Do NOT Copy

Do NOT Copy

The whole sordid story... edited for public eyes!

I thought I would post the story of how to I got where I am in life. I wonder if it will help me get my house sold? Changed portions are in bold and parenthesis.

I was asked to write down information of how we came to be in the situation that we are currently in. There are a great many factors. I will do my best to breifly explain.
In 2005, my mom lost her home. My mom and dad had been divorced for many years at this point. Having no money to rent an apartment, she asked if she could live with us for a couple of months. Of course I said yes! She is still living there and helping us to maintain the property to the best of her ability.
As time went by, money started to get tighter. With everything rising excpet my husband's salary, we knew we needed to take action soon.
My son was being teased mercilessly by the children in our neighborhood because he is overweight. It got so bad that he didn't even want to go outside anymore. He would have to go to a new school in the next school year where only his tormentors would be attending. His good friends would be going to the other school across town. The conditions were right for a change.
Not wanting to make a rash decision, we started doing research. We had several realtors come over to do CMA's of our house. They thought it would sell for (more than we listed it for). Our insurance company values it at (a higher value than that). That was way more than what we would need. It was early 2006. I prayed a long time about this agonizing decision. It's always hard to make a move, but I had lived in the area for 20 years, so it was especially hard for me. We found a perfect town with affordable family activities and a good school district. I really wanted to be able to afford to get my children enrolled in more physical activities so they would be able to learn a healthier lifesytle when they were young so they wouldn't have to struggle like their father and I have. It helped also that it's a small town with low crime rates as well.
My husband interviewed for a promotion within (the company he works for) in May of 2006. He was asked by the store manager if he would accept the job if it was offered to him. He said yes with my approval. Everything sounded perfect!
On June 4, 20006 my father passed away. Being the only relative in the area (besides his brother who is currently still in jail for DUI), it was up to me to take care of all of his final arrangements as well as his final affairs. The day before the funeral my husband got the call telling him that he got the promotion. Having already committed to accepting and being a man of his word, he did not turn it down even though we had a change in our circumstances. He would start his new job on June 19, 2006.
We listed the house on the day of dad's funeral. We priced it just high enough to pay closing costs, realtor fees, and both mortgages. We were looking for a quick sale, not a lot of money in our pockets! Our first realtor had a lower commission rate which is why we started out at a lower asking price. I was assured that it would sell in less than 2-3 months. Having that assurance and not wanting to move twice, we started looking for a new home for our family.
(My husband's company) pays for 2 weeks at a hotel when you move so I started looking as quickly as possible. We were working with our realtor. She was kind enough to allow us to use her cabin whenever it wasn't booked up to be used, so we managed to stretch that two weeks into a month. While we were staying at (her)cabin, my father-in-law collapsed at work. He had a seizure. Because his job involved driving heavy construction equipment he was unalble to return to work. At first they couldn't figure out what the problem was, but in September they found that he had a stage 3 inoperable brain tumor. He was given a year to live. Having already lost their other grandpa, I wanted my children to have many happy memories with their grandpa before his time expired, so we went and visited every other weekend, whenever my husband wasn't working.
When it started looking like we wouldn't be able to get a home soon enough, we started looking into rentals as well. There was nothing to be had that we qualified for. All I could find were low income places where we couldn't rent because we made too much money! Luckily our third choice's seller worked out a deal with us which would allow us to rent it before we closed. We moved in in mid July. We pushed the closing off until mid September of 2006 so our first payment wouldn't be due until November. We figured that would give us plenty of time to sell our house.
Our first realtor did not do much in the way of advertising, so he had surprisingly little traffic through the house, but I went back to our old house on the weekends that my husband was working. I wanted to clean the house and keep the yard looking nice. On one of my trips back, I noticed that our lawn was starting to die. It was mid- July/August. We were back and forth moving stuff into our new house as often as possible. I made several calls to the sprinkler company, but I couldn't seem to get a response from them. It appeared that we were lying about having a sprinkler system so we got even less traffic. Since Green Lawn never bothered to show me how often I should run the sprinklers (or adjust them either themselves OR show me how to for that matter) I just decided that I would just run the sprinklers more often. Many of my neighbors ran their sprinklers twice a day, so I decided to do that too. Little did I know that this would cause water damage to my newly installed engineered wood floors! They had improperly designed my system to spray AT the house instead of away from it, so the water come in where the cement foundation blocks met the wood exterior. I made more phone calls about this, but because I never took the time to write this information down because of everything else going on in my life they don't want to do anything about it. The flooring was discontinued and since it was under a private label I was never able to discover who actually made the flooring so I could just buy the pieces I would need to replace.
Knowing that we would be having double mortgage payments soon, I went out and got a full time job at a daycare center where I would be lead toddler teacher. I was hired on the spot because of my qualifications and previous experience. I started training the next day. It was September 11, 2006. I was given a great amount of flexibility so I could get the kids onto the bus before school and I was off early enough to get them off the bus as well. I was given time off for the closing and to finish moving our stuff and I was being paid ($X) per hour which is a pretty good wage for a daycare job in the northwoods. I started saving all of my paychecks in my new savings account awaiting that dreaded day when we'd have to pay two mortgages.
There was a girl working at the center who apparently didn't like me very much. I'm not sure if she was jealous or if she wanted my job or what the deal was, but she was constantly causing trouble for me. I finally couldn't take it anymore and quit in December. I started substitute teaching instead since that's what I went to college for. The pay isn't as good since it isn't steady work, but I hope that it will get me a full time teaching job with the school district.
In December my husband's "friend" got a job transfer to the Twin Cities. He needed a place to rent and we needed a way to be able to pay the rest of the mortgage. It seemed like a match made in heaven! We decided to have him live in the downstairs of the house, mom would continue staying upsatirs, and we would keep the house on the market and still continue trying to sell it. I guess he didn't keep it very clean or do any of the maintainence that he agreed to do either. He often turned down showings even though we told the realtor not to allow him to do this. He was also rude to people who came to look and he wouldn't leave, if he did he was curt to them. We finally took the house off the market until we could get him moved out.
In the final months that he lived there he stopped making rent payments. We kept paying the bills for them and just lived off of our credit cards. I know it was extremely dumb, but we didn't want to face the option of getting foreclosed on. I also have my suspicions that he maliciously broke things and caused damges on purpose, but I have no evidence of this that would hold up in a court of law.
We finally got him moved out in December 2007. When I saw my house I wanted to cry. It was trashed. It took me 49 hours to clean up after him. I also decided to take down wallpaper, change out some of our "dated" lighting, and neutralize it as much as possible. I made several repairs as well.
We relisted it with (current realtor), but now the market has gone down so far that we can't even sell it for what we need. There is no way I can get approved for a loan with all of my current debt and the hit that our credit has taken because of all of this. Our house is currently listed for ($x), but we have only had one couple look at the house since it's been put back on the market. They wrote us an offer for ($y). The highest home sale price in January was ($z), so I feel that this is probably the best offer we will get.
We tried to refinance our current home to get the money we needed, but it didn't appraise for a high enough value so it didn't go through. I am just short ($L) to get this deal pushed though. This is the amount I would need to pay off both mortgages, closing costs, and realtor fees.
I don't see any way out of this mess unless I can get your cooperation. The house will go into foreclosure in March if I don't get this deal to happen and we all know how messy and expensive that would end up being. The buyers want to close in March, so this would be perfect!
Please let me know if you'd like documentation for any of the above mentioned items as I have some if you'd like to see proof.

