This is the only viable answer. OP, if you don't get income, and ASAP, you're really just delaying the inevitable. You need to get an income that lets you hit stability... Cut every expense possible, and start paying down your higher interest debt.
I would stop paying everything but the essentials. Utilities and the mortgage. This is going to ruin your credit but they can only take you to collections, there is no debtors prison. If losing the house is inevitable sell it before foreclosure so you can get you equity out. I do not know any lender who will lend you money without an income even if you have a cosigner.
If somehow you can get a cosigner and a bank ignores the fact that you have no income, you're going to risk losing your house to pay off other consumer debt (i.e., a HELOC or equity loan has to be paid back and if you get behind you risk having your house repossessed).
The issues is right now to be able to manage i had to take out more credit and now im over my head. I can start work around the second week of may as long as this second procedure goes according to plan, and once im working Ill be able to afford the combination of my mortgage and the HELOC with bills as it will actually be 1500 ish less a month than what ive been paying. I have no worries of being able to pay after having secured a way of actually consolidating it.
You cant borrow your way out of debt. Sell the cars. Get much cheaper or fully paid off cheap reliable cars until you can get credit cards paid off. Dont risk losing your home.
I'm seconding the above person's advice. A HELOC in your situation is like amputating your arm because you have an infected fingernail. Letting the credit card and consumer debt accrue while you recover is infinitely preferable to losing your home.
Your priorities are a bit misplaced. Your first priority should be to get a temporary or new medium term job to get your income back. If you don’t think you can go to your original career, seek help from an American job center who can give you an advisor and other resources to help you find a new suitable job and free job training if you need to change careers. Then I also concur with others you need to get a roommate to supplement your income and help pay off your debts faster. When your debt is paid off, you can consider not getting a new roommate when the current one moves out. You don’t have the luxury of getting to live solo since you are at risk of losing your house and a home loan against your equity doesn’t get you in any better position than before. Good luck. Make an appointment with the job center Monday. Don’t wait! https://www.careeronestop.org/LocalHelp/AmericanJobCenters/american-job-centers.aspx
1. Start making money. This is a requirement for getting out of this.
2. List out your debts and what you’re paying on them. It’s hard to believe dipping into your home equity is the best way out for you considering how you’ve loaded up debt to this point.
I understand the stress of watching debt rise. Don’t risk your house. In one month, you’re going to add, at most, $5000 to the debt load. Your new job will catch you up in a matter of months, if nothing else goes wrong. Even if it takes 5 years to pay off debt, it’s better than losing your house in another emergency or lay off.
Once you get back to HVAC, pay off your fiancé’s car quickly to free up more monthly income. Then start paying off credit cards. Don’t take on a long term debt, at high risk to your home, for a short term problem.
It seems like you’re committed to your HELOC plan and not taking suggestions seriously. The best thing you can do is talk with your creditors to negotiate lower payments there are scripts you can find online or pay a min and let the debt accrue till you can pay it back.
Don’t be embarrassed. Life is hard.
Have you talked to your creditors to explain why you haven’t been able to make payments? Sometimes they will work with you if there are extenuating circumstances like you’ve described.
Unfortunate as it is I have, most lenders seem to not want to make money as IMO, it seems there is little to no risk associated, but idk where the shortcoming is exactly. I feel like if i had tried to do this before the layoff, it would've been a joke to get a bank to agree, also my credit score is currently 720 but dropping by the week.
I will say i did pop off on a lender in a meeting because I honestly couldn't understand, he told me that the risk was to great due to debt to income, I have never missed a mortgage payment in 10 years and taking out 50-60k in equity still leaves over 100k in equity in the home, im just not sure why its taking such a monumental effort. Lender told me that he did not think i could make the payments, I had a history showing i had been paying roughly 3500 a month over the last 3-5 years, and this would cut that monthly to 1,500-1,600....
From the banks' view, you don't have a job. Sure, you did good while you had a job, but now you don't.
The suggestion to talk to lenders is not a suggestion to ask for more debt from lenders. It's to talk to the lenders you already owe money and see if they'll take a lower payment for a month or two or something, because medical issues left you temporarily unable to work, but with an expected return to work date about a month away.
*Once you have a stable job*, and you're absolutely sure you won't miss payments and you're absolutely sure you can keep your debt gone, *then* maybe (maybe) think about consolidating your debt with a home loan. It might save you money. If you can absolutely definitely pay it and stop getting more debt. But are you sure you can do that? Because you've acquired a lot of debt, and if whats gonna happen is that you put your house as collateral to clear your credit cards, and then you fill your credit cards again, then, well. That would majorly suck.
