Iz Kan Maked A Blog Post

My girlfriend recently challenged me to take part in NaBloPoMo after listening to me whine that I don't write enough any more.  Well I didn't sign up.  Looking at my work schedule I knew there was simply no way that I could keep up a work schedule, blog, and devote the required number of hours needed to completing Guitar Hero World Tour (on hard, wearing a bathrobe by the way).

So anyway I was feeling like a lazy ass for not joining the daily blog posting, that is, till she wasn't able to make it past about day five.  Now I don't feel so bad.

Anyway, on to other things besides gloating.

The truth is that the housing crisis in America has hit me.  Dial the way back machine to 2003.  Prior to my ex-wife and I getting married we refinanced the house she owned to help pay down some debt, get a lower interest rate, and have some extra cash to pay for the wedding.  In 2005 we had a line on a very good deal for the purchase of a Victorian in town and decided to put an offer in.  With the housing market starting to slow we knew we would be unable to sell our first house.  So we decided to rent the house out.  A young family moved in and we were able to cover the mortgage payment from their rent and things were good.

In 2006/2007 when my wife and I divorced she got the Victorian, I got the rental.  At the time, this seemed like a halfway decent deal.  At the same time I also relocated to the east side of the state, starting my live over again for the third time.  In the mean time the renters continued to live in the house.

Fast forward to late October 2008.  I received a phone call from my renter telling me they are leaving with about 2 days notice and they are behind on rent by three weeks.  I make my way down to the rental and get a look at what is a very disgusting mess.  After a near two week ordeal just trying to get the keys back I am now in a serious bind.  With just some rough estimates the house is going to require over $5000 worth of repairs in new flooring and paint.  The house is also now worth almost half of what it was worth back in 2003.  To say that I am upside down on this house is now a complete understatement.

So here is where I sit.  I don't really have the money to fix the house and make house payments.  If I don't fix the house I can't get renters.  If I don't have a renter I can't make house payments.  I think that right now I sit in the literal definition of a Catch-22.

So I have resigned myself to become another national economic statistic.  My rental house is going to end up going back to the bank.  I am going to keep making payments on the house as long as possible but the house is up for sale at a drastically reduced price.  I am currently in negotiations with the bank to attempt to avoid foreclosure, but right now, in this economic climate, I do not see that as being a reality.

Unlike many of the people who are going through foreclosure I feel like I did things exactly right.  There is no funky strange loan on this house.  It is a straightforward starter home that we chose to rent out and up on.  Thousands of people have done this.  It just didn't work out for me.