Sincerely,

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry cinj--does this mean you are going to resubmit a counter offer to the potential buyers? You might need to look into a good bankruptcy lawyer. He can tell you what your options are. Most lawyers will give a free consult. I understand it isn't the right course for people looking for an easy way out--but you have tried hard to handle this and you don't have a solution. I'm so sorry.

Unknown said...

We are waiting it out to see if the bank will come down and do a short sale with the buyers. That is the letter I wrote to explain how we got into the hole we're in. I sure hope it helps me to get them on my side.

*Linnie* said...

God bless you Cinj...what an ordeal! I do hope and pray that all works out for you, and soon!!

-Linnie

Anonymous said...

I sure think they will give it serious consideration. You pleaded your case well. I have you in my thoughts and prayers throughout the day.

Anonymous said...

RE: your letter...You did a good job of putting a face on a story that is, unfortunately, a sign of the times. Hoping that things go your way.

Anonymous said...

quote: "I really wanted to be able to afford to get my children enrolled in more physical activities so they would be able to learn a healthier lifesytle when they were young so they wouldn't have to struggle like their father and I have."

I just wanted to applaud your efforts to help your children have a healthier life style! Hooray for you! It's one of the best gifts one can ever give their children. Do you have exercise equipment at home? One that my nieces and nephews love is a trampoline...more like play than exercise, but can be a good workout. Again, good for you!

Unknown said...

Thanks. I am still praying for things to work out. We do have some exercise equipment (somewhere in my packed up mess!), no trampoline yet though. I've often thought abot it. We have a basketball hoop outside too. We have fun playing "horse". I want to grow some of our own fruits and stuff. If my house gets sold soon, I'd like to buy some. I want to get some cherries, blueberrys, and blackberries to name a few. I can only do it if I have the money though. We grew strawberries, asparagus, and rhubarb at my other house as well as some annuals. I think it will be a while until I can afford to do a garden the right way over here though. Our yard is ALL sand and rock, no real good soil except what we brought in last year. I hope it was enough to have a decent front yard. We put it in last fall. You should see how it used to look!