Do it Yourself: Re: [DIY] Walking away/was Flooring

08 October 2011

Re: [DIY] Walking away/was Flooring

try having your house paid for, but because of the economy and all the foreclosures my house is now worth less than half of what we paid for it. and there is no prayer of selling unless we want to give it away so we can go where jobs are more plentiful.

rock and a hard place indeed

suzie

----- Original Message -----

From: Cindi Waters

To: DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, October 07, 2011 1:17 PM

Subject: Re: [DIY] Walking away/was Flooring

Thank you for your post. It is hard for people to understand. I understand both sides. Except for the banks and other certain greedy people. I don't think people should kill themselves because they don't know how it will work out, but I trust in God to provide my needs, and that is one reason WHY I seek to honor even a contract that I have agreed to that is not in my favor. Yes, she asked for a reduction of her interest and they will not do it. I remember when one real estate agent told me when I expressed fear that the condo we were buying wasn't worth as much as they were asking, "Oh, don't worry about it -- real estate will never go down. People will always need a place to stay." hahaha. That was, of course, before the crash. She used to brag she was a million dollar agent. She is now living in a trailer. That's what they pushed and promoted. The bubble burst. Yes, I realize the bank will not lose if she defaults because you and I (the government) will pay them to remain in business and that is what they are counting on. Again, sad and sad. Nevertheless, I have to fix things up, tile layers and other costs aren't going down either. As I figured it out, the cheapest quote I got for laminate installation was $1.99 including the laminate. Good, right? That's the cheapest. I have about 800 sq. feet. Let's say the cheapest laminate costs in the area of $.50 a sq. foot which, I'm assuming is what these cheap companies pay for their laminate, no matter what their hype is. .So the rest is labor and that's the cheapest around here. OK. So for 800 feet, the cost is approx. $1600. And believe me, no one has quoted me $1600 for a laminate job yet. But let's go with that for a moment. So take away the cost of material, the rest of the labor is 1.50 or about 1200 for labor. I think I'm correct, I don't have a pen or pencil near me. The job will take maybe a day. I'm sure the laborers like to make money, and they have to pay their rent or mortgages, food if they're not taking it from garbage dumps or soup kitehsn, assuming they're here legally and are working on the books. But me, stupid me, charged very little for music lessons and/or office work. When I made more I thought I was doing great. But in general I couldn't get more. People are looking to get jobs paying $9 or so at banks now ... right? I won't go on. Nevertheless, I will do my best to pay my bills and live within my means, whatever that might be. They have rules here. You can't have a boarder. I understand. But people around here do so by the zillions. Not in my complex, but all over the place people have to share apartments. What knocks me out is that in the poorest of neighborhoods, their rents are equivalent to those in "better neighborhoods," in fact they are exorbitant. I've seen both sides. The parents work to the bone to pay the rents, their children are busy believing the dream and may wind up buying and selling drugs or stealing. Because the parent cannot pay the bills suddenly.

From: Jan Flood <jan.flood2@att.net>
To: DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, October 7, 2011 11:46 AM
Subject: Re: [DIY] Walking away/was Flooring

I hate to get in on this volatile issue but having lived through the last housing crisis in CA back in the 70's - I do want to say if you're not involved yourself it's almost impossible to know how hard the situation is and how it can take a toll on your family. I had a client who killed himself after losing everything, it was just too much for him. He had a wife and family but could not overcome the stigma of bankruptcy and failing to provide for his family. Our neighbors walked away from everything when their electric bill topped $600 a month, it was more than their mortgage. At that time electricity in CA was quite expensive and their pumps ran on electricity - no pumps, no water, no crops, no animals -- no money coming in. They tried to work through it but $600 a month back then was a lot of money every month. We knew many people, good people who paid their bills, who through no fault of their own found themselves unable to stay on top. Banks were notorious for preferring to foreclose rather than work with people. I was the pres of the CofC at that time and one of our members, the manager of my own bank, told me if they lowered the interest or reduced the payments, it was just a loss to them, and about half the people still couldn't make it. By foreclosing they could at least use the tax writeoff.

We had an acquaintance who was a realtor. When their business went under they simply stopped making their $3000 mortgage payment. She said there was no way they could make it and it would take at least 6 months for the company to work through a foreclosure and actually evict them, and by that time they would have $18000 cash to start over with. Another neighbor simply quit paying all their bills. Said if they lost their house, which was going to happen, their credit was ruined anyway so they were stockpiling everything they could before that happened. One bank manager told me it was common for people to run their credit cards up to the max before they filed for bankruptcy. These are extreme examples, and a lot of people - especially in CA tried to hang on and ended up losing everything anyway.

When the housing boom hit CA in the late 90's and then crashed it was "deja vu, all over again" to quote Yogi Berra. Only this time prices were so inflated you didn't have to have a crystal ball to know the outcome. My kids got caught because if you needed to buy a home you had to pay the going price. One, who refinanced when money was flowing, now says he owes more than he could ever sell it for. Fortunately, they like it and it will be a good home till their kids are grown. Not everyone is so fortunate with a secure job. My only point is, it isn't always black or white and it isn't always the low-lifes who are forced into these situations.