We've been discussing deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure a lot lately. The basic procedure is that you sign a grant deed (also known as a warranty deed) and give your property to your lender. In return, they end foreclosure proceedings. Now they have your house, and they try to sell it and recoup their investment in your mortgage.

I am looking for any success stories from people who have done deed-in-lieu and I haven't found many.

There are deed-in-lieus that are done. I know there are. They are rare, though. I did one awhile back on an apartment building. It seemed the only thing to do. I was never late on a payment. But the property was quite negative in both cash flow and equity, from a Southern California real estate downturn. Yes, you can lose money in Southern California real estate, something that few people seem to realize except when they do lose money there. We negotiated with the lender and gave them back the apartment building. It was a management headache and I was glad to get rid of it. It had no effect on my credit. The mortgage was a commercial one and was never reported on my consumer credit report. There was absolutely nothing negative about it from any angle. From a tax prospective it was a wash, too.

However, this is not true of your garden variety home mortgage. A deed in lieu of foreclosure is the same as a foreclosure, to your credit bureau. And the lender doesn't like it. It costs them a lot of money to take possession of your house and market your house.

I would love to hear from you if you have successfully done deed in lieu on a home mortgage. But so far, I haven't seen anyone who has.

I would strongly suggest that instead of pursuing this, you pursue my 9 day home sale and short sale suggestion. You can use techniques to sell your house in nine days, even when there are no buyers in your neighborhood. Negotiate with your lender so they accept the buyer's money as payment in full for your mortgage. This is called a short sale. It will have a negative effect on your credit, but only a minor one. Then, you can even take advantage of today's horrible market to buy another house with little or no money down, and without qualifying for a new loan. It's all in my Mortage Relief Formula, which is coming out shortly. Get my 25 page exclusive report in the meantime and a lot of valuable info by subscribing to my mailing list. Thanks!