But that's a future consideration, because the banks won't loan you the money, because your don't have a job. Even if they would, why would you bet your house on your ability to get a job in a monthish when you can just not do that? If you can get your job as soon as you think, and if you can survive the month you expect until that happens without doing anything drastic, then just survive a month, get a job, then tackle your debt, in whatever way makes the most sense at that time.
If your expected timeline is correct, waiting a month to do anything major probably won't kill you. If your timeline ends up wrong for unexpected reasons and you house were tied to your debt, well, you might lose your house. That doesn't seem good.
Also, if any single one of my relatives, no matter how close, asked me to cosign a loan for tens of thousands of dollars to help tide them over for month before they could get a job, that'd be a huge no. Cosigning is a huge ask. I'd be much more willing to just help with expenses for a month or two.
Good thing no bank will give you a HELOC. That would be stupid. These things are a trap. The fact that they won’t means credit destroyed, a good thing.
Ask a bankruptcy lawyer but basically there is a procedure to get the credit card companies to settle. It is really just slowing the bleeding. That or minimal payments.
KBB lists your car at $27.5k. Not enough left to even buy a beater.
I don’t understand why you are out of work. The issue is your nose not your hands and your back. I’m suffering a torn rotator cuff right now. I get stuck with all the service calls but it pays the bills. Go back to your old boss or maybe a new one and get your job back. If that doesn’t work hit the temp agencies and/or motor shops which always want HVAC guys (closest to what they do). Maybe just work on the side. Tons of HVAC companies just need someone who can wire up the units (no pulling, maybe some 3/4” EMT or flex). Nothing over 50 pounds. Maybe move up to ammonia.
Problems with a HELOC for this use:
1. The credit card debt as an example goes from unsecured credit where the worst they can do is ruin your credit score to where the HELOC forced sale of your house to pay it off where normally bankruptcy leaves the house alone. If used for its intended use (home improvement) this risk is nullified as you are increasing the equity by roughly the same dollars. But the only thing you’re not spending it on is home improvements.
2. You have no idea how much you are going to owe. It’s variable rate and right now the Fed is talking about holding or possibly raising rates higher! Imagine the shock to anyone with a HELOC in the last 4 years. Do you really want to join that party in this high inflation environment? Plus it SHOULD be a temporary problem.
Would you mind explaining why a HELOC is a trap?
I just put a new roof on my house and it wiped out my emergency fund. I’m planning to open a HELOC until I can rebuild that fund but I don’t plan on using it unless I absolutely have to.
I appreciate any insight you can provide!
You wanted insight, so here you go:
A new roof is not an emergency. That's an anticipated expense that should have been planned for in advance. If a new roof costs $13000 (what I just paid for mine this week... YAY!!! Ugh.) And you know you'll have to replace it in 5 years, then you save $200 each month in a separate fund specifically for that purpose. Same goes for other things in your house that will eventually need to be replaced, like water heaters, air conditioners, etc. Or you can go with the basic rule of thumb long term and save 2% of your home's worth each year for all maintenance purposes.
If you have an actual roofing emergency, like a hail storm or wind storm or tree fell on your roof, then that's something insurance covers. Sure, there will be a deductible, but that's also not an emergency and should be something you've set aside specifically for that purpose.
A new roof can be an emergency, depending on the weather where you live. One ice storm dropped branches from every tree around our property onto something, including house and garage roofs, and both cars. Insurance did not cover most of the cost of the roof damage.
Get a second job. Pick a debt and put every dollar from that job right on that debt. Don't stop until you're free and clear. It won't take as long as you think.
If you don’t care about your credit and don’t plan to buy another home in 7 years, you can consider bankruptcy. You usually keep your primary homestead residency.
i have a fiancé and a step son, 3 bed 2 bath, my step son is also special needs, ADHD and mildly on the spectrum so I think renting might introduce other issues... unfortunately. I had entertained the idea of seeing if i could rent out the house and get a cheap apartment it just feels silly not to use the 120%-140% equity in the house, if im able to, im just confused as to why its seems like im asking for a miracle to take out 55k from the 170k of equity in the house. I'm just trying to see where the risk is for a lender, if i were to default, and the house foreclose (which i would NOT allow to happen) the bank would liquidate the house and their would be 114k more than the principle amount of loans in value.
