So this is the story. We bought this house we are living in now for a really good deal as a bank repo with the plans to remodel it and either live here or sell it and make a bunch of money.  But it ended up costing a lot more then we planned on to fix it up, because of hidden problems.  Then when we got our 2nd mortgage refinanced to have more money to finish the remodel, we made a bad decision (or maybe it was a good decision) and put our car loans and credit card debt on half of it since the interest rate was lower.  The house is pretty much finished now (at least all the big stuff) and we've owned it long enough not to have to pay the extra taxes on it if we sell it.  The problem is we went to go try and refinance again since our interest rate was high and the new rates were so low, but then we found out the lady that did it before put in the value at $30,000 more than it's worth, so now we can't refinance.  And the house values around here have dropped so we could maybe sell it for exactly what we owe, but then we wouldn't have any money for a down payment on something new.  Plus then there's all the stress of selling the house and moving.  None of which I'm looking forward to with being pregnant and having DD1 starting Kindergarten soon.  I feel like I can never keep the house clean enough to show it since I'm so sick and tired all the time.  But I feel like we have no choice but to sell now, because we haven't been making enough income to cover our expenses.  Not having money to buy food and things we need every month is so stressful.  We've sold both of our more expensive vehicles and bought cheaper ones to pay off what was left on our credit card, then we've been using every extra cent from tax returns and such to finish the house so it will sell better and maybe for more.  But there's still finish work left, unfortunately that's not getting done.  And DH is gonna have to work a 2nd job now so we can have enough money to live on, so he won't be here to help finish the house and keep it clean.  I've decided this is a horrible time to be pregnant and have a baby, since I'm useless and unless we can sell the house or something we won't be able to afford this baby.  What's sad is that DH is actually making pretty good pay with great benefits, it's just that we are paying so much on our mortgage...enough for a house that's worth $25,000 more than ours.  I don't know what to do I feel so stuck and I have no one to help!  DH's family is useless to help clean and organize and finish up our house and my parents moved far away.  Not to mentioned the higher costs of gas and food and everything else isn't helping any.  Now the m/s has come back and nothing in our house sounds good, but we don't have money to go buy the food I want to eat.  I'm so hungry!  WAHHHHH!                

well, I would say don't sell it yet. It seems that everyone is hurting for money right now. My DH just lost his job and we are left with a $1500 mortagage that we don't know how to pay. I'm sure the bank is going to take our house here soon We are also thinking of selling the house but its worth less than when we bought it. We paid about $200,000 and itd worth now about $140,000 and with realtor fees and closing cost we would end up OWING money.

What I'm doing is donating everything we have in the garage and most of the stuff in the house. that way less clutter and if DH gets a job soon we HAVE to sell the house in order to move out of the state. We might RENT the house have you though of doing that????

Emily,

I am sorry you are having a rough time -but it will get better!

Is there anything you can do in terms of working a few hours from home, telemarketing

or something? If we had a bigger house , I would want to rent out one room (to a student

with good recommendations)  - that way you could get in some extra cash each month,

a lot of students search for this type of housing, at least in Sweden they do.

Finally have you tried to negotiate with different banks - maybe you could let them

compete against eachother and take up the loan at the bank with the lowest interest rate?

And just remember the best food for you now is real stuff like veggies and beans, whole foods etc

and those are not as expensive yet as meat & processed stuff. Make lentil-soup, that is delicious!!

Just my two  

Krissymum

 

We've thought of renting it, but what it's worth to rent it is like $300 less than we pay on our mortgage.  We pretty much have to sell unless we find someone that can refinance us, cause what's the point in keeping on living here if DH has to work 2 jobs.  I don't really want to have to move again, even though I'm growing to hate the house.  We've already donated a trailer load of stuff. 

here is what i do to cut cost

hand wash dishes

line dry clothes

cut cable

took DS out of Kung fu class

No eating out

we grow our own veggies

shop second hand

recycle cans

sell my stuff on eBay.

DH is looking at jobs in Utah at the moment

Krissymum:

I would want to rent out one room (to a student

with good recommendations)  - that way you could get in some extra cash each month,

a lot of students search for this type of housing, at least in Sweden they do.

 

yet another reason why ive decided that sweden is the BEST country to live in!  i think i am moving

emily~ so sorry you are having a hard time... im sure being pg doesnt help matters. hang in there. things will get better!!!

I could never rent out a room to anyone, it's stressful enough when we have house guests. Since we only have one small bathroom, and they always seem to wake up and disturb the girls. I don't like people in my personal space. I actually just had a bowl of chili, I like beans. And I would love to have a salad right now, but we are out of dressing and I can't eat plain salad. And we don't have any fresh fruits or veggies other than lettuce. We are also out of milk and cheese. So I'm making the girls baked french fries for dinner.

sailormoonmomma:

DH is looking at jobs in Utah at the moment

Good luck with that, hey if you move near me we could hang out.  Wanna buy my house?

