This pregnant couple MAY be able to save their house and avoid trying to sell or worse, foreclosure.

This is news that can help many of you…  maybe.  I’ll know more tomorrow, but this is something that you may want to look into as well if you are a homeowner.  May seem strange to be talking about the housing market, the Government, and our situation so much on our “pregnancy blog” but as the above states, “Chronicles of life after the plus sign”.

Although, at the time I came up with that, I didn’t realize that these chronicles would take us to the point of teeter-tottering whether or not we’re going to keep our house, and things would be getting this crazy.  Anyway…

As you know from previous blog posts, we’re about to list our house for sale due to many factors, including being 19 weeks pregnant without maternity insurance with some LARGE bills on the way, slow economy, slow business, etc.

Pregnant Jane went to bed and I’ve been researching possible solutions.  Up until now, (and it’s something we’ve sadly begun to get used to) we were not able to qualify for any Government programs like Medicaid.  We also were not able to qualify for any other programs that would help us keep our home.  We cannot refinance because of how much we owe compared to our home value.  And on and on.

Now to be honest, if we didn’t sell our house in a couple of months, we’d more than likely go into foreclosure, which is something we want to avoid more than anything else.

However, I just read an article on the New York Times while digging around for options about a brand new program from the Government that is something that we’d actually qualify.  And if you are a homeowner and you’re stuck like us due to dropping income, dropping home values, etc. this is something that you need to look into ASAP.  See the full article here.  (Opens in a new window.)

Some of my previous clients are heavily involved in the national real estate industry.   For a recent project (that didn’t go so well thanks to the economy) I worked with them on, I had to do a lot of research and read tons of their materials.  And what I read scared the hell out of me.  They had hundreds and hundreds of pages of charts, graphs, this, that, everything else showing that the largest waves of foreclosures ever to hit the world was going to start in the third quarter of this year.

No doubt the Government knows what is about to happen – which is why they’re launching the largest most ambitious effort since the 1930′s to save millions of homeowners (and heck, the entire economy for that matter in my opinion) according to the article.  And get this, this new plan takes effect immediately.  Time to call our mortgage companies!

FINALLY.  Something that we can actually qualify for!

So who can qualify?

* People with mortgages as high as $729,750.

* Borrowers with loans held by government-sponsored mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

* There is no ceiling on how high your income is, as long as you are in danger of losing your house.

* You must be current on your mortgage payments, but have less than 20 percent equity because of declining property values.

* (This one is surprising) The Treasury will provide  $1,000 a year to directly reduce your loan amount, as long as you make all of your payments on time.  Huh.

* See article for other qualifications and details.

Now it also sounds like there is another piece to this coming for those who have second mortgages.  Yup, that’s us as well.

So far, based on everything I’ve read on several different websites, it sounds like Pregnant Jane and I would qualify for this.  Sure, we’ll have to provide proof that our income has dropped and that we would be at a risk of losing our home.  No problem there.  I’ll show them the before this mess tax returns, and then current tax returns thanks to this mess along with the coming hospital bills, etc.

It’s said that some owners will be able to save hundreds, even $1,000 a month.  Interest rates could go down as low as 2%.  I’d need to do some figuring tomorrow and some calling around to see if this would really bail us out.  If we’re offered some deal where it saves us a few hundred bucks a month, that wont cut it and we’ll get this house listed.  (Meeting with another Realtor tomorrow who may be better than the one we met with yesterday… who did not call me back today.  Bad move lady… You’re fired even before you’re hired!)

If we’re able to shave off $1,000 a month of our mortgage for two years – I don’t care if they add everything to the backside of the mortgage or add another two years to it, we’d be saved and we’ll stay.  We’ll work hard and make up for it.

Now if for some reason this plan isn’t as good as it sounds, or for whatever reason we don’t qualify, Jane and I were talking about another option today… Leasing the house.  If the above doesn’t work out for us, or they don’t shave enough off of the interest rate, we’ll list the house for sale or for lease.

Based on what a new Realtor told us today, and if he’s right on what he thinks we could lease the house for, we’d actually have some GREAT proceeds every month.  Enough to almost cover the cost of Jane and I renting a small house.  Rental rates are moving up quickly because so many people cannot qualify for a home, so that is driving up the demand.  However, this may sound good, the reality is that the house could sit for rent/sale for 8 months with no bites.  Or, we’d have to lower the sale/lease price so much we break even either way – or even lose money every month.

Living almost rent-free of course sounds VERY good.  Granted we’d be sharing our rented pad with some friends like creepy crawling bugs.  But being able to keep our house, stay here, and be able to afford it sounds even better.  There are SO many variables here.  I know that listing the house for rent or for sale doesn’t mean a damn thing now-a-days.  It can sit for MONTHS just like all of the houses around us.  Not one of the houses listed over the last few months around here have sold… or rented.  So maybe this little bailout is our only shot.  I don’t know.

All I know is we need to make something big happen one way or another, whether it’s selling the house, renting the house, or getting bailed out by the Government.  Now believe me, we’re not looking for, nor do we want any ‘freebies’ or free rides.  No thank you.  We’re more than willing to pay back any money, interest, whatever.  I don’t care.  All we need is a year to get back on our feet.

Still a long way to go…

Even if we get $1,000 a month off of our mortgage, we’ll still be facing some big challenges with taxes, credit card bills, hospital bills, and no idea how or where I’m going to get the money I need to start my new businesses, which is our ticket to get back on track and the bills paid.  Still a very sticky situation, but any little shimmer of light and hope like the news above helps.  We’ll see what happens.

For more information…

To find out if your loans are owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae, call 1-800-7FANNIE or goto: www.fanniemae.com/homeaffordable. For Freddie Mac, call 1-800-FREDDIE or goto: www.freddiemac.com/avoidforeclosure

P.S… Sorry if I’m bouncing around a little above and I’m sorry if there are some errors.  It’s 2:20 AM and I’m running out of steam.  But I wanted to get this out there to our readers because this is something that MAY help many of us.  We shall see.

P.P.S… Maybe… just maybe I’ll be able to make Jane’s dream come true of us having a real nursery in a real house.  Our house.

You might also want to read:

1. Unbelievable! We did it! We’re able to pay all pregnancy and baby doctor bills… and we saved our house!
2. Pregnancy week 19 brings many happenings from listing our house due to no maternity insurance to the mysterious gallbladder.
3. Good news from this pregnant couple, I *think* our baby boy has a name!
4. Nearly $10,000 Cash Spent So Far For Baby Tarzan. Gotta Love The U.S. Healthcare System!
5. Pregnancy Gas: Wife’s Early Pregnancy Gas Drives Husband Out Of House

Tagged as: cost of having a baby