Facing foreclosure on a home

I have comments to make, but I'll keep them to myself. A buddy was able to get money from some program for underwater (and/or?) homes behind on payments, to the tune of about 20 grand. They just literally handed over 20 grand to his lender to get him current in his payments (and like your friend, he makes VERY good money). I don't know if it was a state or fed thing, but I'd be googling like a mofo.

I do not fault you for posting this and I do think you are a good friend for doing anything you can to help. Nevertheless, it is hard to find sympathy for random strangers that knowingly get themselves into messes such as this.

Principled people live in shittier homes and shittier neighborhoods than they would like, because they know the consequences of debt. Just because 10 credit card companies want to give you credit, does not mean you should take it. This is pretty basic stuff, even a 10 year old can comprehend.

Live within your means. Don't spend more than you make. Don't buy what you can't afford. Don't let your vices threaten everything.

Let me know when their house is about to go to auction. I'm always looking for good short sales near Houston.

The proper time to ask for help is way before you need $9000 to stop a foreclosure.

heh, my brother was bitching about his Filipino nanny the other day. Between what he pays her and another part time job she works at, her taxable income last year was about 45k. So she's maybe taking home 35k. Apparently her and her now ex-boyfriend went to a car dealer and bought a used but nearly new Jeep Grand Cherokee. Not base model, but not loaded, just a V6 etc. The price for the fucking truck was $62,000, with another 10k in "options" (shit like undercoating, "extra" maintenance, a life insurance policy, it goes on and on). All this on a 6 year financing term at 7%. By the time she paid the truck off, it would be close to 100k.

Naturally the boyfriend dumped her, and she came to my bro and his wife with the paperwork to ask what to do, since she can't afford to make the payments herself now. She thought that she was co-signing on the deal when they bought it. Turned out, everything was in her name. Everything. Better yet, the car salesman that sold them the vehicle is a church friend of the ex-boyfriend's. He probably made the dealership a pure profit of 20-30k on that Jeep. My brother looked online and found similar trucks for 38-40k.

So after looking through the paperwork, the nanny asked my brother what she should do. His response was basically "you have to file for bankruptcy, you are totally fucked". She just doesn't understand the concept of having signed a contract, nor a credit rating. She asked if that would affect her ability to buy a condo next year. He told her that it probably meant she couldn't buy a condo or get any other sort of credit for 5-10 years. Only at that point did she start to understand how completely fucked she is.

It's sad, because she's not a stupid person. But having come from a different country/culture, she had no understanding of credit, finance, contracts and the like. No idea whatsoever. And sadly, the car salesman saw her and her ex-boyfriend coming a mile away, and completely fucked them. Maybe he and the dealer didn't do anything dishonest or illegal, but it sure as shit was unethical.

What the fuck? Did i miss a great tragedy or is he just begging for money with his own family as the selling point?

I know it makes me a dick and all that, but fuck, I read a story like that Eomer and I got zero pity. I can't even imagine buying a car at near 2x my take home annual pay jesus.

OneofOne_sl said:

I know it makes me a dick and all that, but fuck, I read a story like that Eomer and I got zero pity. I can't even imagine buying a car at near 2x my take home annual pay jesus.

Click to expand...

Again though, this is a Filipino nanny who's only been in the country a couple years, and who has pretty much zero understanding of this kind of shit. And she was lead in to it by a boyfriend who dropped her like a bad habit a few months later, probably because he knew that they were sunk financially (apparently he didn't sign anything, because his credit was ALREADY fucked). She was stupid and naive, no question. I don't know if I feel sympathy for her, but yes, I do pity her situation. Here she is working 60 hours a week trying to make a new life for herself and probably supporting a family back home, and what little progress she's managed to make is going to get thrown in the shitter because she doesn't understand that signing your name to some paper can fuck up your life for the better part of a decade if you're not careful. She had little or no understanding of what she was signing herself up for.

I just think it's disgusting that the dealership, the owners of which I know personally having played hockey with one of the sons growing up, made 20-30k on the deal. Again, not illegal or even dishonest, but unethical as all hell. Fuck I hate car dealers, they're total scum.

You don't have to file for bankruptcy if you can't afford your car.. won't they just repo it?

Soygen_sl said:

Repo does not remove the debt. If the creditor sells the car, you still will owe the difference(or deficiency). I'm guessing she's quite upside down with that shitty loan too.

Click to expand...

Yeah, pretty much this. She still owes 70k on a vehicle worth 40k, or even less. The difference is basically her entire annual income after tax. She has no other assets to speak of. I don't know much about bankruptcy, but it would seem to me that it could well be her best option, of a range of shitty options. She won't be able to dig herself out of that hole for the better part of a decade.

Eomer_sl said:

Again though, this is a Filipino nanny who's only been in the country a couple years, and who has pretty much zero understanding of this kind of shit.

Click to expand...

My area is 40% hispanic, and they come to America and spend every dime they make. I have a Crew Leader (from Mexico) that nets $1k a week, has no car payment and lives with family (basically rent free), and his check is gone the next day on stupid stuff. Between spending money on women and casinos, it's all gone in 24 hours. They come over here and think money grows on trees.

Lyrical_sl said:

My area is 40% hispanic, and they come to America and spend every dime they make. I have a Crew Leader (from Mexico) that nets $1k a week, has no car payment and lives with family (basically rent free), and his check is gone the next day on stupid stuff. Between spending money on women and casinos, it's all gone in 24 hours. They come over here and think money grows on trees.

Click to expand...

Is it a Hispanic thing, or a poor person thing? Mexicans living in shit houses, but having too expensive cars. Black people living in shit apartments, but driving too expensive cars. Rednecks living in trailer parks, but with new Four-buh-Fours out front. Poor people with bass ackwards priorities seems to be the norm.

A correlation between being poor and making poor financial decisions?

Yeah, the Filipino's aren't that bad about "spending", because the majority of their earnings after their basic living expenses are shipped back home. I don't think she fucked this up because she thinks money grows on trees. She's just completely ignorant of finance/credit. When my brother was explaining shit to her, she just had a blank stare. She paid $3,000 for a fucking life insurance policy for god's sake. If she gets hit by a bus, the bank can have the truck and likely wouldn't recover a cent from her estate. Why does she need life insurance for the loan? She didn't even know she'd paid for it. There was $4,000 for "free extra maintenance", which basically amounts to oil changes for 3 years. Again, she had no idea.

Remittances: $24 billion a year sent home from Canada

The Philippines and its remittance economy: People, the Philippines best export | The Economist

Something like 10% of the Philippine economy is from remittances.