Dear Family,
I am going to tell you a sad tale that has a tragic journey but a pretty good ending. It is a tale of woe and worry, sleepless nights, several tears but I think after all is said and done, it had to happen this way for it to all come out okay in the end.
The story begins three years ago when Larisa and I separately felt moved to put our house on the market. I was at a concert with Glo in Hollidaysburg near Altoona. I had a feeling like we should sell the house and that Glo would enjoy going there to school. I later told Larisa, and she said she had a feeling in the temple at her last visit we should put the house on the market. So, having the feeling together, we talked to our realtor at the time, Ellen Kline, and we put it on the market. We put it on in about the end of February and left it on all that summer until the fall. We had it listed for $995,000 because that is what the realtor said. We had a few showings and no offers. We weren't worried because I had my same job, Glo was in school and there was no pressure. We took it off the market for the winter and then relisted it the next spring.
Since that time we have kept it on the market. We spent two years with Ellen as our realtor. It would show occasionally and he would not give us feedback. Meanwhile we would be praying desperately for it to sell until we found out the potential buyer had moved on and bought something fancier, cheaper, less land, whatever. As the time passed, we became more and more cynical and depressed. No one wanted our house, no one was interested in something we had put so much money, time and thought into, and it was very hard on us.
Then about eighteen months into this process, Mommy was looking online for a new job for me, and she found one. We had seen other jobs online but this one was different in that once we explored it, we found that it was at Chelsea hospital near Ann Arbor where Mommy had grown up and near where I had grown up. My parents, my sister Beth, and M-Boo were all nearby. Plus Ethan and Mark were living there, and it was home. Michigan football, Michigan weather and a new start. However, we still had not sold the house or even gotten an offer. I interviewed for the new job and by summer of 2016 had been offered the job--I was told we had until next summer to accept it. So we started to worry about selling the house. We wanted the job but did not want to accept the job offer until we sold the house, or we would end up owning two houses, have two house payments and it would be financially devastating. So we kept the house on the market through the fall of 2016 and early winter of 2017. Then the pressure came to bear. The new job told us in January of 2017 we needed to decide or they would look for someone else. We prayed and fasted and contemplated what we should do and in the end felt good about accepting the job. It was worrisome because we still had not sold the house but we felt like it would happen. So in the spring of 2017, knowing we wanted the new job, we switched realtors to Ella Williams, a friend of ours from church. We had lowered the price on the house from 995k to 875k at this point and had still had no offers. Ella said she would help us find a buyer, and we felt really hopeful. I was going to be released from the stake presidency in June, and we thought it was time for us to sell the house according to the promptings we had had and that it would happen any time. Plus, when I had accepted the job in January, the start date had to be July 1. The clock was ticking but the alarm would surely ring soon.
Now I have to tell you, it was very trying for our faith to have gotten to this point. We were to the point where we were just going to break even on the house with the price, our prayers and fasting had not made any difference, we had had our hopes dashed many times and all the feelings we had had on and off that the house would sell this or that time had not come to pass. We doubted our promptings, we doubted our worthiness and we doubted whether we should have taken the new job. But we kept hoping and now we were planning the move and we thought surely the Lord would let us sell the house before we left. So July 1 came around and we had to move as I had to start the new job. So we bought the new house in Michigan because we couldn't rent with 5 dogs and 3 cats and needed a big house and land. Ella kept trying to sell the house, the price went down to 850k, then 800k, then 775k and I kept paying on the house--July, two payments, August, 2 payments, September, 2 payments, October, 2 payments and electricity on both houses, homeowners insurance on two houses and it was breaking our bank. At no time during the interactions with our realtors in Pennsylvania were we offered any other options. Then during the course of our house purchase in Michigan, the Lichentenbergs (our realtors here) mentioned a short sale, or foreclosure, as options. It came after I had talked to them at length about our struggles to sell the house. A short sale is where you are short the closing cost to sell the house but do not have to pay off the difference between what you owe and what is due on the loan and all the other closing costs and what the house sells for. A short sale is contingent upon extenuating circumstances like moving to another state for a new job or other issues. That is better than the option of foreclosure because you do not have as negative an impact on you as the foreclosure. The other option is a foreclosure where you have a black mark on your financial history for ten years, and it is very damaging to your financial history. Basically, you just leave the house, and the bank says you are a bad debtor and you left without paying off your debt. A short sale counts as you paying off your debt; a foreclosure is like going bankrupt as you do not pay off your debt.
