wasmi.net

We still have this house in Michigan. The mortgage company is reviewing the two offers we have had since, oh, March. The mortgage company has to approve one of the offers, as it's a short sale (meaning we don't have enough cash to cover the difference between what we owe on the house and what it's currently worth.)
The guy we are dealing with in the short sale process says, "Stop paying the mortgage. Stop paying the utilities. The mortgage company will act quicker on their decision if you are behind one or two months."
So we're damned by our current mortgage company by paying the mortgage on time, as we have been the entire time we've owned the house. The current mortgage company figures we must not be in any great financial crisis, as we are continuing to make the payments. However, we are making payments on TWO houses, utilities on TWO houses, gas is going up, grocery bills, etc. I have been unable to find a job down here. (I'm not alone-my friend down here filled out 200 applications - mostly for businesses that said they aren't currently hiring, but would keep applications on file, there just aren't any businesses hiring right now - and got one call for an interview. She didn't get the job.)
How are we damned if we don't pay the mortgage? We want to buy another house (actually, a farm) so any future mortgage company is going to damn us for not paying the mortgage. We have to keep paying the mortgage.
So we continue to drain what's left of all of my money just to cover our grocery bills and the rent on our current house, while Brian continues to pay out most of his income on a house we can't live in and can't seem to get rid of.
Brian agonized over his decision to buy a truck recently. He was concerned that his Saturn would lose value when the company was sold by GM. He was also concerned that he would lose the ability to get a car loan once the short sale goes through, or that the interest rate he would be able to get would be too high.
On the one hand, we don't currently have a farm. But on the other hand, we know we are getting a farm in the future. We don't know whether we'll find the perfect farm this year, next year, or five years from now. But we are getting one. So we will need a truck eventually.
But, then again, gas prices are certain to escalate this year. Did we really want to be driving around in a truck if we don't have a farm right now?
Damned if we do, and damned if we don't. In this case, we decided to just go for the truck (a nice, used Ford F150 that still has a few years of warranty left) since it made Brian very happy. (That was the ultimate deciding factor. Plus, we'll use it to move the rest of the stuff from Howell down to Kentucky.)
I feel like we're entering a very short window of opportunity. We have already pre-qualified for a mortgage down here, but that has a short lifespan. The pre-qualification is only good if we sell the Michigan house. So if we actually close on that house in Michigan any time soon (which seems unlikely at this point) then we have to be ready to immediately pounce on a farm that presents itself before the short sale shows up on our credit report.
(So far, there has been only one old farm house that met our specifications that has showed up for sale in this county anywhere near our price range in the past year, and that one sold in a couple of months. So we have to be able to grab it fast when it appears.)