A Walk with the Walkers: NOT a SHORT Walk {Part 2}
American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance and other reality shows have one common denominator LIFE STORIES. Contestants' life stories are like glue connecting US with THEM.
I have not watched American Idol since season five, but I still remember Kellie Pickler. I don't remember a single song she sang. I remember she was not the best singer that season, but I still hoped she would win. Why? It could have been her cute, cheerful personality. Maybe I liked her sweet southern voice. Yes, I am sure those influenced me, but I don't think those were causing my cheers from my living room.
It was her life story that had me from the word "abandoned". Both her mother and father made poor life choices leaving her to be raised by her grandparents. I wanted her to win because I was not only cheering on a pretty, southern teenager with a charming voice, but I was also supporting a young girl overcoming a difficult past and fulfilling her dream.
Ah, the power of a life story. We all have one. We can relate and encourage one another because of them.
Last week, we started exploring the reality of our current economy on REAL Americans. Dustin and Lori Walker graciously started sharing their family story. Their journey began with a heart call to move from their home, town, and state all the while "staring at a possible $25,000 shortfall just to move" {here- if you missed part one}. This week Dustin shares their short sale journey. Maybe you can relate a little. Your story will be different, but hopefully you can be encouraged by one family's quest to sell their home in a down economy. There is always HOPE.
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Go: The not-so-short sale Written by Dustin Walker {Guest Blogger}
Have you ever heard the phrase, “The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing?” This is how you would explain my experience with Bank of America and their short sale process. |
Our process of investigating a short sale began the first of April. We had photos taken of our house and put it up on the market. We also sat down with our realtor who informed us about what she knew of short sales and the various programs offered.
Basically a short sale is what I would call a foreclosure “light.” It usually means the bank can protect itself from some degree of financial loss compared to that of a foreclosure. For the seller it means that there is not as severe a penalty on one’s credit score (at least in theory), although there still are pretty steep consequences in other ways: your outstanding debt with your bank can still be pursued, claiming shortfall as income on taxes, etc..
The various programs offered all included the bank’s involvement in determining whether or not it would grant the approval and/or the conditions of the sale. Because of government incentives there were some measures of assistance provided to the seller to ensure the property was not left vacant. The programs out there were the HAFA program, Bank of America’s Cooperative Short Sale Program, and a traditional short sale.
Armed with this information I made my first contact with Bank of America. I explained our situation and that I was wanting to proactively explore the short sale process citing our mortgage payoff amount contrasted with the fair market value of our home. Little did I know that I would have to recount this story every time I called or was transferred to another representative! Amazingly at the conclusion of my first phone conversation I was told I was eligible to see if I qualified for the HAFA program. I was so surprised it only took one phone call to begin this process I said I would call back after talking with Lori and our realtor.
Shortly thereafter I called back and began the process of pursuing the HAFA program. Next I spent the next several weeks over a couple of months getting a huge runaround. First it was about the HAFA program, then Co-op program, then traditional short sale, then deed-in-lieu, and on and on…… After being told I was eligible for program after program none of them actually materialized into anything. This is due primarily with the horrendous communication internally at Bank of America and with an outsourced company assigned to my file. Looking back I’m very grateful that we did not locked intoany of these programs.
By the end of May I had reached my boiling point. I had given up my lunch break (all 25 minutes of it!) numerous times as well as my planning periods and time before/after work. In all I made over 20 calls and compiled a notebook full of details from my conversations only to have gotten nowhere. My last phone call really summed things up. I was placed on hold for nearly 15 minutes. The whole time a recorded message played over and over. After its conclusion a computerized female voice kept saying “please wait” before the message replayed. After hearing “please wait” about fifty times a representative came back on and gave me the same spiel I’d heard so many other times. After furiously hanging up I finally thought, “Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way. God is there another way? This doesn’t feel right and I’m getting nowhere fast.”
I’m embarrassed to admit that only after all of this did I seriously consult God’s word. I had been so caught up with getting our house sold that I overlooked how God might want us to approach the situation. I was humbled to be reminded that we should honor our commitments, such as fulfilling our commitment to our mortgage, even if it meant we could wind up losing a lot of money.
The bottom line: we shouldn’t walk out on a debt that we willingly signed up for. Bank of America didn’t make us by our house. On the other side of the coin was the fact that Bank of America had one priority in mind: making a profit. Did I really trust them to have my family’s best interests in mind? Not really. Plus, I read some horror stories of how people had signed up for short sales and things went horribly wrong. I wanted to avoid any making a bad situation worse.
Though I didn’t know what to do I just knew there had to be another way. Without any real solutions on the horizon we decided to take our house off the market until we had more of a plan. Somehow we knew we would have to make some sacrifices and raise the money to make up our shortfall.
Next Friday: REAL advice from the Walkers. How they became creative with raising money to pay down their mortgage and started to make some real family sacrifices.
Go share your Kellie Pickler life story. You never know who you might influence and encourage.
, The Tender Years (A Prairie Legacy, Book 1)
,and Redeeming Love)
. I am drawn to the sense of community and simpler lifestyle they seemed to posses (I am not in love with washing clothes by hand though). 
