Dennis Norman Musings

First off, my usual disclaimer…I am not an attorney and this is not intended to be legal advice or a legal opinion. 

Dennis Norman

Now that we have that out of the way lets talk about options that may be available to you if you are one of the 20% of homeowners that a recent study says owes more on their mortgage than their homes are worth.

If you do find yourself in this situation fortunately today there are some options available worth considering:

• See if you qualify for the Making Home Affordable Loan Modification Plan.  This program is for those homeowners that are struggling to make their payments, or may have even missed a payment or two, but could make their payments if the amount was reduced.  To complete a short questionnaire and find out if you may be eligible for this click here.
• If you have an FHA loan you may wish to contact a HUD approved counseling agency to explore what options may be available to you.
• For an extensive list of resources that are available please see my post “Help for homeowners facing foreclosure“. Read more…

By:  Dennis Norman

Dennis Norman

Over the past few days I have heard stories of people that have lost their homes through foreclosure and then, as if that was not enough, were told by their tax preparer that they owed thousands of dollars in taxes for “forgiven debt”.

As bad as this sounds it is reality…or at least was reality.  Let me give a quick example….You bought a home for $150,000 back in 2000….during the boom it’s value shot up to $300,000…..you need money for the kids college so you refinanced and borrowed $240,000 on your home, or $90,000 more than you actually had “in” it.  Unforutnately a few months later you lose your job, can’t make the payments and the lender forecloses on your house.  At this time you would normally be olbigated to pay income tax on the $90,000 you borrowed in excess of your cost.    Read more…