We have the new house, picked up a car and a van off of craigslist for about 3k cash each, and just plan to do without credit for the foreseeable future. It would be nice to refinance the new house while rates are low, but I’ll just have to live with it.

Bottom line, you just won’t know what your lender(s) will do until you get an offer and send it through. Every lender and every sale is a little bit different. If you’re certain that you can’t afford to stay in the house, and you have somewhere else to go, I’d definitely go for the short sale. Just get the best offer that you can within a reasonable amount of time and submit it to the lenders. Richard Geller’s book gives a lot of detail about putting together the short sale package. You can and should always ask the lender to forgive/write off the shortage and report you as neutral or favorable to the bureaus. No guarantee that they will do it, but they probably WON’T do it unless you ask.

I’m far from an expert on this, but I’ve learned a lot along the way. I’m glad to share what I’ve learned with others in the same situation. Best of luck getting it all sorted out.

Comment on Short Sale Auction for my Previous Home by kelli

kelli — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:56:47 +0000

Dear Mike,
I was wondering if you felt that Richard Geller’s information was worth purchasing to do my own short sale. My home was purchased in 2005 for 184 and we have had foreclosures in our townhome community to the tune of 105,000, so we are seriously underwater. Our zipcode is the hardest hit for foreclosures in the Atlanta area. I was also curious if after your short sale, you were able to get the lenders to put it as “unrated” on your credit reports and how much of a hit to your credit did you have to take? Also, were you able to negotiate debt forgiveness for the remainder of your loan. Since we are about 70000 or more underwater and do not see being able to break even for at least seven years, we cannot financially see staying here. Thanks for your story and any reply would be much appreciated.

Thanks.
Kelli in Decatur, Ga 30032

Comment on A fine mushroom hunting adventure by Joy

Joy — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:35:27 +0000

Are you sure those aren’t the goofy mushrooms? Hmmmmmm

Comment on The Sad Squirrel by Laurie

Laurie — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:47:48 +0000

I’m very amused. Also, I think I got bird and dog, but “sad squirrel” looks like “upside-down duck” to me. Still laughing.

Comment on Short Sale Auction for my Previous Home by My Short Sale Finally Closed

My Short Sale Finally Closed — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:12:49 +0000

[...] I wrote about it on my family blog at The housing bubble hits home for the Stankavich family and Short Sale Auction for my Previous Home. Then I got an email from my real estate agent late last week. The buyer received a Notice of [...]

Comment on The housing bubble hits home for the Stankavich family by My Short Sale Finally Closed

My Short Sale Finally Closed — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:10:04 +0000

[...] last week.If you’re interested in the whole story, I wrote about it on my family blog at The housing bubble hits home for the Stankavich family and Short Sale Auction for my Previous Home. Then I got an email from my real estate agent late [...]