Well, I guess things couldn't get any worse. I called the mortgage company back because we had done some wheelin' and dealin' with our credit card companies and had figured out to way to maybe keep the house. Well, it turns out it was all for naught. The only way we can do that is if we can come up with over $3,000 real soon. Um...can you say NOT GONNA HAPPEN? So, we were given our list of options.

1)Short sell. Basically, call a realtor, find out the market value of the house and put it up on the market. If/When we sell the house, the money goes to the mortgage company and investors and they say that the debt has been satisfied...ALMOST. They could take the money, cut thier losses and that's it. OR, they could take the money, and then have us sign a promisary note saying we'd pay back the rest. Doesn't really sound fun. Lose the house and STILL be paying for it, and we'd still have to be approved for this option by the mortgage company. They've denied us everything else, why stop now? What's our other options?

2) "Deed in lieu". Sadly, we'd have to be approved for this too, AND we'd have to have the house on the market for at least 90 days. All together now: NOT GONNA HAPPEN! Good. What this means is basically, we give them the deed to the house in lieu of the money. Not our best option, what else?

3) Foreclosure. The guy from the mortgage company wouldn't go into any details on this so I have no clue as to what will happen, but I do know that it will stay on our credit rating for 7 years.

We have another option, but not one that the mortgage company gave us. This is advice from the few people that we've told the situation to.

A) Declare bankruptcy. Aparently, in Florida, it's a lot different than elsewhere. We can declare bankruptcy, keep the house, get rid of all of our debt, and all we'd have to pay for is the house. The bankruptcy would be on our credit rating for 7 years as well. Also, according to one source, we'd be a great credit risk, meaning that we'd be able to get credit cards and shit, because you can't declare bankruptcy again for 7 years. The creditors don't have to worry about you charging up a monster tab and then declaring bankruptcy. Still, don't really care for that idea.

So, here's what we're planning.

After discussing it with my father, it was decided that the best course of action was to go ahead and stop making the mortgage payments. Any money we give them now woudln't help anyway and we can save that money and use it elsewhere. The wife and I are looking into apartments and have found a nice apartment complex with 2 bedroom apartments that fit nicely in our price range. We can cover rent with just one of my paychecks so that's cool. My dad said that if we could find a nice, clean apartment we could afford, then to go ahead and take it and start moving stuff in. Then, maybe, we could voluntarily give up the house or something. Unfortunately, we're going to have to get rid of the 2 dogs and most if not all of the rats. That's going to be really hard on me. We've had Milkshake for 2 years and we just got Kasha, but she's already one of the family. What's worse is that the only way to get rid of the rats is to sell them to a pet store or reptile store as snake food. I just loathe having to do that, but dire circumstances require dire acts. Life really sucks sometimes.

The wife and I actually feel good about this though. Since this has all started, she's been opening up and telling me how she really feels about this house. She hates it. It was mostly my choice to get it and I think she's hated the house ever since we moved in, she just didn't want to tell me and hurt my feelings. She's so good that way. But, hopefully, the suffering is almost over. We're going to go this afternoon and walk around the apartment complex we're interested in and then tomorrow or Sunday, meet with the manager and look at a place. There isn't anything available until, possibly, 2 weeks, but we're still going to look.

Maybe this is one of those "turning points" in my/our life. We've been trudging through life the past 2½ years, going paycheck to paycheck, being late on everything, fighting with everyone and just being plain miserable. Maybe this is what we need to turn our lives around. Get into this apartment and start getting money saved. Start all over and do it right this time. Then, maybe 4-5 years from now, we'll be in a situation to not only get another house, but the house WE want to get, fixed OUR way. Who knows. I guess it can't really get any worse (short of everyone dying, but I'm not even going there).

Well, I'm off. May your journey be clear and may the road rise up to meet you.

"Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?"

Icebear

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