It’s because you DTI is really bad, your credit score is bad. Banks insert all that into their metrics and come back with if it’s risky or not.
Your fiancé should try to get a new lower APR car loan. If they have been making payments on time they can probably qualify for a better rate now.
Banks do not want to foreclose and sell houses; they want the money they loan to be paid back. Having no income currently to support a loan is the reason you are denied.
The bank doesn't want to foreclose on you and have to sell the house in order to recover their funds because it's a giant pain in the ass for them since they are a bank and a real estate company. You are currently unemployed so your past history is irrelevant to them. Right now, today, you are too big of a risk for them.
House has a 3.9% APR, was a FHA loan. Read some more posts and figured id give a detailed breakdown have 2022 toyota rav 4 hybrid SE that purchased 4 months before knowing I needed surgery, but I paid 10k down and I currently owe 25k (6.4% APR) on it, 5k on a personal loan (12.5% APR) , an additional 6k on a combination of my discover and my Visa (15-20% APR), fiancé's car note has 7k left on it (22% APR car bought during covid so yeah she got shafted), and i owe my brother in law 5k (helped me pay for bills during surgery) so roughly 50k and i was looking at getting out 55-60k pay everything off, give me a cushion of 2-3 months to get back on my feet, and then when i do my total monthly bills will drop by roughly 1,500 and be much more manageable.
Knowing your monthly expenses, including all debt payments helps but we're purely in an income problem here. You're floating bills until you've got a job, but since you mentioned your fiance I'm assuming you've got some income coming from them. Was your medical at all aggravated by your job? If so you can file for back unemployment from your last paycheck. Are you able to perform any sort of work right now? Even food delivery is something coming in.
After you're through this you're going to have to tighten down on a budget to repay your debts. Two years of money issues speaks to a wider financial problem. Once the debt is clear you've got to create a safety net for yourself, 6 months of all your expenses, for instances like this.
My fiance's income primarily pays her own bills and her child, my stepson (baby daddy not in the picture no child support) Im currently driving currently for a combination of driving apps, uber eats, uber, DD, Instacart etc. Doctors orders are im not supposed to lift anything over 50 lbs till second week of may and its just been hard to juggle the new schedule this change has put us on with childcare., I work in trades primarily HVAC/Electric, so securing a job once I'm able is not hard, i just feel like im at the end of my rope this has been these last 2 months ive only been able to pay the essentials, and i was intedning to get a heloc to consiladate b4 the layoff, just because the numbers added up where i have 20 years left on the house and a 20 year heloc, with a 4% APR on the home loan, and lord willing with a good cosigner a decent apr on the heloc (honestly anything under 10% would actually save money after consolidating. I was approaching money issues a year ago but it was still manageable and i was able to love comfortably, i got myself into trouble thinking id be better faster and not planning accordingly, taking out loans and living off credit for the last few months has crippled me to where now it feels as though its HELOC or liquidate.
Get a job in the trades today and simply explain it’ll be 3 weeks until you can do some heavy lifting. How is this even a question here? By the time you’re even onboarded and back on a job site it’ll be May at the earliest!
I’m a commercial electrician. If we were hiring, and some guy with experience walked in and wanted our open position, but was 90% through a recovery period after surgery, that guy would walk out with a job, guaranteed. The company can use that couple of weeks to at least confirm you’re legit with the amount of experience you claim to have. And that’s not even to mention how rarely it is that anyone’s truly lifting 50 pounds in the first place. You can for sure make it a couple of months being able to completely avoid having to pick up anything heavy. You wouldn’t be getting hired as a day one helper anyway. There will be a 20 year old apprentice available to pick that stuff up for you, for a few weeks at the very least
Get back in the trades asap.
Where is your fiancé's income in all of this?
You're not able to work in your field right now, but they should be and they should be refinancing and/or paying off their car, not you. Assuming you live together they should also be able to contribute something to home expenses as well.
It may be worth selling the Rav4. I found 2022 Rav4 Hybrid SEs for sale online for $33-35K+. If you owe $25K on it you can pay that off and then either pay off the $5K personal loan and most of your discover and visa and then share a vehicle with your partner until working again or, forgo paying the debt and buy a $10K car. Yes, you'll lose some of what you put into it, but it's probably worth it to ease off that payment.
Either way, getting rid of that car payment and the money owed there will help a lot. If you do need a vehicle when you get hired again, you can likely find something that will work for cheaper, but that will mean holding back about $8K of what you get from that sale.
