Down and out in St. John's (for sale, apartment, rental)

[rock_rebel84]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum. I've been living in St. John's Newfoundland for the last 7 years. During that time I've had nothing but shaky employment. I have an IT background and am a registered 2nd year electrical apprentice, but that doesn't seem to be good enough to make a decent wage. I was working for an engineering company for 2 1/2 years doing IT support on an oil project here, but things started to slow down and I was laid off. During that time I bought a house, well a rental property for $245K in an ok part of town. I put 5% down which I know isn't that much, but between closing costs and having to do some renos that was all I could afford to put down. I'm beginning to realize that maybe this wasn't such a good decision, to have such a high mortgage with such abysmal job prospects. I was hired for another IT job 3 months ago and was under a 6 month robation. They hired 9 technicians to work as field technicians doing IT and ATM support for various banks, retail stores, and businesses in town and the surrounding Peninsula. My boss came to visit today so I knew something was up. Apparently it's not as busy here as they thought in regards to business so they had to let one person go, that person being me. I don't know what to do now going forward. I'm currently renting my basement while I live in the basement apartment, so the $900 rent covers most of the $1550 a month mortgage. I've thought about moving but I know I can't without landing a job first. I also have a pet that would be extremely difficult to move with me in the event I decided to. I applied for EI when I was laid off from my job last year and was cut off when I started my new job. Now I only have one month left on that claim, and not enough hours from this job to qualify for another EI claim.

I feel like this house is a massive weight on my shoulders. I suffer from anxiety trouble and often can't sleep at night thinking about what would happen if I had to move and couldn't afford to keep this house anymore. My problem is that I can't find stable work. None of my other friends seem to have this problem, but they are not in IT or doing a trade either. My car isn't working now either so that's going to make it even more difficult to look for a job. Any advice on what I should do? I know I don't deserve to be in this situation. It's not like I was slacking at work. Sigh

[netwit]

I am sorry for you, OP and I don't know what housing prices or the job market are like where you are. It seems that you can either put the house up for sale and perhaps rent a place until your job situation has sorted itself out, or, if there is a lack of jobs in your field, then get whatever other job you can find, even waiting tables, in order to try and make up the difference in your mortgage payments. I understand that having a pet makes things more difficult when it comes to renting but have you looked to see what is available?

[rock_rebel84]

Most places here don't allow pets, which was part of my decision to buy a house in the first place. I've only had this house for 2 years and have put about 10K worth of repairs in it, including a new roof. If I sell now I might get what I paid for it, if I'm lucky, but would be selling at a loss. Plus there's a bunch of small renos that need to be done to the apartment part. The economy has tanked here, and there will be a 2% increase in HST soon. I managed to re-open my EI claim and that will last for another 9 weeks, which will bring me to the first week of July. The last time I was on EI though it was for 7 months and it was the longest 7 months of my life.

[netwit]

I'm very sorry to hear that. I have 3 dogs myself. It seems to me that the only thing you can do at this point is take any job that comes your way. Perhaps in a year or two your situation will be different and you will find a job in your field.