Thursday, October 27, 2011

Feeling a Little Sad and Frustrated

We learned yesterday that our old homestead was sold. Our neighbor bought it. It's the same neighbor who's barn we are using to store some of our stuff that we haven't been able to finish moving to the new homestead yet. He owns land on 2 adjacent sides of the property and he wanted to be able to move his cattle around more easily. We knew he wanted the property and we're happy he could buy it.

What saddens and frustrates me is that we worked SO HARD to try to refinance our loan--we owed right at $100,000. We had already paid 12 years worth of payments (almost $900 a month) and had put down $30,000 of our own money when we bought the place...28 acres, a 40x60 barn, a 30x70 warehouse and a 4 bedroom double wide mobile home.  (If you don't want to figure all that up yourself, we had invested well over $150,000 in total--which was more than we originally bought the place for!  So they had already easily gotten their money back) 

Our House

Our Warehouse

Our Barn (and backyard)

We had missed a few payments when DH was unable to get around very well (before his back surgery) and things were really starting to fall apart.  Our mortgage company said they would work with us to get the loan refinanced due to hardship circumstances. We had to pay 3 monthly reduced payments to prove that we could pay the payments while they worked on redoing the paperwork. Three months came and went. We knew that our original loan had been bought several times but we discovered that the current holder was now Freddie Mac (why don't us little guys have any say in all of that? We chose our lender to begin with and then they have to switch it all around!) There was always some little thing that wasn't quite right. A line was missed here. An initial missed there. They were short on staff to process the loans. They needed more time. And on and on it went.

Finally they told us to just pay three more reduced payments while they continued to work on our loan. Three MORE months come and went. Still no sign of being close to refinancing. So we continue to send in our reduced payments until one day we get a foreclosure notice saying that if we don't pay up all of the back missed payments (they accused us of not paying our full monthly payment--Duh!) and the phenomenal fees and penalties they tacked on--totalling almost $9,000--they would foreclose on our home.  We continued to call and call (the wait time to speak to an actual person was almost an hour!!  Each time!!) and they continued to assure us that they were working hard on our refi and everything would be ok.  Friends and family told us they were lying and that if we wanted to save our home we would have to file bankruptcy.  So at the very last minute that's what we did.  Surprise, surprise.  They DIDN'T get the paperwork finished. 

To make a long story short, we had to convert the Chapter 13 over to Chapter 7 because our financial circumstances continued to degrade.  We still tried to keep the house but they continued to add fees and penalties and toward the end we owed the mortgage company well more than our original loan was for nearly 13 years before!  So we let it go.  And everything else too.  We wanted to keep our house more than any of the other stuff--so what was the point any more?

Brace yourself...

Our neighbor paid $48,000 for our property.  (a moment of respectful silence for our grief please)

We worked so hard and spent so much time trying to secure a simple refinance for $100,000 to keep our home and property.  We jumped through every hoop they threw at us.  They sold it for less than half of that.  I guess they figured "What the heck!  We've already got our money back over the years." 

I'm happy for our neighbor.  He got a great deal.  I'm envious. 

This is just a prime examply of why our country/government (Freddie Mac is a government lender) is in such a financial mess right now.  There's just no intelligence to be found!!!  "Why no, we can't refinance that loan for $100,000 and make oodles of money over the long haul!!  Lets throw this family out of their home since they've done everything we've asked!!  Oh, and lets sell the property for less than half of what they would have paid for it and a fraction of what it's worth!!  Yeah, that's the smartest way to handle it, don'tcha think?  Duuuuuhhhhhh."

So this morning's thoughts are "God is in control.  He has ordained this.  He is working in our lives for our good.  Thank You Lord."  I don't understand.  But I know that He has a plan.  I will strive to rest in Him and keep my heart open to the new adventure He has plunked us down in the middle of.

4 comments:

Teena said...

Wow, I am so sorry.... doesn't make sense at all?

Wonder if the neighbor would sell to you?! Wouldn't that be great!

How is your dh? Praying for you. So often things do not make sense.... asking God to give you His strength.

Much love,
Teena

Chatty Crone said...

I feel kicked in the stomach by this story I can only imagine how you feel. That is TERRIBLE! I am so sorry. No way to go to them and change it? Does this mean you have to move and find another place to live? I am so sorry. Hugs, sandie

GrammyK said...

Teena--We could maybe rent from the neighbor. He's a really nice guy but we don't have the kind of money that it would take to buy it from him. We're not even 6 months out of our bankruptcy yet. The house is unlivable. We removed all of our "investments". The neighbor actually helped us so he knew all about it before he bought it. In all reality he just wanted the land. He has more buildings than he knows what to do with. Even for just the land he got a steal.

Steve is doing much better. He takes non-narcotic painkillers, something for nerve damage, stuff for anxiety and dlpa for his bipolar. He's able to work a lot more--so he's a lot happier. We do so appreciate the prayers!!

GrammyK said...

Sandie--Yes, it is terrible. As far as I know, there's no way to fix it. Sometimes I just wanna sue somebody!! :-)

This was our old place and why we now live in RVs while we renovate some very vintage mobile homes. Sigh. In many ways I'm thankful to have lost everything--life is much simpler now. But it still hurts knowing that we had no power or say in what actually went down. No matter how hard we tried, they were intent on taking the place. Honestly, from their standpoint, it looked like a goldmine. But there were so many things wrong that needed fixing. We were in the middle of about 50 different remodel projects when DH's back went down and before he had surgery. Everything just kind of came crashing down at once. Then once they got the place I guess they realized that they messed up. We didn't leave a lot behind. We had already done a lot to the place and wasn't about to let them steal our money, time and effort if we could help it. They wanted the place so badly--they got it. Grrr...

But we're doing better now. I think we're gonna make it. :-) All things work for the good to them that love the Lord. :-)