Take My Money!

The adventure continues.

Last week, I wrote a check for the full amount of what we owe the mortgage company.  I placed it in an envelope and trusted it to the United States Postal Service.

Just now I have gotten off the telephone with NationStar Mortgage, who is *returning* my check to me.  I don't understand what their reasons are, the man that I shouted at on the phone couldn't explain it in a way that made any real sense to me.

They want the money in some particular way.  My check is too big, apparently.  I can wire it or send a certified check, as a personal check just will not do.  This will take more time and more effort and cost more money, and you know what?  I'm going to end up having my payment for this month, which was rolled into that one huge check, be LATE, because they didn't bother to tell me this up front.

On top of this, my very large check is out there, floating around in limbo.  I'm supposed to send them the money before I get that check back from this Oh So Reliable and Trustworthy company.  Pardon me while I have some justifiable paranoia.

I am so angry I could spit.  I shouted at that man, using several four letter words that I usually work very hard to not use while dealing with a creditor.

I have had more trouble with NationStar in the last 3.5 months than I had with any and all other mortgage companies I've ever dealt with before them, over 15 years now.

When I manage to refinance this mess, I'm having a party.

Financials

Okay, here's the deal.

My family and I have been pushed to the pointy end of fiscal disaster.  During the Dot.Com bust, we lost all our savings and racked up a pile of unsecured debt.  We managed to keep the house, though.  After that, we spent several years paying off the debt.  In the spring of 2009, we were down to only a couple of thousand dollars of debt.  Then, more shit happened, which resulted in us moving from Oregon to California to find work.  We sold the house in Oregon, bought a house in California and kept slugging on.  That was the major mistake, I think.  The cost of living in California is remarkably *more* than it was in Oregon.

However.  Here we are.  In all the various job issues over the last 2 years, we have had to slowly whittle away at what little savings we had.  Medical insurance went away, and we've had to buy privately, at the cost of over $2K a month.

We've spent the last year, every time something goes wrong, trimming expenses and recalculating that we should be okay, "if nothing else goes wrong".  Well, things keep going wrong and I don't imagine that process is going to change much.

Today, we are unemployed, with less than one months expenses in financial cushion.  If a job doesn't come, and right soon, we're facing foreclosure, probably some time in the spring.  We can't sell the house, because we have no where to go, we don't have enough money to put down first/last/deposit on a rental somewhere.  We might be underwater anyway.  Oh, yeah, and it needs a new roof, to the tune of maybe $18K.  Gah.

Yesterday, I called the mortgage company (BofA) to discuss this mess.  They will have a "modification" team contact me soon.  We have spoken to some programs that should offer help; Green Path Debt Solutions and KeepYourHomeCalifornia.Org are the two biggies, among others.  The first one advised my husband to look for a job.  Du-oh.  The second one can't help us until *after* the unemployment checks start arriving.  We won't qualify until we have *more* income than we do today.  Eh?  So those things are out there.  We're doing all the right and responsible things.

So, the focus of this blog is changing.  I intend to publicly record the process of foreclosure, if and when it comes down to that.  People don't talk about these things.  I am inspired in this by my friend, Jay Lake, who blogs very thoroughly about his experience with cancer and chemo.