So I talked to the bank about a short sale and after a few months of work and while still paying on the houses, they approved a short sale. The house was still not selling, we went down to 825k on the house and still no offers but we had an option rather than foreclosure. So over the winter we kept waiting, hoping, praying and fasting and still no offers. Ella told us to go down to 800k, then to 775k and still no offers. Then it was spring. We talked to the bank at this time, mostly me and Ella though we had a lawyer, and they said that the house was worth 750k by their estimate so we needed to ask that price. I thought, if we ask that, the people would not offer that, but the bank wanted it at that price so we lowered it. Mind you, to pay off the loan, the realtors fee, the taxes, etc., we had to get 850k and now we are at 100k below that. So once we got down to 750k, we had people looking, and we had offers. 650k, 685k, 705k and then 720k. However, the bank had to approve whatever price we accepted because the short sale price was dependent upon them to take whatever the offer was. So with each offer, we had to get their approval and by the time they approved any of these offers (two weeks was the fastest they considered any of them), the offers were gone. Then an offer came in at 710k. I called the bank, they considered it and after about a week, they said that would be acceptable. We had to get them to approve the closing costs at that price which included taxes, the realtor fees and the short fall on the loan. It took a while and lots of calls but over about a month they approved it all. Then once we accepted the offer based on all that, we got the inspection. The buyers wanted a radon mitigation system, the back door fixed and the septic system pipes fixed. After all was said and done, the bank accepted the terms the buyers wanted at the price of $710,000.
So why did I tell you this long and very boring story? I think it worked out just right, at least for us. I want you to know that I feel bad that the house did not sell for a break-even price or that it did not sell for even what we put into it. However, because we moved, it allowed us to ask for an exception and ultimately the bank approved a short sale. If we hadn't moved yet, they probably would not have taken the lower price to pay off the debt. Because we had it on the market for so long, they were more willing at the end to do whatever was needed to close on the house. Because we had used two realtors, gotten a lawyer and lowered the price so many times over so much time, the bank knew we had done everything we could do to sell the house ourselves at a better price. Because all of these things had happened over three years, the bank was willing to accept all the terms of the sale as it was. In the end, after all the costs were included, if we had not been approved for a short sale, to get the house sold for $710,000, we would have had to pay $143,000 out of pocket. Because we had tried for three years, we had already moved out of the area, we had used two realtors, had multiple lost offers and it had taken so long, the bank in the end was willing to take this offer.
I am sorry to say that because it has been such a crummy experience, I don't feel good about any of this. I feel like a bad person not getting what I needed to pay off all the cost of selling the house but I have to admit, I am very thankful that due to the terrible long drawn out processs of selling our beautiful Pennsylvania house, we are going to come out of it only paying taxes on the difference between what we owe and what it sold for. That is a very good outcome for us.
While it has not been pretty or pleasant, I am thankful to Heavenly Father for helping us get to the end of this process and that we were able to escape without going into even more debt.
I hope this story is somewhat interesting and shows that even when we make poor decisions, and while we often have to go through a lot of difficulty to resolve them, Heavenly Father still is there for us and helps us on our way.
I am going to tell you a sad tale that has a tragic journey but a pretty good ending. It is a tale of woe and worry, sleepless nights, several tears but I think after all is said and done, it had to happen this way for it to all come out okay in the end.
The story begins three years ago when Larisa and I separately felt moved to put our house on the market. I was at a concert with Glo in Hollidaysburg near Altoona. I had a feeling like we should sell the house and that Glo would enjoy going there to school. I later told Larisa, and she said she had a feeling in the temple at her last visit we should put the house on the market. So, having the feeling together, we talked to our realtor at the time, Ellen Kline, and we put it on the market. We put it on in about the end of February and left it on all that summer until the fall. We had it listed for $995,000 because that is what the realtor said. We had a few showings and no offers. We weren't worried because I had my same job, Glo was in school and there was no pressure. We took it off the market for the winter and then relisted it the next spring.
Since that time we have kept it on the market. We spent two years with Ellen as our realtor. It would show occasionally and he would not give us feedback. Meanwhile we would be praying desperately for it to sell until we found out the potential buyer had moved on and bought something fancier, cheaper, less land, whatever. As the time passed, we became more and more cynical and depressed. No one wanted our house, no one was interested in something we had put so much money, time and thought into, and it was very hard on us.
Then about eighteen months into this process, Mommy was looking online for a new job for me, and she found one. We had seen other jobs online but this one was different in that once we explored it, we found that it was at Chelsea hospital near Ann Arbor where Mommy had grown up and near where I had grown up. My parents, my sister Beth, and M-Boo were all nearby. Plus Ethan and Mark were living there, and it was home. Michigan football, Michigan weather and a new start. However, we still had not sold the house or even gotten an offer. I interviewed for the new job and by summer of 2016 had been offered the job--I was told we had until next summer to accept it. So we started to worry about selling the house. We wanted the job but did not want to accept the job offer until we sold the house, or we would end up owning two houses, have two house payments and it would be financially devastating. So we kept the house on the market through the fall of 2016 and early winter of 2017. Then the pressure came to bear. The new job told us in January of 2017 we needed to decide or they would look for someone else. We prayed and fasted and contemplated what we should do and in the end felt good about accepting the job. It was worrisome because we still had not sold the house but we felt like it would happen. So in the spring of 2017, knowing we wanted the new job, we switched realtors to Ella Williams, a friend of ours from church. We had lowered the price on the house from 995k to 875k at this point and had still had no offers. Ella said she would help us find a buyer, and we felt really hopeful. I was going to be released from the stake presidency in June, and we thought it was time for us to sell the house according to the promptings we had had and that it would happen any time. Plus, when I had accepted the job in January, the start date had to be July 1. The clock was ticking but the alarm would surely ring soon.
