Need A Home

[ddtrek]

Thank you for all your responses. Yes we are a responsible family down on our luck right now. Yes we have tried to resolve the situation but unfortunately we were not eligible to do so. We have been using all local ads and newspapers, but still nothing. I would just like to say "Thank You very much and keep us in your prayers."

[sheena12]

Here is a link that may be useful to you. Renting at a garden apartment type place may be next to impossible for you as they all run rather strict credit checks and if im your situation you will not have a chance.
But I did come across this link OwnerWillCarry.com When you go to it you click on your desired state and a list of homes comes up. There are 20 something homes in PA right now that will not check your credit and some situations where you may even be able to own again. I am not endorsing this site nor do I know anything about it. The homes are owned by private investors seeking to divest themselves of properties.Often you can move in for as little as 1000 down. the terms differ with each seller and each property.
I am also not sure where each of them are located - since I am not yet a native Pennsylvanian the only places that rang a bell were Pittsburgh, Phillie, West Chester and Mckeesport but there were others.
In your situation I would certainly give it a look! let us know how it goes OK?

[notkaplan]

You know, usually I'm one of those people who think that if someone is in some kind of trouble, that it's there own stupid fault for being so irresponsible. However, that's not the case with all these forclosures nowadays. The banks created this situation. They lied to people, lied about the appraisal values of homes, assured people "you can do it" when they gave them loans they couldn't afford instead of steering them to houses they could etc... which created the artificial rise in property values. They knew these people would lose the house in a few years but didn't care, they got paid that day no matter what happened to the buyers.

It happened to me too when we bought this house 3 years ago. I knew I didn't want to spend over 150k for a house even though the realtor kept showing us 180k houses. They and the mortgage broker assured me I can afford the 180k house no problem. I didn't fall for it like so many others have, and I thank God for that. No, I may not have a pool or 3,000square feet or a stainless steel kitchen or a McMansion. But I am very happy with the 3 bedrooms ,2 baths ,garage and full acre. Since it's a fixed rate, we can afford the payments, but we can't refinance because the house lost too much value since then. Our rate is high and we were promised in a year or two, we can get the rate lowered to save 200 bucks a month. Well, that never happened, and it is something we were counting on.

And I don't have any faith in Obama's so called housing relief. I've made dozens of calls to no avail. Every person I talk to either says "call these people" or "call back in 2 weeks"

[wanneroo]

I think what it highlights in our society is a lack of understanding about finances and how they work. High school in my opinion needs a rejig with more of a focus on classes about how to survive in the world rather than conjugating a verb for the 9781th time. Instead of the some of the repetitive classes like we have now, there should be a year long personal finance class.

Also I think it is up to the consumer to thoroughly investigate what they are getting into in regards to mortgages or investments. If anything retain an unbiased knowledgeable person to help you.

Also invest in yourself. By that I mean save or find ways to cut expenses. Sell excess stuff on ebay or in classified ads. Save a portion of each paycheck for a reserve fund.

[mathjak107]

i couldnt agree with you more....most people know more about their refrigerator or car then they do about anything financial

[MaggieZ]

let us know how you're making out ddtrek... there sure are lots of good people who have bad things happen, especially nowadays... I realize it's not helping you much but I wish you luck and strenght to get through this bad time...
by the way, I used to live in Plymouth