Mortgage Hell

[Turkey22]

Finalized divorce last June. Being young and somewhat naive I thought the divorce decree under the division of properties and debts would cover the fact that I am taking possession of the house and of the debt on the house (only 2 years in on a 30 year mortgage). A year goes by and after some serious mistakes by my mortgage company (they wanted me to pay for my neighbors taxes as well as mine on the escrow account, very cut and dried but took 3-4 months to sort out) I'm finally comfortable with my payment.
In comes the ex wife with an email stating she needs off the mortgage note. I call the mortgage company thinking it should be pretty quick and easy. Guy says he'll send me the paperwork and that it will cost me $150 for a formal assumption which will take her completely off the note. I wait a couple weeks realize today that the paperwork should have been here by now, call them back and they say oops we sent it to the wrong address, they also mention that it will cost anywhere from $500-$900 which is roughly the same cost as a refinance.
The only good things out of this will be ex finally completely out of my life, and getting away from the incompetent lender. Problem is most rates now are very similar to mine and I really don't wanna pay that kind of money for no benefit of my own. Apparently some banks will accept proof of payment and the divorce decree and would give her a loan, but the one she is using wont they require either a refinance or the formal assumption.
Anyone know of any workarounds? Or any nice low rates that will make financing worthwhile? There is a local place that could possibly give me a 20 year loan at 5.75 rather than the 5.85 I have now. Which should only increase my payment by $50 a month or so, but if my taxes go up again I'd hate to get stuck in a tough spot. Suggestions?

 

[mzkhadir]

who is your lender ?

 

[Armitage]

When I was divorced last summer, they told me the only way to get her off the mortgages was to refinance + quit claim from her.

 

Who is your lender and where do you live?

 

[mboy]

Since she is the one with the problem, let her pay for the costs of getting of your note.
Why should you have to foot the bill. is it in your divorce agreement?
If not, let her pay for it upfront to you.

 

[Zim Hosein]

Where's RossMAN?

 

[Zim Hosein]

Where's RossMAN?

 

[jemcam]

Originally posted by: Armitage
When I was divorced last summer, they told me the only way to get her off the mortgages was to refinance + quit claim from her.

That's what I happened in my situation. Be ready to pay for the quit claim deed. I made her pay for it since it was helping her out, not me. If I remember correctly, it cost about $1500.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: mboy
Since she is the one with the problem, let her pay for the costs of getting of your note.
Why should you have to foot the bill. is it in your divorce agreement?
If not, let her pay for it upfront to you.

If she's on the note, then she is on the deed and still has a claim to the house. I'd personally want that taken care of also.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: jemcam

Originally posted by: Armitage
When I was divorced last summer, they told me the only way to get her off the mortgages was to refinance + quit claim from her.

That's what I happened in my situation. Be ready to pay for the quit claim deed. I made her pay for it since it was helping her out, not me. If I remember correctly, it cost about $1500.

I don't recall that there was much expense involved in the quit claim deed - her lawyer drew it up, likely some fill-in-the-blank form, and I'm sure there was some filing fee. But, even at $200/hr for the lawyer, I doubt it totaled more then $200-$300 total. Maybe I'll look at my paperwork tonight.

In any case, it was alot of hassle. They held the quit claim in escrow until the refi closed, and of course that got dicked up at the last minute, etc.

 

[Turkey22]

I go through ABNAMRO, some of the problems originated from the bank (Standard Federal). I'm in Michigan. I'm gonna have to look into the quit claim. I remember someone saying that before asking if I had one done. I guess that's what I get for doing the divorce myself and not hiring a lawyer.

 

[WdnUlik2no]

This is why my wife wasn't named on my mortgage to begin with! The house was bought soley in my name. Companies usually screw things up, so I plan ahead to avoid too many converstations with them.

However Washington Mutual is pretty good though, but I didn't want to take any chances in case we did get a divorce.

I'll say pay the $500 - $900 now and get it over with. If you refinance, you'd end up paying a lot more than that over the course of the loan!

 

[labgeek]

Originally posted by: WdnUlik2no
I'll say pay the $900 or so and get it over with. If you refinance, you'd end up paying a lot more than that over the course of the loan!

That depends... closing costs? $ of principal? etc. He's looking at a 1/10 pct drop in rate per his OP. So without the other numbers, you can't tell if it's worth it or not.


Actually, we do have a little more info... but I'm not sure if it's correct...

He said diff from 20 yr 5.75% to 30yr 5.85% was $50/month... From that we could only be talking about a ~$60K loan or so...

