All you experts, am I nuts?

[coffeek]

Hi! Curious to see if Chase is at any time lowering the loan amount? We custom built starting the end of '05 in FL. We are a residential builder and spent (so, builder cost, not retail) 800k, at the start it was "worth" 1.1M and now we aren't sure if we can short sale it for 500k. We owe 600k. With PITI, interest only minimum payment is right over 4k. I mentioned we are residential builders in FL? Not pretty. At all. Business is a wreck, this house is worth little compared to where we started and we feel we are working for nothing. We can kill ourselves to pay the payment and are current on everything right now but we don't know why we would? I am sure we won't ratio out for a mod with the current debt we have trying to save the business but even if we did, if it's just lowering our payments for a short period, we don't get the point? The way we see it, best case, things stabilize in a year (I said best) and the market 'resets' and say we are in the mid 500k range and then the market appreciates at a normal level for the next decade, we still won't be back to near where we started in the Central FL market!

We feel like unless Chase is willing to lower our loan balance to the amount they would agree to short sell it for, we don't see a point in continuing? We are paying all our bills but at this point feel like we are paying just to keep our 800 credit scores . . .

What would you do? I didn't even get into our rental that was our prior primary that surprise, we couldn't sell by the time we were moving a year after construction started. We are upside down in that big time, 89-90k estimate, and really don't see anyway out of this. The market has reset our income and rest our assets so we are beginning to think the only smart thing to do is play along with the country and reset our debts by letting it all go and starting over . . . Can you read my frustration? I'm on such burn out on processing all this when our world was PERFECT last year and don't see this any other way but would love to hear what you all think. I have read several of your threads and you all seem to know how to handle things and understand that at this stage in this process, foreclosure or BK is a financial planning tool where you have to weigh your options and we are just starting to connect the dots and feel it leads to one direction . . .

I need to call Chase to begin this process but am trying to get some business things worked out first. Am I wasting my energy? We are perfect at the moment on all debts and houses but the Sept 1 bill is here and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it . . .

Would so appreciate your opinions!

[rachel_p]

I would thoroughly read through the posts on this board before starting anything with Chase.

Had i known this forum existed last year when we started dealing with Chase, we never would have called them

[jakelabry]

"We feel like unless Chase is willing to lower our loan balance to the amount they would agree to short sell it for, we don't see a point in continuing? We are paying all our bills but at this point feel like we are paying just to keep our 800 credit scores . . ."

Chase WILL NOT lower principal to fit current market value. So ...

[so-cal-gal]

Originally Posted by coffeek

Hi! Curious to see if Chase is at any time lowering the loan amount?

I am sure we won't ratio out for a mod with the current debt we have trying to save the business but even if we did, if it's just lowering our payments for a short period, we don't get the point? The way we see it, best case, things stabilize in a year (I said best) and the market 'resets' and say we are in the mid 500k range and then the market appreciates at a normal level for the next decade, we still won't be back to near where we started in the Central FL market!

Would so appreciate your opinions!

I don't know the 'whole' answer for you but I do think you should know that some of the mods have reduced interest rates for the ENTIRE remainder of the loan period.

They are more likely to do that and to extend the loan to 40 years than to reduce the principle.

I would call some free to use group like HOPE and check on their MHA program and they can see if you qualify.