Have you looked into countrywide?

I have not used them so I can't say first hand, but I have a few friends who got further through them then a local place.

http://my.countrywide.com/

Worth looking into I guess.  I normally don't recommend people do this but maybe in your situation it might make sense.  You can do a 10/20 loan where the first 10 years are interest only and then after 10 years you will be paying the full monty!  We have this type of loan but are ok with paying the full amount in a few years.  The reason why I even recommend it is to buy yourself some time.  I would look into this with the idea that you will put your house up soon.  But at least you might avoid foreclosing or something.  It's worth a shot.

Emily,

I can understand that you need at least two bathrooms for having a premanent room-mate!

I just rem you house pic's and it looked so big to me, I just assumed you would have a guest

bathroom too.

It sucks to lack money - I did that all the time when I was a student so I remember it too well!

Now Dh and I have plenty, when I read about your struggle I feel abit ashamed

of the fact that I dwell on whether I can afford a new facial treatment or not this month, such non-important stuff...

But I guess we all get our fair share of something - I have my constant arthritis pain and I would

gladly pay all the money we have if I could get well from that!

Krissymum

 

 

Can you put the food on the credit cards? that's what we do untill we get approved for food stamps (which will be a loooong time from now because we have to wait for DH's severance pay to stop.)

I have countrywide..... They are ok, they pissed me off a few times and they still owe me 23.00 form a refi.  I think they will work w/ you if needed. 

 

Anyway I might have missed this but if you sell your house where are you going to live?  Will you need to get a smaller house to live comfortably?  If you are not a first time home buyer can you have a 0 down payment?  This sucks you are stuck between a rock and a hard place I wouldnt know what to do either.

DH hates taking handouts.  We could probably qualify for Medicaid which means we could definitely get WIC, but we have good health insurance so we don't need Medicaid.  And we are too proud to do WIC it makes us feel like (sorry if this offends anyone) scum to take handouts and still be having more children.  Plus we have worked so hard to get the credit card cleaned off that it hurts to put anything on it and have to pay interest.  DH would rather have to work 2 or even 3 jobs.  Also how would we pay it off, especially since with the interest it would end up costing us so much more in the long run.

Countrywide is who we have now.  They actually bought out the people we refinanced with the first time.  And are also the ones we went to to try and refinance.  And that's how we found out our house would have to appraise for $30,000 more than it's worth in order to get the new refinance loan.

As far as where we will live if we sell this house...we could actually get the exact same mortgage as long as it was at a better interest rate and be doing just fine.  If only we could buy the house from ourselves.  LOL!  But we don't want to live here anymore anyways.  I really want something with 2 bathrooms.  Our main plan was to buy a 5-6 bedroom 2-3 bath rambler/ranch with a basement, and turn the basement into an apartment to rent out for like 3-5 years.  And live on the main level with 3 bedrooms.  After the 3-5 years DH would hopefully be making more than enough for us to afford it without renting it out anymore.  Even living in that situation with less square footage and bedrooms then we have now would be better, because we would actually have a garage (which we don't have now) and we'd have more land (like 1/2 acre to 1 acre, now we only have 1/3 acre) and DH might have a workshop and we'd have storage sheds.  Also it could grow with our family and we wouldn't have to move again.  We actually have been watching 3 different houses that have these qualifications that we are interested in.  The alternative is to get a cheaper house then possibly rent it out down the road.

The part that sucks the most about this, is it's the 2nd time in our marriage that we are going through this exact same thing.  Like we didn't even learn our lesson the first time.  I'm never going to buy a crappy house and live in it while we remodel it again, it's so dumb and you never get your money out if you do a good honest job.  And you always get screwed with high interest rates when you try and refinance for more money to finish it.  I just want this to be over!  Maybe once DH gets home from his 2nd job we can come up with a plan.      

 

my dh works 2-3 jobs for years and I work a part time job.. it can be done you just have to adjust to it.  There is nothing wrong with your dh working 2 jobs.. I think that is very Honorable of him.

mommyem:

And we are too proud to do WIC it makes us feel like (sorry if this offends anyone) scum to take handouts and still be having more children. 

 

The only thing that offends me, is the fact you won't get food that you and the girls (and your dh) really need.  When I needed it, I couldn't get WIC but illegals were walking out with TONS of stuff.  Those are people that LIVE off the system Emily, not people who are in a bind right now, like you are.   It doesn't make you scum at all!   You guys are great parents and don't let something like make you feel any less. 

My mom is considered a poor senior citzen and even though she lives with us she gets free food.  Every first Tuesday of every month she goes and gets her free food and we all eat it in the house.  Because of what she makes, she qualifies.  Her bingo friends (they are the ones that told her about the program) all give my mom tons of stuff they won't eat. 

If you guys would eat it, why not go get it?  Your tax dollars are paying for it anyway. 

I'm sorry you are going through this...especially pregnant.    I'm gonna pray for you, girlie.