Practically every Sunday my family and I chat on google+. Every now and then we share the crazy stories of our lives. My brother Roger frequently shares crazy stories (maybe because he lives near Portland?); recently I shared one too. Despite Lee and I being pretty regular-but-Dave-Ramsey-weird people, we have had crazy things happen to us...like being accosted by masked guy who stuck a gun to Lee's head, sending off our twin girls to live with my sister Lena for two months (because I was in the hospital, 2 hours from home, for 5 weeks pregnant with Elden), someone stealing our identity by opening credit cards in our name, getting my if-I-were-president statement published in a book (okay, that was in middle school, he he)..with a few more to add to the list.
Lee and I are renters. We've been married for about 10 1/2 years and we've never purchased a home, condo, townhome, etc. We have been able to live in three different places for free, which was a blessing; but never have we bought anything. Currently we are renting. Did I mention that we are renting? Before I tell you my crazy story I want it firmly ingrained in your mind that we are renters and have never purchased any type of dwelling (except a camping tent).
Right before Christmas a letter came stating that the house we are renting would soon be foreclosed. Right after our New Year's trip (here, here and here), we received another letter stating that our landlord's house would be foreclosed, with an upcoming auction of the house on the steps of the court house. The auction has come and gone and the house is going back to Freddie Mac. Now maybe this isn't so crazy as, sadly, many homes are being foreclosed. But this is the ninth place Lee and I have lived in and we've never faced this before. Freddie Mac will contact us the end of February and we'll discuss the options then. It looks like we can stay on as renters, but in a way we don't even want to mess with Freddie Mac. Side story: when the lady came to give me the information from Freddie Mac she felt really bad when she saw my kids. She told me that usually the foreclosed houses she goes to are already vacant. I told her that we are renting and she felt much better.
When we moved here we planned on buying a house 2-3 years later. We are now at 1 1/2 years here, and we might be buying a house very soon! With the foreclosure happening, we might move sooner than we thought. We eventually will have to move as Freddie Mac will put the house on the market. We really don't want to move into another rental. We don't have a lot of "stuff", but with seven people in a family, we do have a few things! Moving "stuff" is not fun. I've always wanted to ditch the college furniture when we bought a house, but that might not happen.
We do have a house in mind that we would like to purchase. Funny how plans change, but it's really, REALLY old, and I never set out with the plan to buy a house this old! It's definitely a huge renovation project. Hopefully not a "gut" job because in that case we might not buy it! If we actually buy the house I will post pictures, but here are two.
I admit, the staircase is pretty cool. Thoughts, Nathan?
And in our case with buying a house, a mortgage comes into play. We've been debt free for quite awhile. We paid off our student loans back in 2009. We did enter an agreement to buy the practice here, but 3 1/2 months into it, we were blessed have that paid off too (thankfully in the case of the practice we never had to physically borrow money from anyway...just make payments). We love not owing anyone/business/institution money! More and more I would love to put 100% down on a house, but realistically, we don't want to do that. We will unfortunately use the luxury of paying interest so that we can start buying a house.
I have been filling out paperwork to pre-qualify for a loan. Ugh. I don't like how they want to know every financial thing about us under the sun. And on top of that they want ALL of our tax statements from the past two years and retirement fund statements. Cash would be much easier!!! My one glimmer in it all: I don't have to fill out anything under the "Liabilities" column. It felt nice telling the loan lady that we didn't have any debt. If I ever buy an investment property in the future (which I would really like to do), I am definitely paying for it with 100% cash. Maybe I would even bring in pennies at closing time.....
By the way, with all this money talk, the "program" that got us fired up and focused about paying off debt is Dave Ramsey's baby step plan. Check out his book The Total Money Makeover. So good. A must read! His website, www.daveramsey.com, is great too; plus you can listen to his radio archives on his website. I like to listen to the show when I'm at home cleaning or doing stuff around the house.
We've been praying a lot about the whole situation and know that Heavenly Father has guided us and will continue to guide us. We don't know exactly when we'll buy a house or how long we'll keep renting, but it will all work out. And in the scheme of things, it doesn't really matter what happens. Though being evicted because of a foreclosure was never on my bucket list. (And would someone explain to me why your things-I-want-to-do-in-life is called a bucket list? I'm confused.)
Lee and I are renters. We've been married for about 10 1/2 years and we've never purchased a home, condo, townhome, etc. We have been able to live in three different places for free, which was a blessing; but never have we bought anything. Currently we are renting. Did I mention that we are renting? Before I tell you my crazy story I want it firmly ingrained in your mind that we are renters and have never purchased any type of dwelling (except a camping tent).
