<prompt> Human: Hello, I have a question for those that have more experience in mortgages and what not. Heres my story, My wife and I bought our current house back when I made a bit more money and she was working and we could afford it easily. Now I took a pay cut and weve had a baby and weve decided that my wife should stay home because we dont want the baby in daycare. We can make it on my paycheck alone, but things are super tight, like I have to check the bank account before getting gas-tight. Weve decided to sell the house, the reasonable thing to do, but heres the thing, we have it priced so after paying the house off and paying the realtor, wed break even so were making no money off of it and its been on the market for 3 months without even a single person even wanting to do a walk through. We cant make it like this much longer maybe another 2 months. So I had an idea. We found a house we like thats way cheaper, and we could easily make the house payments on my paycheck. I told my loan officer that I want to rent my current house, and go ahead and buy the new house. Then once we are in the new house, foreclose on my Old house, I didnt tell my loan officer that last part obviously. My question is would that screw me in anyway on my new house if I already live there?  <response>: Its unlikely that you will qualify for a mortgage on a second home if your income is such that you can barely afford your current mortgage. A voluntary foreclosure will kill your credit score, making it more difficult to get any kind of loan in the future. You could look into a short sale of your current house, but that may have the same impact on your credit score. Both options could also end up affecting your ability to stay in your new home, if the sale price doesnt satisfy the loan amount and the bank decides to take action against you. You should probably lower the sale price of your current house, take the loss, and move into a house you can afford. 