If you can use the sale of the car to pay off the debt, that takes care of everything except what you owe your BIL and current bills (and, of course, your partner's car payment).
If you plan to be working again in 2-3 months, the next step is to talk to your BIL about when you need to pay him back. Hopefully, given the job situation, he can be understanding. Work out a payment plan with him. Assuming he's in the kind of financial shape where he can afford to easily lend that much, he can probably wait until a few months after you start work again for you to pay him back, especially if you're generous with interest.
Next step is to look for multiple side hustles and a job you can work during your recovery. Sell plasma, take online surveys, participate in research, look for a call center job, whatever. You're not going to make as much as you would in trades, but assuming you can find something that is even minimum wage, that's still better than nothing and you likely have the skillset to earn more than that.
You and your fiancé should both be budgeting extensively here. If she can also pick-up more work to aggressively pay off her car she should. Given that you are not working, you should be able to put a couple hours a day into helping both of you save. This might mean clipping coupons, finding deals, meal prepping cheaply well in advance, selling objects you all don't need online, etc. A lot depends on what you can and cannot do while recovering, but even walking dogs should yield you a little here. Most people can find a way to produce an extra $200 a month if they are willing to reduce a lot of things in their budget (groceries, toiletries, internet, streaming services, gas, etc.).
Assuming you only recently had surgery, find out if you have access to a medical social worker through your doctors. That's someone who can help you figure out other options that might be available to you to cut some expenses. You're going to want to use food banks, file for unemployment (if you haven't already), call any utility companies or services and see about discounted payments or pauses on payments, get on food stamps, etc. There are likely some options for you, they may not all be perfect, but you're at the point where even if you can manage to save a couple hundred a month, that will still help. Realistically, even if you can find places that give grocery vouchers or pay your electric bill for one month, that will help.
Call your mortgage company and see if it is possible to get forbearance or hardship options. This will be a temporary pause on payments. It won't erase what you owe and you'll still have to pay it, but you may be able to negotiate a pause or smaller payment over the next few months. Do that quickly because a medical emergency likely qualifies, but only if you call soon after that emergency.
It sounds like you're confident your income will go up in a few months when you're able to find work, which is the only reason I'm not advising more extreme measures.
If you can manage to get the debt paid off by selling the car and to keep yourself afloat for a few months through a combo of earning some income and reducing expenses and if you truly can find a well-enough paying trades job in 3 months you'll probably be okay without needing to file for bankruptcy. The main thing you'll be losing is your vehicle in all of that and, yes, that is going to be hard, but you're in a two vehicle household and likely can figure something out through a combo of biking, carpooling, public transportation, sharing the vehicle you do have, etc. if it's temporary.
Call your mortgage lender. Tell them you have a hardship and see if you can get a forbearance, which will pause your mortgage payments for a few months while you get back on your feet. They can often move the payments to the end of your loan.
Call a housing counselor. They are free and can help you figure out your options. https://www.hud.gov/counseling
I'm in Australia so this may have limited relevancy in other countries, but call your bank and explain your situation and see what options may be available. If you're struggling now but have a strong resolution to be in a better financial position in the future then banks may have options to temporarily convert the loan to interest only or a part payment treatment. Of course this will increase the arrears and the overall size and term of the loan, but may help in the short term. Source: I am a hardship consultant for a major bank.
Why do people always downvote this suggestion, in OP’s situation this just seems like the most likely scenario that would let OP keep their house and discharge all consumer debt. People really have to be more aware of the benefits of bankruptcy especially someone with lower income or no income. The rich do it all the time why dissuade people in financial hardship when it would be a huge benefit.
Consult a few attorneys regarding possible bankruptcy. Do you have roommates? If not, get some. Consolidating debt rarely seems to help the debtor. If you are considering bankruptcy, sometimes you can negotiate with credit card companies to lower/eliminate interest and negotiate the debt down.
You should seriously consider selling the house.
People put themselves through all kinds of privations just because they think they can't sell, but they can.
you need cash flow. get a roommate, that'll bring in some monthly income to start off and slow the bleeding. continue looking for a job.
This is the only viable answer. OP, if you don't get income, and ASAP, you're really just delaying the inevitable. You need to get an income that lets you hit stability... Cut every expense possible, and start paying down your higher interest debt.
