Live Forever or Die Trying

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The FDIC states in a foreclosure fact sheet that 1 in 200 homes will get foreclosed on, and we are among them. Ironically, it was not because we did not make enough to pay our mortgage, but a combination of tiny ripples that added up and washed over us.

It began a year ago.

Me and Dean were visiting Kristen at her work when his phone rang. It was his lead who offered him a chance to do some contract labor on Call of Duty in California. It was a no brainer to say yes to because it would advance his career, look good for his company, and he would get some valuable experience. Plus is was CALIFORNIA! So we went.

The company paid for most everything upfront for us: plane tickets, housing, car. They had a reimbursement system for food and fuel, but the checks were very slow to come in. The first one took nearly a month.

Financially at this point, Dean and I were living pay check to pay check. We were not in the hole much and spent less than we earned so we could pay off school debt. We were floating right on top on the water and all signs were leading to financial success.

Having to carry the burden of keeping 2 households (the one in Texas and the one in California) with gas and food broke the water tension; we started falling more and more behind. It worked like this:

We were already living at our means which meant all of the California expenses went on a credit card. By the time we got out first reimbursement check, the credit cards were maxed out (they both had a very low limit), so the funds went straight to the cards. By the time over draft fees and interest accrued, a small amount was lost. Each month it got further and further behind with less and less of the cards being paid down.

We took the issue to Dean’s Texas company and they helped us out, but it came out of Dean’s future pay, which had repercussions of its own. We took out a very short term loan to catch us up with the intentions of using Dean’s bonus money from the trip to pay it off, but the advance his company gave us came out of that, so we were stuck paying $500 extra a month for a few months which rocked the boat.

I sought help from our mortgage company and asked them if there was any way we could skip one payment and just spread it over the next 12 months. The advise I was given was this: feel free to skip up to 2 payments and as long as you do not get 3 months behind, you will be fine. That removed a huge burden. In skipping those 2 payments we were able to catch everything up for a short time.

January rolled around and our tax refund was to the penny enough to catch up on the 2 past months and the small late fees. Since I work as a contractor, taxes are not as easy as the W2 plug and chug most people have. It took a few months to get all the paper work and go through the financials of my business. But in March, it was all sent in and we were scheduled to get it back in 2 weeks and we could finally get this nightmare over with. Plus, January is Dean’s work anniversary, so a raise and possible promotion, but that did not happen until 4 months later.

Then the worst thing imaginable happened. The 1st of March, I sat down at the computer to pay bills. A task that only takes about 10 minuets and is nothing but a bunch of clicking to transfer money from our bank account to our bills. Each bill usually has 3 clicks of the mouse: click to go to bill pay screen, click to see overview, and click to submit. I missed a click.

I missed clicking on the “submit” button for the mortgage. We were now 3 months behind.

It usually takes 3-5 days for payments to show up on our account, and when I saw that the mortgage payment had not gone through I called the lender, “we are sorry, but your property is now in foreclosure”. Panic.

We were 2 weeks away from having it all caught up and one day too late on a payment. They would not take our money, “we are sorry, but your case has been sent to our lawyers. You must contact them to resolve this issue.” I called. “If you would like to reinstate your mortgage, it will be XXXX”. Because of the lawyers extensive fees, we no longer had enough money to cover it all with the tax return and the money saved up in the checking account.

Obama implements the Home Affordable program, and we are the poster children; our situation was exactly what the bill was supposed to help with. We apply and wait. And wait. And wait. We call several times a week, “we are sorry, your application is still under review”. They extend the foreclosure twice while they review our application.

Yesterday June 2 we get the call, “we are sorry, your application has been denied and your home will be auctioned in one hour”

I start dialing. The mortgage company sends me to the lawyers, the lawyers send me to the court house, the court house sends me to their foreclosure seller, the seller sends me to the loans trustee. The trustee never returns my calls.

I call the lawyers again, “we are sorry there is nothing we can do at this point. If the house does not sell or is bought by your lender, then you might be able to reinstate tomorrow.”

So I wake up at 5am because I can’t sleep. It is 7:30 now. I can start the calling again at 8am.

If we had said “no” to California, life would be gravy. But we thought it the opportunity of a life time, but it financially wrecked us and the slave treatment Dean got by that company stole his soul away almost costing us our marriage and cost him a promotion because he was a zombie at work.

That one lost click of a mouse - a millisecond of time - might cost us our home, and our credit, and send us back to an apartment for an unknown number of years. We have 6 cats. Apartments only allow 2; we will have to break up our version of a family.

This only took an hour to write. I still have to wait another 30 minuets before I know if we loose it all.

Most people don’t talk about this type of stuff in the public eye, but then again, if more people did, our country might have not gotten into such a mortgage nightmare. Plus, maybe there is a reader out there with the golden secret we need to resolve this; a name and number that will make it all vanish.

UPDATE: The house was bought by our mortgage company, so now we wait 2 weeks while they get it into their system. Then we get another mortgage from another company and buy it back. Basically we will be buying our own foreclosure possibility at a deeply discounted price lol!