Millions of Americans Are 'Squatting' in Own Homes

[ATCclears]

Millions of Americans Are 'Squatting' in Own Homes

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[Dunerunner]

You had to post that.....Like the stuff that's happening already isn't scaring hell outa me already!!

 

[ATCclears]

I was speaking with a coworker last week, and I was cautioning him against purchasing a home (he is currently renting). I said to at least run the numbers and see how it looked if he lost say $50,000 in value in the first two years.

Peter

 

[kodiak61]

I saw this first hand.

I recently moved back here from Arizona (Phoenix suburbs) and my neighborhood was a ghost town towards the end.

That is except for the 3 houses on my street that I KNEW for 100% fact people were squatting in. The squatters were the former owners in two of the cases and gypsies *yea tear stealing gypsies* in the third house. Keep in mind these subdivisions are not like those up here in the PNW. I lived in a subdivision called Power Ranch that had over 4k homes in its entirety.

Working as a plumber for several real estate companies I was also blessed with the opportunity to work in several homes that were supposed to be empty so that they could be sold. Much to my surprise to find people in the home on more then one occasion.

Exciting times we live in.

 

[Nightshade]

I'm seeing that the banks would rather have someone in the home taking care of things till a decision is made on the property,In our business i know a few that are in this mess.

 

[Steve06]

When this and the Credit Card debt is dealt with a true calamity will occur.

 

[Reco]

I read that only 20% of the Foreclosed homes are on the market at any time. THey keep the rest in limbo as to not depress the market anymore than it is.

 

[knuckle Head]

I'm seeing that the banks would rather have someone in the home taking care of things till a decision is made on the property,In our business i know a few that are in this mess.

This is actually a fact, by having someone in them in a lot of cases they are better taken care of than if they were vacant, according to a friend that works at a bank.

Things ought to get might interesting,

I posted this story once before here but it is fitting once again, a friend I have in metro detroit bought a house about 8 years ago, for $115K he has been out of work for 1/2 year or so, he went saw a bankruptcy attorney (mindyou he has always paid his bills, but things are that bad now) well the attorney told that since the house is now only worth $35K any payments he makes is a waste of money and to stop making payments, when they go to foreclose they will file bankruptcy and they can stay there until the the bankruptcy is done.

 

[mjbskwim]

If you are even close to your limit,almost under water,I would quit paying everything but the utilities.
Bank everything you can first.It will take at least a year before the sheriff's sale.

I said it before,they just don't have the man power to come get everyone's house or car

 

[ATCclears]

If you are even close to your limit,almost under water,I would quit paying everything but the utilities.
Bank everything you can first.It will take at least a year before the sheriff's sale.

I said it before,they just don't have the man power to come get everyone's house or car

An academic came to the same conclusion perhaps 18 months ago. He was chastised for promoting "unethical" behavior, but he reminded everyone that businesses of all sizes regularly declare bankruptcy and walk away from their debt.

This is going to get uglier...

Peter

 

[Steve06]

Yes it will get more interesting. Demonizing the banks for wanting people to honor their contractual debts and then giving government subsidies to to those illegally occupying the bank's property. Near my home are some 600k homes where at least two families drive new cars (2011), take vacations (to Mexico, Disneyland, Hawaii) and have made no mortgage payments for over 15 months and brag about it.

 

[willseeker]

If you are even close to your limit,almost under water,I would quit paying everything but the utilities.
Bank everything you can first.It will take at least a year before the sheriff's sale.

Correction.

The sheriffs duties are only to "serve eviction papers" on a resident based on a court order.

The sheriff has nothing to do with a sale. As a matter of fact, the sheriff is under no time frame upon which to serve the eviction notice after receiving orders from the court.

Stay in your house! Do not move out! You will be held responsible for any deficiencies owed and the banks can come after you for them.

Be well,
Will

 

[RVTECH]

I was thinking of stopping the payments on my house until I got some other debt cleared up (way less then average) and then pressing on from there. Unfortunately the 'responsible' side of me would take over and I would have a moral issue with this.

 

[Member 5605]

Anyone remember Fight Club....

I just broke rule #1...


No sympathy.. none what so ever.
it's too hard to sift through the ones who hit the end with a sudden stop vs the ones who entered into contracts on homes that were waaayyyy above their means, not to mention not worth what they were buying them for.

I remember very clearly that about 6 years ago I had two people whom I trusted very much imform my wife and I that we would be stupid to not buy a house because values are going up and show no signs of stopping... Sure glad I didn't listen to them. This way I have saved my down payment that I would have lost and not had to be one of the ones who had their rates jacked sky high. (not so good credit).. I'll do it on my terms, when I'm ready. I'll be sure as bubblegum that I'll be buying on a solid foundation.

