Highlights:
* First time home buyer tax credit on pages 628-637.
* Changes to qualifying a second home for tax exemption on pages 690-693.
* Starting on page 394, you’ll find Help for Homeowners and the requirements for refinancing.

The directory has the new law organized by 5 sections, each with a handy table of contents.

‘‘(11) PRIMARY RESIDENCE.-The mortgagor shall provide documentation satisfactory in the determination of the Secretary to prove that the residence covered by the mortgage to be insured under this section is occupied by the mortgagor as the primary residence of the mortgagor, and that such residence is the only residence in which the mortgagor has any present ownership interest.”

The mortgage payment has to be at least 31% of your income or higher.
to qualify for the “relief” bill.

I stated that your total income to debt ratio couldn’t be more than 31%.
My bad…

I am not going to preach… yes, this site doesn’t have a lot of sympathy
for you but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I don’t need to know your finances or income to come to the conclusion
that you spend most of your pay check just keeping up with the min.
payments for the credit cards and mortgage.

The housing bill will not be of any help to your situation.
There is another stipulation that hasn’t been discussed yet.
You also must “retire” any secondary debt (HELOC, refi-mortgages, etc.)
before you can qualify for this kind of help and since your total income to
debt ratio can’t be higher than 31% you are way beyond their help.

What to do?

I am going to get heat from everybody for suggesting this, but with
75K worth of credit card debt alone you must be already under so much
stress and probably not sleeping very well at night.

Here is the honorable way:

Cut up all Credit Cards.
Call up your creditors and cancel them. Then ask them to freeze
the interest rate or eliminate interest completely, so you can make
payments towards principal debt without incuring more thru interest and
penalties. If possible – consolidate all credit card debt onto one card.
(who am I kidding… your balance is 75K…)
If they don’t go for it… threaten with Bankruptcy… you will be surprised
how fast they change their tune.

Call your lender and see whether they will extend your time period
before your ARM resets. Start making higher payments towards principal
immediately.

You tried and neither Credit Card Co. nor Mortgage lender gives in:

OK… here is the not so honorable way:

Sit down with your spouse and have a FINANCE TALK.
What I am about to suggest can only work if you both agree to
the consequences and it would be unfair to your spouse to ruin her
credit for the next 7 years without her knowledge or agreement.

2 options: Bankruptcy – doing it the legal way
Get a copy of your credit report, gather all bills from all creditors
find a bankruptcy attorney – HAND OVER ALL BILLS, and start
the process. With that much CC debt you should be able to do Chapter 7.

Immediately stop paying your credit card bills. Your attorney should be
sending out letters to your creditors already.

Remember to exclude your house from this. With the extra money
you have available now start making payments towards your mortgage
that are high enough to chip away at your principal.

If you have car payments… get rid of the cars and turn them in.
Buy a cheap clunker with cash – make sure the “new” car isn’t worth
crap so they don’t take that too. Cancel your current car insurance and
buy the bare minimum insurance for the “new” car.

Cancel your current phone and then turn around and get a new phone
and a new number.
Give this phone number only to people that you trust. (Don’t forget to give
it to your lawyer).
Buy a prepaid cell phone and give that number to your employer.
As a precaution: Never answer your phone stating your name,
never acknowledge that you are so and so if some stranger calls.
Caller I.D. hardly works with collection agencies… they block their number.
Any incoming “blocked call” that you choose to answer should go like this:

You: Hello?
Collection Agency: Can I talk to Mr. so and so?
You: Hold on a minute, I can barely hear you… have a noise maker ready
and/or start whistling into the phone… after the “noise in the line simply
and innocently get back on the phone: Goodness… I could not hear a word
you said, may I ask who’s calling?
Collection Agency: I need to talk to Mr. so and so
You: Never heard of this person, sorry you got the wrong number.
click – hang up

They can’t tell you who they are unless they are absolutely sure
that they have you on the phone. So, if a caller doesn’t want to
identify themselves… who says you have to?

Get calls at your work?

Here is your standard reply: I am at work and my employer does not
allow collection agencies to call. Click, and hang up.

They call back: Immediately ask them to identify themselves with
Companies name, address and phone number then tell them that they
will receive a letter in the mail that will tell them in writing that by law
they are not allowed to contact you at work. then hang up.

The trick is not to let them get a word in… hang up, you are at work
and on your employers time not your own time. Therefore you don’t have
time for them.

Being that I am an employer… I used to have loads of fun screening
Collection Agencies calls for my employees. I could fill a book with all
the useless threats these people spew… They are just that: Empty Threats.

This way you might… just might… keep your house.

There is another way… but I am sure you can figure it out for yourself.
I am not ready to get lynched by my fellow blog posters for suggesting
to walk away from it all.