<prompt> Human: So the situation is:In July 2008, my mother closed the purchase of a home for 165,900 in the Raleigh, NC area. At the time, in order to help build my nascent credit score, she put me on the mortgage loan, with her as co-signer. I lived in the house for about two years and then moved to China. After I moved to China, my brother stayed there until summer 2013 and my mother took over all mortgage payments, which are 1346.75 a month. In February 2014, we discovered that there was mold within the walls of the house. My mother had a contractor dissemble the walls, clean the mold out, and put the walls back up in March 2014. The house then laid empty. Checking the house in June, my mother discovered that the mold had returned a little and the contractor said it was because we did not have AC circulating, so she turned it on and the contractor cleared the mold in July but by September the whole house was moldy. The original contractor stated that it was her fault for not keeping the house at a suitable temperature to prevent molding and refused to take responsibility. A lawyer has stated that it would difficult to pin the responsibility on the contractor and so we have gotten another contractor to take a look.The repair is estimated at 20,000 to 30,000. Part 1 - The new contractor needs to take all of the attachments out of the house for cleaning, then all the walls need to be cut to make sure there is no mold remaining on the back of the walls. This part is estimated to cost 12,000.Part 2 - The contractor will then need to have machines extract moisture out of the house, followed by putting the walls back up, and putting the attachments back into the house. Kind of like building a brand new house. This portion is estimated to cost .Since this problem was discovered in September, my mother has planned on defaulting on the mortgage and foreclosing the house, rather than paying for the repair and continuing to pay for the mortgage. She has been unsuccessful thus far in getting my name dropped off of the mortgage loan. Unfortunately, this strategy has been destroying both of our credit scores. Mine has dropped 100 points into the 610s over the last year.The numbers: Original Mortgage Loan: 165,900 Current Mortgage Liability: 150,705.55 Monthly Mortgage Payment: 1,346.75 March Mortgage Payment Due: 8,295.98 Current Zillow Zestimate Home Value: 172,235My mother was laid off in 2012 and has been working part-time at Wendys and Taco Bell ever since. She does not make that much money and I doubt she could handle eating this cost. Unfortunately, I live in China, where wages are pretty low, and I currently cannot help with the situation.The house is was a nice 1,872-square foot, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom two-story house built in the late 1970s. It is about 2.5 miles a 6 minute drive away from NC State Universitys campus, so I think it should be a pretty good rental to a graduate student with family or even to a few students living together. Estimated area rents for a 3 bedroom house are 1122 Rent-o-meter and 1287 Zillow. It also looks like property values in the area are steadily increasing, according to real estate listings.My questions:1. Based on the current financial situation and the description of the housearealocal real estate situation, should we stop paying any more on the mortgage and allow the loan to default, thereby allowing the bank to foreclose the home and causing our credit scores to drop, with the possibility of being unable to buy another home for up to 10 years?2. If we foreclose, are there any financial, legal, or other steps to be taken that can help to minimize the damage?3. If we were to repair the home, are there steps that I can take to minimize the amount of workmoney to be given to a contractor?4. Are there any cheap, but good contractors in the Raleigh area that can take a look and give us an honest estimate of the work to be done?5. Would I be able to do the work myself, and if so, how would I learn how to do it?6. Are there any other alternatives?Would appreciate any helpadvice! Thanks!TL;DR I have moldy house, should I try to scrape money from somewhere to get it repaired or let the mortgage default, ideas?  <response>: Where did you get the idea that the alternatives here are a fixing and b defaulting on the mortgage?You cannot simply walk away from a financial obligation like this. For one, it will destroy any equity you have in the house. For two, the bank can come after you to recover any deficiency - you and your mother will be paying ALL of the banks expenses that you make them incur during foreclosure. For three, it will trash your credit, as you noted.It is NOT the case that you can mail the bank the keys and be done with this.How about selling the house? How about just fixing the problem slowly? No? Never considered it? Since this problem was discovered in September, my mother has planned on defaulting on the mortgage and foreclosing the house, rather than paying for the repair and continuing to pay for the mortgage.So shes skipped a bunch of payments. Out of all the ways to handle this problem, this was precisely the wrong way to do it.SELL THE HOUSE. Put the house on the market tomorrow. Yes, youll have to disclose the mold problem. Yes, it will hurt the sale value of the house. List it cheap and youll find someone willing to do the work.Just ignoring the hey, wheres your mortgage payment? letters until eviction is going to result in the bank taking the house, selling it for a pittance, and following you around for years to recover 30,000 or more in expenses. 