Exactly 1 year ago today, I closed on the short sale of my house. I will never forget how “small” we felt in that attorneys office. The attorney that was handling the closing looked over the figures and then looked at us and asked “how the heck did you guys get a deal like this to go through?”. Not only were we able to get the lender to accept 25k less than what we owed but they ended up crediting the buyers thousands and paid all closing costs and Realtor commissions. If you read “MY SHORT SALE NIGHTMARE”, you know now that it was not easy but we did it on our own. Our determination to not have our family thrown out on the street is how we got “that deal”.
We knew nothing about short sales or selling a house for that matter but we learned it-the hard way. It was that or get foreclosed on. Sure we felt low sitting in that attorneys office practically giving our house away, walking away from the table with NOTHING, but with the odds stacked against us-we thought it was the right decision.
Now, a year later I find myself asking the question “did we make the right decision?” … I don’t know. At the time, I chose the lesser of both evils- deal with a lender who did not want to work with us or cut our losses and try to salvage our credit and my sanity by letting the house go in a short sale rather than a foreclosure. It is obvious what I chose and look where we are. No house and on the verge of Bankruptcy. A year ago, lenders were not working with homeowners. Maybe if we waited it out-would we have been able to keep our home? I don’t know. Who could really know?
I am just so glad that now this is getting much more attention and struggling homeowners may have a chance to keep their homes and not have to uproot their families. It really does suck. I seen a story of a family who lost their home and they are living with their young kids in their minivan. I cried. I then realized that we don’t have it that bad. Every time I want to complain about out apartment or the neighbors from hell-I think about that family. This is just a small bump in the road.