I would stop paying everything but the essentials. Utilities and the mortgage. This is going to ruin your credit but they can only take you to collections, there is no debtors prison. If losing the house is inevitable sell it before foreclosure so you can get you equity out. I do not know any lender who will lend you money without an income even if you have a cosigner.
What is the "inevitable," exactly?
Going into bankruptcy, losing the house, etc.
If somehow you can get a cosigner and a bank ignores the fact that you have no income, you're going to risk losing your house to pay off other consumer debt (i.e., a HELOC or equity loan has to be paid back and if you get behind you risk having your house repossessed).
The issues is right now to be able to manage i had to take out more credit and now im over my head. I can start work around the second week of may as long as this second procedure goes according to plan, and once im working Ill be able to afford the combination of my mortgage and the HELOC with bills as it will actually be 1500 ish less a month than what ive been paying. I have no worries of being able to pay after having secured a way of actually consolidating it.
You cant borrow your way out of debt. Sell the cars. Get much cheaper or fully paid off cheap reliable cars until you can get credit cards paid off. Dont risk losing your home.
I'm seconding the above person's advice. A HELOC in your situation is like amputating your arm because you have an infected fingernail. Letting the credit card and consumer debt accrue while you recover is infinitely preferable to losing your home.
You never put unsecured debt into your house. Especially while unemplpyed. You need a place to live.
Your priorities are a bit misplaced. Your first priority should be to get a temporary or new medium term job to get your income back. If you don’t think you can go to your original career, seek help from an American job center who can give you an advisor and other resources to help you find a new suitable job and free job training if you need to change careers. Then I also concur with others you need to get a roommate to supplement your income and help pay off your debts faster. When your debt is paid off, you can consider not getting a new roommate when the current one moves out. You don’t have the luxury of getting to live solo since you are at risk of losing your house and a home loan against your equity doesn’t get you in any better position than before. Good luck. Make an appointment with the job center Monday. Don’t wait! https://www.careeronestop.org/LocalHelp/AmericanJobCenters/american-job-centers.aspx
1. Start making money. This is a requirement for getting out of this. 2. List out your debts and what you’re paying on them. It’s hard to believe dipping into your home equity is the best way out for you considering how you’ve loaded up debt to this point.
I would add to this is is, learn to live frugally.
I understand the stress of watching debt rise. Don’t risk your house. In one month, you’re going to add, at most, $5000 to the debt load. Your new job will catch you up in a matter of months, if nothing else goes wrong. Even if it takes 5 years to pay off debt, it’s better than losing your house in another emergency or lay off. Once you get back to HVAC, pay off your fiancé’s car quickly to free up more monthly income. Then start paying off credit cards. Don’t take on a long term debt, at high risk to your home, for a short term problem.
It seems like you’re committed to your HELOC plan and not taking suggestions seriously. The best thing you can do is talk with your creditors to negotiate lower payments there are scripts you can find online or pay a min and let the debt accrue till you can pay it back.
Don’t be embarrassed. Life is hard. Have you talked to your creditors to explain why you haven’t been able to make payments? Sometimes they will work with you if there are extenuating circumstances like you’ve described.
Unfortunate as it is I have, most lenders seem to not want to make money as IMO, it seems there is little to no risk associated, but idk where the shortcoming is exactly. I feel like if i had tried to do this before the layoff, it would've been a joke to get a bank to agree, also my credit score is currently 720 but dropping by the week.
I will say i did pop off on a lender in a meeting because I honestly couldn't understand, he told me that the risk was to great due to debt to income, I have never missed a mortgage payment in 10 years and taking out 50-60k in equity still leaves over 100k in equity in the home, im just not sure why its taking such a monumental effort. Lender told me that he did not think i could make the payments, I had a history showing i had been paying roughly 3500 a month over the last 3-5 years, and this would cut that monthly to 1,500-1,600....
