For First-Time Buyers, Tempting Prices but Tougher Rules

In days past, when HELOCs weren't as readily available, borrowers in your position would get what's called a bridge loan. Essentially, the loan bridged the gap between when you'd have your cash from the sale and when you needed to buy your new home. Bridge loans were relatively inflexible in that they were good for maybe six months or a year and then would have to be renewed or refinanced. They were designed as short-term vehicles only.

Although you're prepared to pay for the mortgages on both homes, keep in mind that the HELOC has a variable interest rate feature. Though your lender quoted you a rate of prime minus 0.5 percent, the interest can go up or down as the prime rate rises or falls.

If you end up selling your home quickly, changes in interest rates might not affect you, but if you can't sell the home and interest rates start to go up, you might feel quite a bit of pain.

Still, this sounds like the best, and easiest, path to take.

We got caught up in Michigan's real estate and job crisis as we were being transferred out of the state by my husband's company. We've tried to sell our Michigan home for the past nine months. Our lender is exploring a deed in lieu of foreclosure for us and is in the title search phase. We're worried we're running out of time to make the deed in lieu happen, and we think the lender may decide to foreclose.

After six months of making payments on a house we no longer lived in, we couldn't continue and are now more than 90 days past due. It just occurred to me that the mortgage is in my husband's name only, but the title is in both our names. This was done a month or so after closing. Will the title come back clear? If not, will it be time-consuming and involved to clear it in time to be accepted for deed in lieu?

When the title company prepares the title report, it will show that you and your husband own the property together.

If the lender agrees to the deed in lieu -- that is, agrees to accept the title to your home directly from you and your husband without suing your husband to foreclose on the home -- you and your husband will have to sign the deed to transfer the title to the lender.

While the documentation to transfer the title to your husband's lender is simple, getting the lender to focus on your transaction may take more time. There are thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands, of people in your situation in Michigan.

If you can get your lender to focus on your case, you should be able to accomplish the deed in lieu of foreclosure relatively quickly, even though these deals sometimes take much longer than you'd like.

Make sure the lender also agrees to release you from any remaining balance of the loan. If it doesn't agree to that, the lender can still come after you for any amount you still owe. Just because the lender gets title to the home doesn't mean the debt is extinguished. If the home is ultimately sold for less than what you owe on the mortgage, the lender can sue you for the difference.

My brother recently died and did not have a will. My parents are left with his house in Colorado, which has a mortgage. They were told yesterday that the value of the house has gone down drastically and that they may be better off deeding it back to the bank because there would be a balance to pay at closing. Are my parents' only options to sell the property or allow the bank to foreclose? What if they want to keep the house?