Today on the Consumerism Commentary Podcast Tom Dziubek speaks with Gerri Detweiler, personal finance expert at Credit.com, about her series of articles dealing with underwater mortgages. Gerri goes into detail about each of the six options including home loan refinances & modifications, doing a short sale and declaring bankruptcy.
Table of contents
[00:00] Introduction from Tom Dziubek
[00:35] Interview with Gerri Detweiler
– [00:46] The criteria for someone to be considered “underwater”
– [02:19] Stay and pay
– [04:43] Emergency home owner loans
– [05:20] Refinancing a mortgage & the HARP program
– [06:52] Home loan modification & the HAMP program
– [09:16] The popularity of home modifications
– [11:38] Short sales
– [13:59] Cancellation of debt and its affect on your income taxes
– [16:21] Walking away from a mortgage
– [19:59] Declaring bankruptcy
– [22:37] Misconceptions about bankruptcy
– [23:43] Credit rating recovery after a bankruptcy
[27:20] End
We always welcome feedback from listeners. If you have any comments for this episode or for any other, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, please leave us comments here or email us at podcast at this domain name.
Theme music by Mindcube.
Updated October 20, 2011 and originally published September 11, 2011. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
good podcast interview especially discussing the effects of bankruptcy & the HAMP program.
Definitely quite interesting stuff. Stay and pay is probably the best option if you aren’t planning on moving.