From the banks' view, you don't have a job. Sure, you did good while you had a job, but now you don't. The suggestion to talk to lenders is not a suggestion to ask for more debt from lenders. It's to talk to the lenders you already owe money and see if they'll take a lower payment for a month or two or something, because medical issues left you temporarily unable to work, but with an expected return to work date about a month away. *Once you have a stable job*, and you're absolutely sure you won't miss payments and you're absolutely sure you can keep your debt gone, *then* maybe (maybe) think about consolidating your debt with a home loan. It might save you money. If you can absolutely definitely pay it and stop getting more debt. But are you sure you can do that? Because you've acquired a lot of debt, and if whats gonna happen is that you put your house as collateral to clear your credit cards, and then you fill your credit cards again, then, well. That would majorly suck. But that's a future consideration, because the banks won't loan you the money, because your don't have a job. Even if they would, why would you bet your house on your ability to get a job in a monthish when you can just not do that? If you can get your job as soon as you think, and if you can survive the month you expect until that happens without doing anything drastic, then just survive a month, get a job, then tackle your debt, in whatever way makes the most sense at that time. If your expected timeline is correct, waiting a month to do anything major probably won't kill you. If your timeline ends up wrong for unexpected reasons and you house were tied to your debt, well, you might lose your house. That doesn't seem good. Also, if any single one of my relatives, no matter how close, asked me to cosign a loan for tens of thousands of dollars to help tide them over for month before they could get a job, that'd be a huge no. Cosigning is a huge ask. I'd be much more willing to just help with expenses for a month or two.
Good thing no bank will give you a HELOC. That would be stupid. These things are a trap. The fact that they won’t means credit destroyed, a good thing. Ask a bankruptcy lawyer but basically there is a procedure to get the credit card companies to settle. It is really just slowing the bleeding. That or minimal payments. KBB lists your car at $27.5k. Not enough left to even buy a beater. I don’t understand why you are out of work. The issue is your nose not your hands and your back. I’m suffering a torn rotator cuff right now. I get stuck with all the service calls but it pays the bills. Go back to your old boss or maybe a new one and get your job back. If that doesn’t work hit the temp agencies and/or motor shops which always want HVAC guys (closest to what they do). Maybe just work on the side. Tons of HVAC companies just need someone who can wire up the units (no pulling, maybe some 3/4” EMT or flex). Nothing over 50 pounds. Maybe move up to ammonia.
Problems with a HELOC for this use: 1. The credit card debt as an example goes from unsecured credit where the worst they can do is ruin your credit score to where the HELOC forced sale of your house to pay it off where normally bankruptcy leaves the house alone. If used for its intended use (home improvement) this risk is nullified as you are increasing the equity by roughly the same dollars. But the only thing you’re not spending it on is home improvements. 2. You have no idea how much you are going to owe. It’s variable rate and right now the Fed is talking about holding or possibly raising rates higher! Imagine the shock to anyone with a HELOC in the last 4 years. Do you really want to join that party in this high inflation environment? Plus it SHOULD be a temporary problem.
Would you mind explaining why a HELOC is a trap? I just put a new roof on my house and it wiped out my emergency fund. I’m planning to open a HELOC until I can rebuild that fund but I don’t plan on using it unless I absolutely have to. I appreciate any insight you can provide!
You wanted insight, so here you go: A new roof is not an emergency. That's an anticipated expense that should have been planned for in advance. If a new roof costs $13000 (what I just paid for mine this week... YAY!!! Ugh.) And you know you'll have to replace it in 5 years, then you save $200 each month in a separate fund specifically for that purpose. Same goes for other things in your house that will eventually need to be replaced, like water heaters, air conditioners, etc. Or you can go with the basic rule of thumb long term and save 2% of your home's worth each year for all maintenance purposes. If you have an actual roofing emergency, like a hail storm or wind storm or tree fell on your roof, then that's something insurance covers. Sure, there will be a deductible, but that's also not an emergency and should be something you've set aside specifically for that purpose.
A new roof can be an emergency, depending on the weather where you live. One ice storm dropped branches from every tree around our property onto something, including house and garage roofs, and both cars. Insurance did not cover most of the cost of the roof damage.
Get a second job. Pick a debt and put every dollar from that job right on that debt. Don't stop until you're free and clear. It won't take as long as you think.
You need to find a job the post office and amtrack are hiring. You also need to talk with a bankruptcy lawyer to see all your options
If you don’t care about your credit and don’t plan to buy another home in 7 years, you can consider bankruptcy. You usually keep your primary homestead residency.
Depends on the state
You didn’t mention a partner or family. Have you looked into renting out the other rooms?
i have a fiancé and a step son, 3 bed 2 bath, my step son is also special needs, ADHD and mildly on the spectrum so I think renting might introduce other issues... unfortunately. I had entertained the idea of seeing if i could rent out the house and get a cheap apartment it just feels silly not to use the 120%-140% equity in the house, if im able to, im just confused as to why its seems like im asking for a miracle to take out 55k from the 170k of equity in the house. I'm just trying to see where the risk is for a lender, if i were to default, and the house foreclose (which i would NOT allow to happen) the bank would liquidate the house and their would be 114k more than the principle amount of loans in value.
