get the two houses we own and don't live in sold

When the Fort Wayne house goes back to the bank at some point this month, I’ll have to change this goal to: sell the house we don’t live in! I’m so excited!

Here is the breakdown:
Fort Wayne House -
$710 mortgage
$200 gas
$ 20 electric
$ 40 utilities
$970 per month

Columbia City House -
$975 mortgage
$ 50 gas
$100 electric
$ 30 utilities
$1155 per month

The Farm -
$600 mortgage
$150 gas
$200 electric
$ 32 utilities
$ 75 insurance
$1057 per month

We are spending over 3k each month for “housing” in one form or another. No wonder we’re too broke to pay attention, as the expression goes.

We will be effectively getting a $2,000 a month raise.

I could faint.

Looks like one of the two properties is going away… back to the bank… bye-bye.

One down, one to go. God, let this be painless.

Okay… so back in November I contacted Centex and explained the following:

1. We have three house payments right now.
2. The payment on the property financed through Centex has gone up by $200 a month due to a reassessment of propery taxes
3. The gas bill on the house financed through Centex is in excess of $200 per month, even thought the house is empty and the thermostat is at 50 degrees
4. The house financed through Centex has been on the market over 6 months with not a nibble
5. I can’t rent out the property because their mortgage contract precludes it
6. I cannot afford all of this, three car payments (paying for his ex-wife’s vehicle… love Indiana divorce laws), four kids and life in general
7. Centex, can you help me?

No.

After getting through four people in three different departments, I left a message a day for a week for someone in the “special” department that was the only department that could possibly help me. “Ma’am, we can’t do anything for you until the property is in default. You are current on your payments.”

Fine, I haven’t made a payment since. Saturday I got my “you are in default” letter. Sweet.

I called Centex… only two people in two departments this time. The “Mr. Harper” that I ended up with was hostile, to say the least. He informed me that now that I was in default, the offer they could make to me was to catch up all my missed payments, pay all the fees and charges and make my regular February payment on time.

Huh? When questioned, he replied “That is the best I can do for you.”

My reply? “Then you can’t do anything for me.”

At that point, he says “Then I guess this call is over,” and hung up on me.

Fine.

So now, I’m going to call Centex every single day. I want it documented that I am trying to talk to these people. I might be wrong about a lot of things, but we literally can’t buy groceries and maintain these atrocious payments. We had it all budgeted and taken care of, we could manage, but then winter hit (we really believed the two “extra” houses would have sold by the end of 2005), the gas bill(s) sky rocketed, the tax reassessment kicked in… Argh.

So here we are. Broke. Broken. And credit wrecked all to hell.

Happy New Year.

Got the gas / heating bill for the house we have for sale in Fort Wayne… this house is EMPTY. The gas bill was $220.00. The gas bill for the house we OCCUPY was just at $100. Just another reason to unload this sucker. What a crock! I’m pretty pissed at the realtor right now… lots of reasons… but this just adds fuel to the fire (pun intended).