Financial Help - Fear of losing our house

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IrishmanAbro

Guest
Myself and the wife are in early thirties, live abroad but moving home to ireland in the next few months. We bought our house in Ireland just over 3 years ago for 275k euro. We put the house up for sale a year and half ago as we thought that we would be spending the net few years living abroad. It all changed as we had a baby late last year. Due to lack of family support and a better standard of living we have decided to move home. To help with covering the mortgage we got an interest only mortgage that expires in October. Is there any way we can negiotate with the BOI to do the interest only mortgage for another year or at least 6 months. The only other debt we have in ireland is a loan with aib for 5000 and BOI for 10,000. Both have 2 years left. The reason been is we stupidly bought a condo here in the states. With the way house prices have gone the condo is worth 25k less than what we bought it for. We have had it for sale for the last 4 months , no offers. In order to reduce the price we have to go through our lendor and hope for a short sale.

The reason why i started this thread is a) if we stay in the states we will loose our house in Ireland as we cannot make the payments anymore. ATM the conversion between dollar and the euro is killing us.
b) We move back to Ireland, move into the house, pay the mortgage comfortably. But have the problem of the condo in the states. I wish we could just give it away but its not as easy as that.

The reason for our slump in finances is My wife nearly died after the birth of our child due to complications. As a result we survived on one income for 6 months. I used what was left of my SSIA for the rest. It is only in the last few months that my wife has started to work , beit part time. All of our savings have been wiped since we moved over( paying the difference of the mortgage for the house in Ireland) and the price of the euro. We have our house rented in Ireland but the rent only covers 60% of the mortgage.

Myself and the wife are both depressed over this situation and don't know what to do.
 
Re: Financial Help - Fear of loosing our house

Hi IrishmanAbro

Sorry to hear things haven't been going well for you, however, thankfully you have your wife and child who are priceless to you.

Would it be possible for you to rent out the condo if not then it may be better to cut your losses and hand back the keys. The latter not without its consequences.

You state that you will be able to comfortably pay the mortgage here on your return, how do you plan to achieve this? do you have employment lined up?

With an interest only mortgage, the entire amount that you have borrowed will still be outstanding at the end of the interest only period. Are you sure its an interest only mortgage you have with BOI or is it a fixed rate one?
If you are both feeling down and stressed out in America then it would be better to return home where you will have the support of your families. At least you did give it a try over there and you will have learned from the experiences.
 
Re: Financial Help - Fear of loosing our house

What is the condo worth and what is the loan outstanding on it. If you rent out the condo will the rent cover the mortgage on it. Alternatively would you be able to pay for the condo when you return to Ireland, say for a year to give you time to sell it. No need to get depressed, you've made the decision to return home, when you get back it will be easier to deal with things when you have family to support you. You're only in your early 30's so you can easily start again. Also isn't it great you have a home in Ireland and that you will be able to afford the mortgage, what you need to do is call into the BOI and discuss your options with them when you get back. By the way I don't think a non resident is allowed to have an SSIA.
 
Re: Financial Help - Fear of loosing our house

I have a temp job lined up when we move back until i find a job in IT. My wife if she decides to work fulltime can earn at least between 50 and 60k as she has a highly desired profession. We will stay with my parents for a few months until we get ourselves sorted out financially.

We made alot of poor financial mistakes in the last 2 years but the buck stops now. I have a young family so its time to make the right decisions.

I was resident in ireland for 4 out of the 5 years while the SSIA scheme ran. I am an irish citizen while my wife is a US Citizen.

I know we have alot of decisions to make and the most important one was deciding to move back. Having a child changed everything for us and what is important. You only live once so why stay in a place where we are both very unhappy.

Regarding our irish mortgage we had it on a low fixed rate for the first year, a tracker for the second and then an interest only for the third. This was due to my wife giving birth.
 
Re: Financial Help - Fear of loosing our house

You are lucky to have some temporary work lined up and it looks like you wife will also gain employment. You are doing the right thing by coming back sure life is too short for unnecessary worry.

Once you're back you can suss out your mortgage options here and don't forget the 'rent a room scheme' if you are stuck for a while. There is plenty of advice to be got from various threads here.

You are young and you'll move on to better things from the situation you're in at the moment. Good luck for the future and enjoy the trip home!.
 
Re: Financial Help - Fear of loosing our house

Be prepared for a bit of a culture shock when you move back- my wife and I moved back to Ireland after ten years in NY, mainly because we had two young kids and felt the social safety net was better in Ireland (medical, schools, etc, being free). It took me at least two years to feel settled, and talking to other returned emigrants that seems quite common. I've met a lady who still felt she missed America (NY) so much that they moved back to the US after seven months trying to make it in Ireland again, and thats after shipping a 40 ft container with furniture, car, motorbike, etc. over. They've now shipped it back!

I still miss living in the States, and often consider moving back. From the gist of your story, you seem determined to come back to Ireland, but please be aware you'll miss a LOT of what you had in America. Having said that, my experience has been that Ireland is a better place for young kids to receive their schooling. Good luck in whatever choice you make.

-Deliaquad
 
The poster has only been living in America for a couple of years so it should not be that much of a culture shock to return. it would be much different had he been away for 10 to 15 years.
 
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Hi OP

To help with covering the mortgage we got an interest only mortgage that expires in October. Is there any way we can negiotate with the BOI to do the interest only mortgage for another year or at least 6 months.
Click to expand...

Have you spoken to Bank of Ireland about this?

Are you up to date on your repayments at the moment?

You should find that the bank will be fairly flexible. I would guess that they will extend the interest only period on the loan. If you can't meet the full repayments, make as much as you can.

Check out this thread on dealing with mortgage arrears. The key point is to start talking to Bank of Ireland now.

Is the loan on the condo in America a non-recourse loan? This means that you can actually give the keys back to the lender and they cannot pursue you. They are left with the problem. In Ireland, you can't do this, but some loans in America allow you to do so.

brendan
 
Thanks brendan for the reply. We have never missed a mortgage payment for our house in ireland and are not in arrears. If the bank are flexible then great.
 
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