So... The g33k family drama continues. Got an email from my sister today... My mother stands to lose her house. It's in my dad's name now but he's got tax trouble hence the need to do a quick transfer. Since the divorce settlement says it's gotta go to her, she wants to put the house on a new mortgage in one of our names with hers since she can't get a mortgage on her own. She's saying it would be in one of our names but that we'd get no rights.
As if I'm going to agree to that... She's also thinking interest only mortgage to keep payments low, since the intention, i'm assuming, is to sell the place. (do banks still do these? did Canadian banks ever do them?) If neither of us agrees, there's a high probability that she will lose the house and whatever equity is in it, leaving her completely penniless. I told her to sell the damned thing a year and a half before the housing crisis hit when prices were still good, but she blew me off saying where we lived was special and immune to a bursting housing bubble because people with money lived there (the HIWS concept eludes her). Plus, she was greedy in the divorce and thought she could extract more from my father by being difficult. Then, when it went up for sale, she was asking for too much, so hardly anyone even looked at it as the housing crisis approached. Then boom, no point in even listing it for 2 years... Now she's expecting one of us to take a huge risk on her. Unless the house gets sold for really cheap, there's no way it's selling any time in the next 2-3 years. There's like 50 houses up for sale nearby and nobody is buying (this is the type of place HIWS buy summer homes). Theoretically she could rent it, but i have little faith in her. She has rented it a few times, but it's sat unoccupied more often than not. Anyway, I can't really help her without taking big risks and there's no a upside for me. I told my sister the same thing. Even if the bank would lend me the money (who knows), I don't really want to mortgage my future because ********** up over, and over, and over again. I just don't have faith that she'll pay the bills and get the place ready for sale or keep it rented on a regular basis. Her track record is horrible... Plus, she's getting more and more crazy and is pretty much unable to take care of herself. A year ago she flooded the basement ruining the hardwood floors b/c she left the tap on or something stupid... IMO she'll have to face the reality that people with no money need to rent and get over it. Given what the split would be with my father and what's left on the mortgage, she'll lose about 75-100k. It's not a small amount of money but it's not enough to make much difference in her life at this point either. It's enough for a down-payment and maybe a little left over. All it really means is that she won't own anything when she dies (big deal imo). She's not gonna get a mortgage for less money/mo than she could rent for, so in terms of monthly expenses, little will change. I feel bad for her in a distant kind of way, but at the same time i have little sympathy for people that **** up as much as she has. She's had bad luck too, but she's always been her own worst enemy. Everything from the bankruptcy of the hotel to this could have been avoided if she wasn't so god damned hard headed and unreasonable. My only thought is would a management company have better success at renting than she has had and actually getting quality tenants that pay and don't destroy the house? I'm in a different province so it's not like i can directly involve myself in the place, even if i do attempt to bail her out... I have absolutely no faith in her doing what it takes to get the place sold or keep it rented. Btw, what happens to pensions in bankruptcy, typically? Are they off-limits or no? What would you do?