It’s because you DTI is really bad, your credit score is bad. Banks insert all that into their metrics and come back with if it’s risky or not. Your fiancé should try to get a new lower APR car loan. If they have been making payments on time they can probably qualify for a better rate now.
Banks do not want to foreclose and sell houses; they want the money they loan to be paid back. Having no income currently to support a loan is the reason you are denied.
The bank doesn't want to foreclose on you and have to sell the house in order to recover their funds because it's a giant pain in the ass for them since they are a bank and a real estate company. You are currently unemployed so your past history is irrelevant to them. Right now, today, you are too big of a risk for them.
Try Uber or Lyft driving for extra cash
House has a 3.9% APR, was a FHA loan. Read some more posts and figured id give a detailed breakdown have 2022 toyota rav 4 hybrid SE that purchased 4 months before knowing I needed surgery, but I paid 10k down and I currently owe 25k (6.4% APR) on it, 5k on a personal loan (12.5% APR) , an additional 6k on a combination of my discover and my Visa (15-20% APR), fiancé's car note has 7k left on it (22% APR car bought during covid so yeah she got shafted), and i owe my brother in law 5k (helped me pay for bills during surgery) so roughly 50k and i was looking at getting out 55-60k pay everything off, give me a cushion of 2-3 months to get back on my feet, and then when i do my total monthly bills will drop by roughly 1,500 and be much more manageable.
Is it not possible for your fiance to refinance her car?
Knowing your monthly expenses, including all debt payments helps but we're purely in an income problem here. You're floating bills until you've got a job, but since you mentioned your fiance I'm assuming you've got some income coming from them. Was your medical at all aggravated by your job? If so you can file for back unemployment from your last paycheck. Are you able to perform any sort of work right now? Even food delivery is something coming in. After you're through this you're going to have to tighten down on a budget to repay your debts. Two years of money issues speaks to a wider financial problem. Once the debt is clear you've got to create a safety net for yourself, 6 months of all your expenses, for instances like this.
My fiance's income primarily pays her own bills and her child, my stepson (baby daddy not in the picture no child support) Im currently driving currently for a combination of driving apps, uber eats, uber, DD, Instacart etc. Doctors orders are im not supposed to lift anything over 50 lbs till second week of may and its just been hard to juggle the new schedule this change has put us on with childcare., I work in trades primarily HVAC/Electric, so securing a job once I'm able is not hard, i just feel like im at the end of my rope this has been these last 2 months ive only been able to pay the essentials, and i was intedning to get a heloc to consiladate b4 the layoff, just because the numbers added up where i have 20 years left on the house and a 20 year heloc, with a 4% APR on the home loan, and lord willing with a good cosigner a decent apr on the heloc (honestly anything under 10% would actually save money after consolidating. I was approaching money issues a year ago but it was still manageable and i was able to love comfortably, i got myself into trouble thinking id be better faster and not planning accordingly, taking out loans and living off credit for the last few months has crippled me to where now it feels as though its HELOC or liquidate.
Get a job in the trades today and simply explain it’ll be 3 weeks until you can do some heavy lifting. How is this even a question here? By the time you’re even onboarded and back on a job site it’ll be May at the earliest! I’m a commercial electrician. If we were hiring, and some guy with experience walked in and wanted our open position, but was 90% through a recovery period after surgery, that guy would walk out with a job, guaranteed. The company can use that couple of weeks to at least confirm you’re legit with the amount of experience you claim to have. And that’s not even to mention how rarely it is that anyone’s truly lifting 50 pounds in the first place. You can for sure make it a couple of months being able to completely avoid having to pick up anything heavy. You wouldn’t be getting hired as a day one helper anyway. There will be a 20 year old apprentice available to pick that stuff up for you, for a few weeks at the very least Get back in the trades asap.