Right before Christmas a letter came stating that the house we are renting would soon be foreclosed. Right after our New Year's trip (here, here and here), we received another letter stating that our landlord's house would be foreclosed, with an upcoming auction of the house on the steps of the court house. The auction has come and gone and the house is going back to Freddie Mac. Now maybe this isn't so crazy as, sadly, many homes are being foreclosed. But this is the ninth place Lee and I have lived in and we've never faced this before. Freddie Mac will contact us the end of February and we'll discuss the options then. It looks like we can stay on as renters, but in a way we don't even want to mess with Freddie Mac. Side story: when the lady came to give me the information from Freddie Mac she felt really bad when she saw my kids. She told me that usually the foreclosed houses she goes to are already vacant. I told her that we are renting and she felt much better.
When we moved here we planned on buying a house 2-3 years later. We are now at 1 1/2 years here, and we might be buying a house very soon! With the foreclosure happening, we might move sooner than we thought. We eventually will have to move as Freddie Mac will put the house on the market. We really don't want to move into another rental. We don't have a lot of "stuff", but with seven people in a family, we do have a few things! Moving "stuff" is not fun. I've always wanted to ditch the college furniture when we bought a house, but that might not happen.
We do have a house in mind that we would like to purchase. Funny how plans change, but it's really, REALLY old, and I never set out with the plan to buy a house this old! It's definitely a huge renovation project. Hopefully not a "gut" job because in that case we might not buy it! If we actually buy the house I will post pictures, but here are two.
I admit, the staircase is pretty cool. Thoughts, Nathan?
And in our case with buying a house, a mortgage comes into play. We've been debt free for quite awhile. We paid off our student loans back in 2009. We did enter an agreement to buy the practice here, but 3 1/2 months into it, we were blessed have that paid off too (thankfully in the case of the practice we never had to physically borrow money from anyway...just make payments). We love not owing anyone/business/institution money! More and more I would love to put 100% down on a house, but realistically, we don't want to do that. We will unfortunately use the luxury of paying interest so that we can start buying a house.
I have been filling out paperwork to pre-qualify for a loan. Ugh. I don't like how they want to know every financial thing about us under the sun. And on top of that they want ALL of our tax statements from the past two years and retirement fund statements. Cash would be much easier!!! My one glimmer in it all: I don't have to fill out anything under the "Liabilities" column. It felt nice telling the loan lady that we didn't have any debt. If I ever buy an investment property in the future (which I would really like to do), I am definitely paying for it with 100% cash. Maybe I would even bring in pennies at closing time.....
By the way, with all this money talk, the "program" that got us fired up and focused about paying off debt is Dave Ramsey's baby step plan. Check out his book The Total Money Makeover. So good. A must read! His website, www.daveramsey.com, is great too; plus you can listen to his radio archives on his website. I like to listen to the show when I'm at home cleaning or doing stuff around the house.
We've been praying a lot about the whole situation and know that Heavenly Father has guided us and will continue to guide us. We don't know exactly when we'll buy a house or how long we'll keep renting, but it will all work out. And in the scheme of things, it doesn't really matter what happens. Though being evicted because of a foreclosure was never on my bucket list. (And would someone explain to me why your things-I-want-to-do-in-life is called a bucket list? I'm confused.)
5 comments:
I LOOOVE that staircase! The tiny glimpse of that house looks amazing! We love old houses too...they have so much character. FYI, my husband does mortgages and he is really good about explaining everything, so if you have any questions you can email me and I'll get you his number. Good luck!!!
It's what you want to do before you "kick the bucket." Sounds like interesting adventures . . . life is never dull!
Ahh...Thanks Sonia! I should have thought of that, ha ha. And Rachel, thank you for the offer! If our loan lady can't answer something I'll be emailing you! That is great that your husband knows the ins and outs of mortgages!
I'm with ya, WHERE did that phrase come from?!?!?!?
Sounds exciting. It actually sounds like something that would happen to us. I HATE moving "stuff", like you, we don't have much, but even furniture, beds, xmas decorations, etc and re-putting-up-frames, etc. stinks. You're right, you'll be guided though.
I love change so this is so exciting for you!
We're paying off debt using the Dave Ramsey plan. We're down to only two--and between us we had quite a few school loans, so it feels good. I think you guys are amazing with your money.
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