bchguyx comment-19720 2009-12-22T05:39:48Z 2009-12-22T05:39:48Z There are companies that negotiate short sales on behalf of realtors and sellers. The tend to be well connected at the banks and have done an amazing job for several people I know. The short sale pros dot com/ Sacramento (just google "short sale") is the one that helped my friends. They pulled them out of foreclosure 3 days before the auction, and got their short sale acceoted in less than 90 days, all at no cost to the homeowners. bchguyx 2009-12-22T05:39:48Z Candace Taylor comment-17418 2009-11-07T01:00:44Z 2009-11-07T01:00:44Z Enjoy and honor your parents now--while they can still grasp your hand tightly and look you in the eye. I am forever grateful to my folks for hanging in there so long. Also, remember to ask about their early lives, childhood memories, career highlights, etc. while you can. Because once they're gone, all you have are scribbled notes on a pad and fading photographs (still on my fridge). Candace Taylor 2009-11-07T01:00:44Z Scott Eggert comment-16839 2009-10-30T20:12:43Z 2009-10-30T20:12:43Z I recently began working for a company that helps people in these situations. I am heart broken over the lack of response from the lenders that hold these mortgages. I hear story after story of how the banks are working over the home owners. I hope that greater accountability is brought to bear on the banks that are no cooperating with home owners. Tell home owners to find an advocate to work with the banks. Thank you Candace for your story. Scott Eggert 2009-10-30T20:12:43Z oldpup comment-16833 2009-10-30T18:46:14Z 2009-10-30T18:46:14Z My dad is 83, and much better organized than I ever will be. I see him slipping away, though, in infinitesimal steps, visible only when I remember two years ago, or five. Our relationship is complicated too, but I guess I've become a friend to him, now that he needs me to be one. As executor I will encounter similar items made at the front of his life that suddenly don't matter anymore. It's a matter of curiosity how I will feel about that. oldpup 2009-10-30T18:46:14Z oldpup comment-16831 2009-10-30T18:39:21Z 2009-10-30T18:39:21Z Finally, someone on here who can write! This was a moving story and very well done. I believe the dream remains very much alive, but it has been deeply damaged by bank and lender practices, and especially by the dream being oversold, as though property ownership were some sort of right. It is not. You have the right to earn it, and keep it if you can. But none of that mitigates the pain of loss and my heart goes out to Megan, who reached for the dream, grasped it for awhile, and felt it slip away. oldpup 2009-10-30T18:39:21Z stephanie taylor comment-16813 2009-10-30T16:04:38Z 2009-10-30T16:04:38Z Any of us who still "own" our homes could be thrust into this impossible situation at any time. In CA, where most urban properties qualify as jumbo loans, we start off paying extra points and fees. The American dream: home ownership. Affordable housing? No housing is affordable for most of us. We endure. And sometimes we suffer. Now that bank will be allowed to let that property degrade and everybody on the street will suffer. Welcome to the California dream. stephanie taylor 2009-10-30T16:04:38Z Michael Zwahlen comment-16275 2009-10-25T03:11:02Z 2009-10-25T03:11:02Z I can relate Candace. My father passed 3 1/2 years ago and I still have his daily planner with all his notes and some of his thoughts. The last entry he put in there was for a steak dinner both of use were to have together. When we last spoke that Sunday, we planned to BBQ some steaks at his place on Wednesday. On Monday morning I got a call that my father was being rushed to the hospital where he passed before I could get there. So that final entry he made for us to have dinner still gives me a lump in my throat when I open his planner. Our plans have been delayed, but I’m certain will still meet up again in another life for that dinner we planned on having :) Michael Zwahlen 2009-10-25T03:11:02Z