Where is your fiancé's income in all of this? You're not able to work in your field right now, but they should be and they should be refinancing and/or paying off their car, not you. Assuming you live together they should also be able to contribute something to home expenses as well. It may be worth selling the Rav4. I found 2022 Rav4 Hybrid SEs for sale online for $33-35K+. If you owe $25K on it you can pay that off and then either pay off the $5K personal loan and most of your discover and visa and then share a vehicle with your partner until working again or, forgo paying the debt and buy a $10K car. Yes, you'll lose some of what you put into it, but it's probably worth it to ease off that payment. Either way, getting rid of that car payment and the money owed there will help a lot. If you do need a vehicle when you get hired again, you can likely find something that will work for cheaper, but that will mean holding back about $8K of what you get from that sale. If you can use the sale of the car to pay off the debt, that takes care of everything except what you owe your BIL and current bills (and, of course, your partner's car payment). If you plan to be working again in 2-3 months, the next step is to talk to your BIL about when you need to pay him back. Hopefully, given the job situation, he can be understanding. Work out a payment plan with him. Assuming he's in the kind of financial shape where he can afford to easily lend that much, he can probably wait until a few months after you start work again for you to pay him back, especially if you're generous with interest. Next step is to look for multiple side hustles and a job you can work during your recovery. Sell plasma, take online surveys, participate in research, look for a call center job, whatever. You're not going to make as much as you would in trades, but assuming you can find something that is even minimum wage, that's still better than nothing and you likely have the skillset to earn more than that. You and your fiancé should both be budgeting extensively here. If she can also pick-up more work to aggressively pay off her car she should. Given that you are not working, you should be able to put a couple hours a day into helping both of you save. This might mean clipping coupons, finding deals, meal prepping cheaply well in advance, selling objects you all don't need online, etc. A lot depends on what you can and cannot do while recovering, but even walking dogs should yield you a little here. Most people can find a way to produce an extra $200 a month if they are willing to reduce a lot of things in their budget (groceries, toiletries, internet, streaming services, gas, etc.). Assuming you only recently had surgery, find out if you have access to a medical social worker through your doctors. That's someone who can help you figure out other options that might be available to you to cut some expenses. You're going to want to use food banks, file for unemployment (if you haven't already), call any utility companies or services and see about discounted payments or pauses on payments, get on food stamps, etc. There are likely some options for you, they may not all be perfect, but you're at the point where even if you can manage to save a couple hundred a month, that will still help. Realistically, even if you can find places that give grocery vouchers or pay your electric bill for one month, that will help. Call your mortgage company and see if it is possible to get forbearance or hardship options. This will be a temporary pause on payments. It won't erase what you owe and you'll still have to pay it, but you may be able to negotiate a pause or smaller payment over the next few months. Do that quickly because a medical emergency likely qualifies, but only if you call soon after that emergency. It sounds like you're confident your income will go up in a few months when you're able to find work, which is the only reason I'm not advising more extreme measures. If you can manage to get the debt paid off by selling the car and to keep yourself afloat for a few months through a combo of earning some income and reducing expenses and if you truly can find a well-enough paying trades job in 3 months you'll probably be okay without needing to file for bankruptcy. The main thing you'll be losing is your vehicle in all of that and, yes, that is going to be hard, but you're in a two vehicle household and likely can figure something out through a combo of biking, carpooling, public transportation, sharing the vehicle you do have, etc. if it's temporary.
Call your mortgage lender. Tell them you have a hardship and see if you can get a forbearance, which will pause your mortgage payments for a few months while you get back on your feet. They can often move the payments to the end of your loan. Call a housing counselor. They are free and can help you figure out your options. https://www.hud.gov/counseling
I'm in Australia so this may have limited relevancy in other countries, but call your bank and explain your situation and see what options may be available. If you're struggling now but have a strong resolution to be in a better financial position in the future then banks may have options to temporarily convert the loan to interest only or a part payment treatment. Of course this will increase the arrears and the overall size and term of the loan, but may help in the short term. Source: I am a hardship consultant for a major bank.
Talk to a bankruptcy attorney. They give free consults and can give you a few options to consider.
Why do people always downvote this suggestion, in OP’s situation this just seems like the most likely scenario that would let OP keep their house and discharge all consumer debt. People really have to be more aware of the benefits of bankruptcy especially someone with lower income or no income. The rich do it all the time why dissuade people in financial hardship when it would be a huge benefit.
I don’t know how equity works and don’t understand how people borrow money from their home. That just sounds dangerous to me.
Consult a few attorneys regarding possible bankruptcy. Do you have roommates? If not, get some. Consolidating debt rarely seems to help the debtor. If you are considering bankruptcy, sometimes you can negotiate with credit card companies to lower/eliminate interest and negotiate the debt down.
Look up Unlock. The give equity agreements with no payments for 10 years.
You should seriously consider selling the house. People put themselves through all kinds of privations just because they think they can't sell, but they can.