 

[WdnUlik2no]

Originally posted by: labgeek

Originally posted by: WdnUlik2no
I'll say pay the $900 or so and get it over with. If you refinance, you'd end up paying a lot more than that over the course of the loan!

That depends... closing costs? $ of principal? etc. He's looking at a 1/10 pct drop in rate per his OP. So without the other numbers, you can't tell if it's worth it or not.

That's true too. I personally would just pay the cash up front just so it wouldn't hanging over my head though.

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: Armitage
If she's on the note, then she is on the deed and still has a claim to the house. I'd personally want that taken care of also.

Wrong. A person can be on the note and not on title and vice versa. She was likely quit-claimed off title at the time of the divorce. That does not and will not remove her from the note.

When you applied for and received your mortgage 2 years ago, your wife (at that time) was used for an approval and her income, assets, and credit were considered for the lender to approve the loan. They will not remove her now. Almost no lender does that. They made a lending decision based on the application at that time, and do not accept divorce court judges as their underwriters (nor do they have to). Generally, the only way to remove your ex-wife from the lender's note is to refinance the house.
If all you need to do is remove her from title, then she can walk down to any title office and sign a quit claim deed to be recorded. Easy enough.

Copy of divorce decree and proof of payment is standard documentation for your ex-wife to prove she is no longer responsibility for your house payment to her new lender. Any lender who won't accept such documentation should be dumped in favor of a new one. The fault here is not your lender, it's hers. This is an easy condition and (as a mortgage broker) I do these all the time.

 

[jemcam]

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: jemcam

Originally posted by: Armitage
When I was divorced last summer, they told me the only way to get her off the mortgages was to refinance + quit claim from her.

That's what I happened in my situation. Be ready to pay for the quit claim deed. I made her pay for it since it was helping her out, not me. If I remember correctly, it cost about $1500.

I don't recall that there was much expense involved in the quit claim deed - her lawyer drew it up, likely some fill-in-the-blank form, and I'm sure there was some filing fee. But, even at $200/hr for the lawyer, I doubt it totaled more then $200-$300 total. Maybe I'll look at my paperwork tonight.

In any case, it was alot of hassle. They held the quit claim in escrow until the refi closed, and of course that got dicked up at the last minute, etc.

In my state & country at the time (Hillsborough county, FL) there were doc stamp fees that were a percentage of the amount being signed over. Like I said, it was about $1500.

 

[Vic]

FL is infamous for ridiculous title fees.

 

[olds]

The bank likely won't take her off the note unless you can qualify for it on your own.
Have her pay any fees.

 

[Turkey22]

I'm gonna try to contact her lender then. In addition to having a quitclaim done. Thanks Vic that was the kind of info I was looking for. Btw the mortgage was just under 70k (we had a large downpayment) and is down to 65.5k currently so the more I think about refinancing and running the numbers the more that seems out of the question. I really hate to pay the $500-900 as it seems like such a ripoff ( I know there are fees involved and thats why it costs so much but come on), but in the end if I can't convince her lender to deal with proof of payment that's what I'll end up doing. The only problem is I don't want to have to convince every lender she ever has to deal with for the rest of our lives.

 

[olds]

IIRC, all a quitclaim does it take her off the deed. She is still responsible for the mortage. Only the lender can take her off that.

 

[Turkey22]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
The bank likely won't take her off the note unless you can qualify for it on your own.
Have her pay any fees.

That is something I have been a little worried about as I only make $25k a year. If it's an issue my parents said they would cosign if they have to. Oh well it could always be worse, she could have taken all 3 cars instead of just 2 (one of which I had just payed off before the separation).

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein
Where's RossMAN?

Drinking my daily latte and eating coffee cake, sup bitch prom? :sun:

This is a question better suited for the financial foursome :beer:

 

[mboy]

What r u doin owning 3 cars and a house while only making 25K year. I Make3xs what you do and I can't even afford a house yet where I live (damn $400k to get into something somewhat decent). Need like $80k just to put down on it.

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: mboy
What r u doin owning 3 cars and a house while only making 25K year. I Make3xs what you do and I can't even afford a house yet where I live (damn $400k to get into something somewhat decent). Need like $80k just to put down on it.

I bought my last house with $500 down. Granted, it only cost $105,000

 

[Turkey22]

Well with her income (before she lost her job) we were making around 40k a year. 2 of the cars were used basic transportation cars, the 3rd was 8k which I wiped out my savings to pay off the last 2k. We were originally renting the house and realized that for a few hundred more per month we could be owning it. There was also about 20k down on the house to avoid pmi.