Meet the Statistics

I’ve needed to write this entry for a long time.  I stalled a bit by trying to figure out if I could write song lyrics for “Meet the Statistics” to the theme of “Meet the Flintstones”, but the syllables just weren’t right.  Anything to try to cheer the entry up… now I’ll just rely on self-deprecating humour.

Flippy and I became one of the national numbers back in August of last year when we received a foreclosure notice from the bank.  I think Vegas holds the national record for most foreclosures in the population… it’s something like one in every five houses in Vegas is behind on payments and in trouble with the lender.  Unlike many newspaper stories and letters to the editor imply, this did not happen because we were greedy and bought “more house than we could afford”.  In fact, we live in the same house we’ve been in since 2001, and when we first moved in, our mortgage was barely higher than our apartment rental rate.  We ended up in this situation because of self-employment problems and medical bills.  We know we’re not alone… we live on a tiny street, and there are two other houses in the same situation.  The difference is that both those families have already moved out, but we’re still scratching and clawing, trying to hang on.

This past weekend I had to do our 2007 tax return, print a copy of our 2006 return, and write up a profit/loss statement for the first seven weeks of 2008.  That all could have been avoided Flippy could have produced a paystub, but she’s a contract worker like me.  So, the lender insisted that it instead had to be taxes and Schedule C and a lot of fuss and bother.  There’s apparently an “investor” who perhaps might “sponsor” our mortgage via our current lender, but we had to prove that if the mortgage was adjusted, we’d be able to pay it. I really don’t know if we’ll be able to pay it… it depends what the “adjustments” are going to be.  Right now our mortgage is for an amount about $100K more than the current value of our house, so I really hope the overall loan is adjusted downward, and our payment is reduced by about $1000.  That will still be a challenge for us, but at least it will be feasible.  Our last refinance was about a 18 months ago, and it was for an ARM, and if I could go back in time and change one big mistake, that would be the one!  At the time I still didn’t have my Green card so I couldn’t go and get a job, and Flippy had just had back surgery and was also housebound.  We had bills for $60,000+ arriving from various doctors and outpatient centers, and we figured that with one last loan, we could pay the medical bills and put some money into our Internet businesses and try to make them profitable again.  What we should have done was to just not pay the medical bills, but hey, our parents taught us to be responsible, so we did an irresponsible thing (in retrospect) while trying to do a responsible thing.  The medical bills were paid, but the Internet businesses never regained the success they once had.  We did have some savings from when times were better, but when you have a “rainy day fund”, it’s there to spend when it starts to, well, rain.  It’s been raining for us for a couple of years.

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2002, I think, but with some pretty basic medication I could feel really good, even “normal”.  Now that I’m under incessant stress, I never feel anything close to normal.  I’m either in terrible pain or I have terrible fatigue.  Some days I’m too weak to walk up the stairs.  I stopped being able to do yardwork a couple of years ago.  I love reading, but have trouble doing it because I can’t stay awake.  I haven’t blogged much because I can’t concentrate.  If I listened to myself and was an outsider, I’d think that I lacked willpower and focus.  I’m a driven, ambitious, Type-A personality, though… no one hates the state I’m in more than me, and no one’s more frustated about it than I am.  No amount of willpower changes anything.  In fact, when I beat myself up over how beaten down I am, my symptoms just get worse.  Sometimes I think I can feel stress hormones literally eating me alive from the inside.

The one bright spot in the past couple of years has been the pets.  If I didn’t have the pets, I wouldn’t even bother to get out of bed.  I don’t know if I’d ever laugh without them, but instead I laugh every day.  I think I’m in a bad state, but can’t imagine how much worse it would be if I wasn’t surrounded by furry things (and I don’t just mean the dustballs).  While the pets add to our financial challenges when they’re sick, the day-to-day expenses have always been affordable.  We do get a lot of free food for both the dogs and cats, as well as free cat litter, so they really don’t cost us much at all.  We’ve also been so lucky to have received a few donations via Wee Paws, so we’ve been able to take in strays like Dobby, and know we’ll be able to pay for their vaccines, spays, and neuters.  The pets are cared for as well as any pets could be cared for, and that’s the biggest, scariest part for me when I consider the possibility of foreclosure.  I’d of course take them wherever we go, but I don’t know where that will be.  Maybe we’d end up at our old pet-friendly apartment complex, but even that is complicated.  How do two broke and somewhat handicapped people move a houseful of furniture and animals someplace new… and how do you fit 2100 sq. ft. of belongings (and a quarter-acre yard) into an 1100 sq. ft apartment with a balcony?  I’m too old to keep going backwards, and running an animal rescue has been a dream I’ve had my entire life.  Now that I have it, and love it, I don’t want to let it go.

I wanted to write about this for a couple of reasons.  I wanted to put a face on the foreclosure problem, other than the face of the couple who bought a 4 million dollar mansion with a stated income loan when they really only earn a combined $60000 a year.  If we were like those people, we’d be in danger of losing a 4000 sq. ft. single-storey house on a golf course right now.  I’ve always wanted to live on a golf course… they’ve got bunnies.  I also wanted to explain why I’ve had some trouble blogging since last December.  I had a “stress crescendo” over the holidays, and I think part of me is broken.  I don’t know what to do to feel well again, but I know that a small lottery winning ( or a donation of about $100,000 from Rosie O’Donnell) would go a long way towards giving me some relief.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 02/27 at 03:29 AM

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  1. Wow...I will be keeping you in my thoughts. I really, really hope things start looking up for you.

    Posted by Helena  on  02/27  at  08:54 AM

  2. When Mark and I were looking to buy our first house, we purchased directly from the owner, so had no clue about fixed versus adjustable mortgages. Ours was fixed rate, and we thought they all were. We didn’t save any extra money over the 10 years we had the house, and sold it for what we bought it for, but we had the equity from our ten years of payment, and that was just like a savings account. When we moved up to our second house (and everyone was telling us we could afford a much more expensive house than we knew we could) our bank offered us a 10 year fixed, 20 year adjustable mortgage, with the option to refinance. Well, two years ago we did just that, and pushed for a fixed-rate loan all the way through, and now I’m so glad we did, because we can barely afford the constant rise in property taxes and the general repairs the place needs. And still I see adverts. telling people they can get “lower monthly payments” if they refinance their homes on ARMS. Two years ago everyone kept saying the housing bubble would “not burst.” I’ve gotten so that if the media tells me adamantly that something “won’t happen,” sure enough, it will.

    Best of luck to you getting through all of this.

    Posted by Susan  on  02/27  at  09:13 AM

  3. I’m so sorry to hear about this bad news.  I’m sending hugs and good vibes.  I wish I could send money but I just got a rent increase today.  Jeeez, huh?

    Posted by von Krankipantzen  on  02/27  at  11:19 PM

  4. I forgot to mention in the blog entry that our house was scheduled for the auction block, March 6th.  All the paperwork I did delayed it a month, but still, there’s a date looming.  I’ve noticed a couple of cars drive slowly by the house… maybe it’s just coincidence, but I wonder if they’re potential bidders at a foreclosure auction?  It’s just sad.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  02/28  at  10:09 PM

  5. I’m so sad to read your story.  My fingers are crossed for you and the pets.  I sure hope everything works out ok for you all.  Just keep your chin up and keep smiling, and really, don’t feel like it’s a step back, because every step is a step forward somehow, even if it’s not one you were planning on taking. Best wishes.

    Posted by Ryssee  on  03/13  at  02:37 PM
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