We Finally Closed!
It's been a long three years. When we put our Indy house on the market and found our current Fort Wayne house we didn't know the series of unfortunate events that would fall. Some we might have been able to prevent if we had made different decisions. Some were the result of life just happening. But the end result was the same. For the past three years we've been unable to sell one house and dependent on rental income to pay that mortgage, we've mostly just made necessary repairs (some really expensive) to the house we live in and put off the major renovations that we desperately want to start, and we've been crushed under the debt that just never seems to go away.
But we had to wait. Who knew that purposely missing two payments on a house you aren't living in could put you behind in other goals you want to achieve? Oh wait. We knew. But at the time we didn't have much of a choice. We needed to focus on moving on and paying for the house our family is living in. Tough decisions had to be made, and as much as it pained me, we made that decision. I'm the person who saved every penny I earned in high school and paid for things with cash. There was no such thing as funny money until I graduated from college. And even then I was tight with the cash. To be in a position where bills weren't paid felt like a personal failure. With interest rates dropping we knew that we needed to refinance and try to get rid of as much of our out-of-control debt as possible, but it wasn't that easy.
First we were told we had to wait six months from our last missed payment. Summer rolled around and we were told that now we had to wait a year. Apparently, banks don't want to lend to a potential risk. I can't imagine why (please note the sarcasm). We hit the year mark, and I got the paperwork together. But even that wasn't easy. We were still a risk. So we kept gathering paperwork, I kept writing letters, and we finally had our approval. Today, after putting it off another two days so they could fix our names on the paperwork, we met at the bank to sign the paperwork. It didn't pay everything off, like we had hoped, but it still takes pressure off. Enough that we have breathing room. Enough that we can get back to dreaming.
Now, if we could just get rid of our four-legged attic tenants...
But we had to wait. Who knew that purposely missing two payments on a house you aren't living in could put you behind in other goals you want to achieve? Oh wait. We knew. But at the time we didn't have much of a choice. We needed to focus on moving on and paying for the house our family is living in. Tough decisions had to be made, and as much as it pained me, we made that decision. I'm the person who saved every penny I earned in high school and paid for things with cash. There was no such thing as funny money until I graduated from college. And even then I was tight with the cash. To be in a position where bills weren't paid felt like a personal failure. With interest rates dropping we knew that we needed to refinance and try to get rid of as much of our out-of-control debt as possible, but it wasn't that easy.
First we were told we had to wait six months from our last missed payment. Summer rolled around and we were told that now we had to wait a year. Apparently, banks don't want to lend to a potential risk. I can't imagine why (please note the sarcasm). We hit the year mark, and I got the paperwork together. But even that wasn't easy. We were still a risk. So we kept gathering paperwork, I kept writing letters, and we finally had our approval. Today, after putting it off another two days so they could fix our names on the paperwork, we met at the bank to sign the paperwork. It didn't pay everything off, like we had hoped, but it still takes pressure off. Enough that we have breathing room. Enough that we can get back to dreaming.
Now, if we could just get rid of our four-legged attic tenants...
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