My husband and I sold one house and bought another in a near-by County in 2005 to bring us closer to his job (gas was really starting to take a bite out of our budget) and also to escape an area that has a crime problem. We bought a small house that had been damaged in Hurricane Charley, fixed it up with our own money and with a line of credit from the same mortgage company, leaving us with a $80,000 mortgage and a $24,000 on a line of credit, but, with a nice home that was almost entirely new, in a very nice neighborhood.

The bad news was that just after we sunk everything we had into that house, my husband's job in new construction started slowing down and at this point, he hasn't had but a few full pay checks in almost two years! We put the house on the market in March 2007 and went through all our savings and ran up all our credit cards in an attempt to keep the mortgage and bills paid on the house while we waited in vain for it to sell. We tried to do a Deed in Lieu with the mortgage company but they refused to consider it unless we give them $10,000.00 - which is impossible - we're barely buying food & gas right now. So now we're broke and the job market and real estate markets are both grim and we now want to get rid of this house as quickly as possible so that we can at least get out from under it's bills and start fresh somewhere else where my husband can find full time work, but now the mortgage company tells us that it will take another six months to complete the foreclosure! That means renewing the Home-owners insurance and paying the taxes, piling on more penalty fees for non-payment of the loans, etc. and we're just about beside ourselves with grief and worry over this.

If anyone has any advice on the best way to handle this or words of wisdom, I'd really appreciate the help!

Also, we'd like to know more about the time line involved here. The mortgage company has been very vague about answering our questions and we can never get the same answer twice, so I suspect we frequently get wrong answers. They told us that it takes five months before they can start the foreclosure proceedings in this State- but five months from when? The last payment? From the time they refused our Deed in Lieu? From whenever they decide to file the paperwork??

Thanks very much!

*** they don't want the house, they could foreclosure in 30 days or less if they wanted to. They want you to really work out a payment plan, sell the house or something. I know many that just won't foreclose unless you move out and desert the home for almost a year,

If you can't sell it for more than is owed on it, don'thave money to pay them, they would sell it for less, since foreclosed property normally sells for a lot less.

Now a few things, so husband is out of work in that job, so do something else, be a security guard, deliver pizza, something.

Consider a bankruptcy perhaps a chapter 13, work out a payment plan that would allow you to catch up, if you could start making the current payments.

Thanks for your reply and information.

BTW, Hubby isn't out of work, he just can't find enough work. He's been doing whatever he can turn his hand at- right now he is pumping septic tanks part time because that's the only job he can find. The work and real estate situation in Florida is SO bad that I guess it's difficult for some people to understand that even those of us who are earnestly, if not desperately trying to survive just aren't making it.

Some info I managed to dig up yesterday - in case anyone else is looking for answers.

I had done some digging on the Internet, but couldn't find anything that stated much beyond that it takes about 180 days to foreclose. Then I called the Florida Attorney Generals Office and spoke to a gentleman who suggested that I try calling the Florida Financial Regulations Office at 800-848-3792 or look up statutes on www.leg.state.fl.us or try to get legal aid at Florida Attorney General - Home Page (http://www.myfloridalegal.com) . Since I didn't have much look looking up statutes, I called the 800 number and in turn, was advised to call another toll free number for a free home preservation organization "HOPE" 888-995-4673 and I spoke to a gentleman there who gave me a lot of helpful information. He was able to answer my question that the mortgage company can foreclose 5 months after the date of the last payment (in the State of Florida) and after that, it takes another 4 to 6 months to go through the courts, depending on the court's back-log. He added that once the mortgage company begins the foreclosure proceedings, if your home owner's insurance lapses, they are responsible for renewing the insurance. I highly recommend that anyone with foreclosure questions call this number! :)