[boatkrazi]

My wife & I both lost our jobs recently, and my only debt is my house, which is now upside down $100,000.00Other than that, I am debt-free.Here's my question: If I let the house fall into foreclosure, can the lender and/or the HELOC lender come after me for the shortfall amount, possibly seizing my personal possessions? or is the house, acting as security for the debt, the only thing they can get?I no longer want the house, so I don't care if it goes away.I can understand the moral debt issue, My current FICO is in the mid 700's, I got that by fulfilling my obligations.The diferance here is that the economy took my job, took my chances of getting another job, and collapsed my home value to the point where I can't sell it.It's the equivalent of a man walking across the desert, someone comes along and breaks both his legs, then tells him he must continue across the desert at the same pace as before.

[codysdoor]

The house is the collateral on that loan, so there isn't anything else they can go after you for.That said, upside down or not you owe that debt. If the bank can't sell the house to cover that debt you owe to them, you still morally owe it.Make good on your loan -- do what you need to do. Put yourselves in their shoes. You loan someone money. Not only do they promise to pay but they tell you that you can have this thing of theirs if they don't. They then realize that this 'thing' they promised you if they didn't pay isn't worth what you loaned them. so they say "Go ahead and have the thing... sucker!"

[lingt69]

Quick answer is that your lender in today's environment would very possibly be ok with allowing you to proceed with a "short sale" of your house (where you sell the house for less than the remaining mortgage but the bank forgives the shortfall). The lenders right now don't want to go through the hassle/time/cost of judicial foreclosure since there seem to be so many.But of course, it's always safe to TALK TO A LAWYER!