My Story from Miami, FL

[Joel Fraser]

First off thank you soooo much for this website. I have found it extremely informative so far.I will try and make this brief.I am a single mother of 2 boys. I purchased a home April 2006 for $185,000. Unfortunately my credit was not so great so I did not qualify by myself so My brother agreed to cosign on the mortgage. I did an 80/20 loan. THe larger one with Select Portfolio and the smaller one with Litton Loan. I have a fixed rate for three years but in April of 2009 the larger loan goes up about $500 more a month which I can not afford.The original plan was to refinance before April but because the way the market is here in Miami my house is no longer worth the $185,000 I purchased it for and they are selling for around $150,000 making it impossible to sell or refinance because it will not appraise.What are my options at this point? I do not have any late paymentsMy credit is still pretty badMy brother owns his own place and would like to get offmy mortgate but is willing to stay on my mortgage until "things get better".From what I've read it seems I need to miss a few payments before they will work with me? I dont want to ruin my brothers credit so i do not want to do this.I think time is on my side since April is still a while away but I would like to take care of it before I'm in over my head.Thank you so much and any advice would be greatly appreciated. Ana from Miami