Here it is comes, 2014, just a few weeks away…can you believe it? I find myself wondering what 2014 will bring?
With recent numbers released by housing forecasters of over 40% of homeowners with mortgages being underwater I have to ask what is really going on? What is the REAL story?
We have experienced buyers that can’t get an offer accepted on a home because the demand is so high buyers are willing to pay over market. If you don’t have cash or a great conventional loan it’s really tough to get an offer accepted.
We have seen a decline in homeowners putting their homes up for short sale….scary game to play. With all of the movement of “under preforming loans” being sold off from Bank of America and Chase these homeowners are in going to see just how ruthless the new owner of these loans can be.
The new servicers of these loans will be starting the foreclosure process immediately. Ocwen and Nationstar have purchased millions of the “under preforming loans” and they want to collect. Here in California, if the home goes to foreclosure the servicer can pursue a deficiency judgment if there is a second lien. That is nothing to play with, those judgments follow you and the only way to get rid of them is a bankruptcy or pay them off.
In all honesty, we’ve been through it. Couldn’t make the house payments, but since our mortgage company seemed to have forgotten about the house we just kept going as if things were ok. For almost 3 years we kind of “had our heads in the sand” ….we did attempt to get a loan modification when the mortgage company started talking about foreclosure. The best the lender would do was agree on a forbearance agreement. So, we decided that is what we should do…because we were not going to lose our house!
Funny thing happened, we started making payments again and they were of course much higher than the original payments we could not make before…yes…I do realize NOW, that was not the best approach but, I was in denial. At the time it seemed like our only option, so, we used every penny we had in savings and drained my 401k to make those payments.
Then it happened…about 10 months of scraping to make the house payments on a house that needed a roof but heaven knows we could barely afford buckets to catch the water let alone a new roof! We ran out of resources, no more money, none….
After many calls to our lender, the unthinkable was happening! Due to the forbearance agreement we signed they were now going to foreclose because we missed one payment!!!
Our Thanksgiving and Christmas was very dreary that year. We did not know where we were going, but we knew the sale date was in January. I look back now, remembering that Christmas… we were packing boxes and moving all our worldly possessions to a rental. A time I truly thought I would not recover from. All I need to say is, God is good! We were able to get into a great home and are now living within our means. Weird, life is actually less stressful now. Sure we are not homeowners living the “Dream”… that “Dream” was a true nightmare for us.
Kris and I were talking to a friend we had not seen for several years the other day. He was telling us about the fight to keep the family house. I won’t of course mention any names, but he and his wife are excited that their lender is going to reinstate the loan after 2 years. The payments are $4300 a month and the home is underwater. His wife works 60 hours a week at 2 jobs, he is also working 60 hours a week. My heart aches for them, because I have been through it. You just don’t think logically, all kinds of emotions are going on inside you. Self defeat, the fact that you don’t want to let someone take what is yours, fear and just plain failure.
I would like to leave you with a thought….that home, the one that is causing stress because you can’t afford the payments…it’s just 4 walls. The memories you and those you love have made in the home are in you and will stay with you.
Well, here we are 6 years later and I can truly say that we are happier and more at peace than we have ever been. The stress of the leaky roof is gone, and our marriage is so much better. It’s amazing how much tension can be placed on finances!