Now I have to tell you, it was very trying for our faith to have gotten to this point. We were to the point where we were just going to break even on the house with the price, our prayers and fasting had not made any difference, we had had our hopes dashed many times and all the feelings we had had on and off that the house would sell this or that time had not come to pass. We doubted our promptings, we doubted our worthiness and we doubted whether we should have taken the new job. But we kept hoping and now we were planning the move and we thought surely the Lord would let us sell the house before we left. So July 1 came around and we had to move as I had to start the new job. So we bought the new house in Michigan because we couldn't rent with 5 dogs and 3 cats and needed a big house and land. Ella kept trying to sell the house, the price went down to 850k, then 800k, then 775k and I kept paying on the house--July, two payments, August, 2 payments, September, 2 payments, October, 2 payments and electricity on both houses, homeowners insurance on two houses and it was breaking our bank. At no time during the interactions with our realtors in Pennsylvania were we offered any other options. Then during the course of our house purchase in Michigan, the Lichentenbergs (our realtors here) mentioned a short sale, or foreclosure, as options. It came after I had talked to them at length about our struggles to sell the house. A short sale is where you are short the closing cost to sell the house but do not have to pay off the difference between what you owe and what is due on the loan and all the other closing costs and what the house sells for. A short sale is contingent upon extenuating circumstances like moving to another state for a new job or other issues. That is better than the option of foreclosure because you do not have as negative an impact on you as the foreclosure. The other option is a foreclosure where you have a black mark on your financial history for ten years, and it is very damaging to your financial history. Basically, you just leave the house, and the bank says you are a bad debtor and you left without paying off your debt. A short sale counts as you paying off your debt; a foreclosure is like going bankrupt as you do not pay off your debt.
So I talked to the bank about a short sale and after a few months of work and while still paying on the houses, they approved a short sale. The house was still not selling, we went down to 825k on the house and still no offers but we had an option rather than foreclosure. So over the winter we kept waiting, hoping, praying and fasting and still no offers. Ella told us to go down to 800k, then to 775k and still no offers. Then it was spring. We talked to the bank at this time, mostly me and Ella though we had a lawyer, and they said that the house was worth 750k by their estimate so we needed to ask that price. I thought, if we ask that, the people would not offer that, but the bank wanted it at that price so we lowered it. Mind you, to pay off the loan, the realtors fee, the taxes, etc., we had to get 850k and now we are at 100k below that. So once we got down to 750k, we had people looking, and we had offers. 650k, 685k, 705k and then 720k. However, the bank had to approve whatever price we accepted because the short sale price was dependent upon them to take whatever the offer was. So with each offer, we had to get their approval and by the time they approved any of these offers (two weeks was the fastest they considered any of them), the offers were gone. Then an offer came in at 710k. I called the bank, they considered it and after about a week, they said that would be acceptable. We had to get them to approve the closing costs at that price which included taxes, the realtor fees and the short fall on the loan. It took a while and lots of calls but over about a month they approved it all. Then once we accepted the offer based on all that, we got the inspection. The buyers wanted a radon mitigation system, the back door fixed and the septic system pipes fixed. After all was said and done, the bank accepted the terms the buyers wanted at the price of $710,000.
So why did I tell you this long and very boring story? I think it worked out just right, at least for us. I want you to know that I feel bad that the house did not sell for a break-even price or that it did not sell for even what we put into it. However, because we moved, it allowed us to ask for an exception and ultimately the bank approved a short sale. If we hadn't moved yet, they probably would not have taken the lower price to pay off the debt. Because we had it on the market for so long, they were more willing at the end to do whatever was needed to close on the house. Because we had used two realtors, gotten a lawyer and lowered the price so many times over so much time, the bank knew we had done everything we could do to sell the house ourselves at a better price. Because all of these things had happened over three years, the bank was willing to accept all the terms of the sale as it was. In the end, after all the costs were included, if we had not been approved for a short sale, to get the house sold for $710,000, we would have had to pay $143,000 out of pocket. Because we had tried for three years, we had already moved out of the area, we had used two realtors, had multiple lost offers and it had taken so long, the bank in the end was willing to take this offer.
I am sorry to say that because it has been such a crummy experience, I don't feel good about any of this. I feel like a bad person not getting what I needed to pay off all the cost of selling the house but I have to admit, I am very thankful that due to the terrible long drawn out processs of selling our beautiful Pennsylvania house, we are going to come out of it only paying taxes on the difference between what we owe and what it sold for. That is a very good outcome for us.
While it has not been pretty or pleasant, I am thankful to Heavenly Father for helping us get to the end of this process and that we were able to escape without going into even more debt.
I hope this story is somewhat interesting and shows that even when we make poor decisions, and while we often have to go through a lot of difficulty to resolve them, Heavenly Father still is there for us and helps us on our way.
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