 

[CharonPDX]

A while ago (a previous "housing crisis", not the current one,) I was foreclosed on. It was a property I bought to live in, then bought a bigger/better one and was renting the property out at the time, and it was underwater. I owned my "residence" home (well, had a mortgage on, you get what I mean,) and could only afford to pay one mortgage. I was unemployed, and my renter's rent paid essentially enough to pay for one of the two properties. Seeing as one was underwater, the other wasn't, and I was living in the not-underwater one, I paid the one for my residence. I essentially let them foreclose. Took a number of months, during which my renter continued to pay for my main residence.

The sheriff delivered the foreclosure finalization papers to my renter, and at that point, the jig was up. Obviously he knew, and I wasn't going to get any more rent. Strangely, he wasn't mad (and we remain friends today.) He understood, and said if he had been in my shoes, he would have done the same thing. He then tried to buy the property from the bank; but they kept dragging their feet and yanking him around. However he did get to live in it rent-free for about six months while that process was going on. Finally, after approving selling it to him, they declined to give him a loan! They were going to make him go through a realtor and another bank to get the loan - when they could have saved themselves lots of time and money just directly financing the loan, seeing as they were a bank.

He decided not to pursue the property (it continued to devalue, partly due to the then-housing-crash, partly due to some structural defects being found (it was an apartment-style condo complex, they discovered that the siding was bad, and all the decks were bad and needed to be replaced to the tune of 20-30% the value of each unit. And, of course, even though they were "new development" when I bought it three years prior, the developer and builder had both gone bankrupt, so they couldn't even sue them.) So he bought a different new development condo a few blocks away (different builder and developer, obviously,) and is happily still in that unit.

We refinanced my main residence during the last "record low" mortgage rates to a 15-year, and currently have over 60% equity, even with the value having dropped the past few years. We're on target to be paid off pretty soon now.

 

[WFO]

Correction.

The sheriffs duties are only to "serve eviction papers" on a resident based on a court order.

The sheriff has nothing to do with a sale. As a matter of fact, the sheriff is under no time frame upon which to serve the eviction notice after receiving orders from the court.

Stay in your house! Do not move out! You will be held responsible for any deficiencies owed and the banks can come after you for them.

Be well,
Will

The Sherriff will also come do a lockout on a tenant after the bank has evicted them. My wife is an REO(bank owned real estate)agent and sells foreclosed homes for Fannie/Freddie etc.

 

[mjbskwim]

Correction.

The sheriffs duties are only to "serve eviction papers" on a resident based on a court order.

The sheriff has nothing to do with a sale. As a matter of fact, the sheriff is under no time frame upon which to serve the eviction notice after receiving orders from the court.

Stay in your house! Do not move out! You will be held responsible for any deficiencies owed and the banks can come after you for them.

Be well,
Will

Correction,it is called a "sherrif's sale" on some foreclosures
I don't remember which ones,so I'll let you google it so you can educate yourself

 

[mjbskwim]

An academic came to the same conclusion perhaps 18 months ago. He was chastised for promoting "unethical" behavior, but he reminded everyone that businesses of all sizes regularly declare bankruptcy and walk away from their debt.

This is going to get uglier...

Peter

Hmmmm,what's that famous real estate investor with his own TV show?
Bad hair?
Multiple BK's?

If the money isn't going to be any good,why worry about bills?
It would be unethical to go run up your credit then decide to not pay the bills.Which is also quite common.
But when they are throwing credit cards at you,and then you run then up and can't pay, what did they expect? They know there will be an end to the incomes being ahead of the spending.
They calculate that into there books and interest rates

 

[Riot]

Anyone remember Fight Club....

I just broke rule #1...


No sympathy.. none what so ever.
it's too hard to sift through the ones who hit the end with a sudden stop vs the ones who entered into contracts on homes that were waaayyyy above their means, not to mention not worth what they were buying them for.

I remember very clearly that about 6 years ago I had two people whom I trusted very much imform my wife and I that we would be stupid to not buy a house because values are going up and show no signs of stopping... Sure glad I didn't listen to them. This way I have saved my down payment that I would have lost and not had to be one of the ones who had their rates jacked sky high. (not so good credit).. I'll do it on my terms, when I'm ready. I'll be sure as bubblegum that I'll be buying on a solid foundation.

This isn't sympathy in so much as seeing the title wave coming ashore...I don't sympathize for squatters getting foreclosed...I sympathize for all home owners (like me) that have to deal with the aftermath. Even if nothing devastating happens to the economy, a foreclosed home in your neighborhood drops down property values in the area. Everyone suffers, not just the "squatters" and not just the lenders.

 

[mjbskwim]

The house prices will drop down to actual values instead of the over inflate values they have been running at for the last decade
No big deal.