Warning: whining, self pity, and general grouchiness may be included in this post, but I don’t think there will be enough vitrol included to warrant a pit thread, but mods can feel free to move this if necessary.
Warning 2: this will most likely ramble a bit
About 13 months ago, the lovely and talented Mrs. S. and I converted our chapter 13 bankruptcy into a chapter 7. This was due to a series of medical issues that took the missus out of work for an extended period of time, and sent our finances into a tailspin. No ARM, no buying too much house, etc, just a ton of medical bills that piled up, and not enough money to pay them, along with our other debts. This is not something we are proud of, or like to mention to people, but it happened, and we are trying to move on from it.
As part of the bankruptcy, we returned the home we had purchased 6 years prior to the bank, and looked for rental and lease to own property. We found a wonderful home that was perfect for our needs and had a rent tag that we could handle, and moved. While this was not easy on any of us, it was especially tough on our daughter, who was being moved away from the group of friends she had grown up with (was 11 at the time). Things are good for the first few months.
Almost 3 months to the day after the move, I get laid off. While this was tough, and a major blow, unemployment combined with my wife’s income from her FT and PT jobs, plus cutting back on some other non-essentials means we can afford to stay. i’m also able to do some side work on my own to make some cash, and after 3 months off, I get a job offer. The offer is decent, base plus commission recruiting position with an established firm. It’s about a one-third drop in base pay, which I figured I could at least partially make up in commission. they don’t offer much in the way of benefits, but my wife carries those anyway, and there is really no room for advancement, but it’s a paycheck. Yeah for me, I’m back to work.
This would be great if the job was even close to what it was pitched to me being. Admittedly, the economy has played a major factor in the slowness, but at this point I am making minimal commissions, nowhere close to what I was told was realistic. Combined with the lack of benefits, lack of learning opportunity, and lack of advancement, it’s a miserable place, and I come to work each day hoping to be laid off. with the cost of my son being in daycare along with gas, I am actually making less than I was on unemployment.
But like I said, happy to have a job, we decide to pursue the option to buy on the house we had been renting. We contact the leasing agent and have her draw everything up, and we sign off and send it to her. this is November-ish. Come January, we have not heard from leasing agent, so we call her… she asks if we can send over the paperwork again, they moved offices and it seems as though it was lost in the move. It’s odd, but it does happen, so we send it over again. We follow up with her, and are assured that she recived it, and will be sending it to the homeowner. Yay… we now have 2 years to re-establish credit, save for a downpayment, etc.
February is mostly uneventful, save for the young miss’s 12th birthday, and things are generally well, although there are rumors of impending layoffs at Mrs. S’s work.
March comes, and rumors are true, but Mrs. S. is spared. two weeks later, around the 21st or so, second round of layoffs… and she’s okay, although employees across the board take a 10% paycut, and she has to move divisions. Could be much worse I suppose.
A few days letter, we receive a letter from the property owner stating his intention to sell the property we are currently leasing, and planned on eventually purchasing. We call the property management company that handles his property here (we are in Ohio, he is in Cali), and state our confusion, since we thought we were in contract to purchase. Our contact at the property management company seems unaware of this, and calls the owner. He claims to have never received the option to purchase, and due to him taking a bath in his real estate investments, has to liquidate… but he offers us the option to purchase the home first.
While this would be excellent, you may recall that we just came out of a bankruptcy about a year ago, and therefore cannot secure a mortgage loan. This was the freaking reason we decided to do the lease option in the first freaking place… but my wife had a plan… TBC
Ouch.