Walking away from my house -- detailing the process

The possible difference with a short sale is if you can get your lender to Agree to it while you are still current on the payment .

This is very rare , as most people miss payments before doing a short sale or foreclosure....but in that situation it's possible to have no late marks and still get out of the mortgage

skarydrunkguy said:   gatzdon said:   walking said:   
We'd like to move by the winter, so we probably don't want to stretch this out, even though we could. The foundation damage includes a bunch of mold on the supports.. and understandably, the wife is a little freaked out by that.

Spray the mold with bleach. Use one of those yard sprayers (you can one for pretty cheap) spray all visible mold with bleach straight from the bottle (no further dilution). After you spray, setup a fan ($10 box fan) in the vicinity to promote airflow.

Your primary concern is to minimize the impact to your Family's health (but it may also be possible to eliminate the mold altogether).

Bleach doesn't kill mold, it just bleaches it white... hence why its a big deal. If all you had to do was bleach it, nobody would care about a "mold problem."

Not true, bleach does kill mold, it destroy the protein chains. It will even kill humans, read the bottle. You really should dilute it to spray on mold, about 25% bleach , and even at that dilution, you better have a good airflow or you will be burning out your own lungs as you spray.

Here is a cautionary story for those thinking of hiding assets to qualify for mortgage-debt relief: Former Michigan high court justice pleads guilty to fraud

moneypyts said:   walker -- thanks for the full chronology. How's your credit score doing these days?

701 according to credit karma, just 39 points lower from the start of this whole situation.

Just reading this thread for the first time. Interesting story to hear first hand. It will be interesting to hear how and if the bank pursues a judgement for the deficiency. Please keep us posted and thanks for taking th time to create this thread.

One notable aspect of the story is the role of the home inspector. Indeed, the limitation of liability language baked in to most home inspection contracts limits the inspector's liability to 1x (or maybe 5x) their fees. In purchases that I've been involved in, the inspector typically hands you the form to sign just as you're walking in to do the inspection. I have either outright refused to sign them or crossed out the liability limitation language. Several inspectors have said "you must sign" or "you can't cross that out," I've simply said "this is the deal - take it or leave it - do you want to do the inspection or not?" Invariably, they go ahead with it anyway. Inspectors are typically small businesses...and will not walk away from revenue over something as silly as a contract. Anyone signing an inspection contract with limitation of liability language is doing themselves a disservice.

Any bona fide inspection firm will have E&O coverage which would actually cover them in many situations of missed problems....so there would likely be some deep pockets to go after. I've never asked for a certificate of insurance from an inspector. (I do get one from my grounds company and whenever we have work done inside the house...several contractors over the years have said "a CofI is not needed because this is a house, not a condo" to which I chuckle and tell them I want to be named additionally insured - which I've now gotten every time when I ask.)

Finally, allowing a real estate agent (or anyone otherwise involved in the transaction) to nominate an inspector is also a bad move. The phone book would be a more objective source than someone who is motivated to see the sale go through.

Interesting:
http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/20/real_estate/zombie-foreclosures/...

nybanker said:   Any bona fide inspection firm will have E&O coverage which would actually cover them in many situations of missed problems....so there would likely be some deep pockets to go after. I've never asked for a certificate of insurance from an inspector. (I do get one from my grounds company and whenever we have work done inside the house...several contractors over the years have said "a CofI is not needed because this is a house, not a condo" to which I chuckle and tell them I want to be named additionally insured - which I've now gotten every time when I ask.)Personally, I don't know how much this E&O coverage would get you. No inspector provides any guarantees that he has uncovered every material defect out there and, in fact, you cannot possibly ask for such a guarantee, just like you cannot ask your surgeon for a guarantee that the surgery will be successful. What's also complicating the situation is the absence of any widely accepted standards for home inspections, which I think would make it very difficult for you to prove that the inspector has violated established inspection standards that don't really exist, which would also make it pretty difficult to recover from an E&O policy.

Finally, allowing a real estate agent (or anyone otherwise involved in the transaction) to nominate an inspector is also a bad move. The phone book would be a more objective source than someone who is motivated to see the sale go through.That's exactly right.

Suing an inspector over missed flaws seems kind of shady, especially if you have no grounds to go after the seller.