Boarding the "TITANIC" after it hits the iceberg.

[jmayflower55]

I am posting this to hopefully get some third party suggestions and input apart from mine. I am stressed out and have lost my focus in this nightmare. 1st let me say , I'm 54 years old and my husband is 73. We've been married 29 years and lived in this house for 21. His age is my biggest concern at this point, I can deal with pretty much anything, especially since I know I should have prevented this. I've always thought of myself as fairly intelligent and very responsible which is why this has created guilt beyond belief. Forgive this chronology, but it's the best way to spare you the drama. 1988 - Purchased our house; husband owns sm remodel company and I manage office.
2003- We purchase commercial building to house my new business;
2004- my retail PACK & SHIP business opened. Huge overhead, business plan flawed, start up capital gobbled up in building rennovation.
2006- Husbands health fails, 2 total shoulder replacements, try to hang on but can't; his business closes leaving debt. No retirement or assets other than Social Security.
2007- With our lost income from his business, we can't pay our personal expenses. My business is barely at break even due to bad business plan and depleted start up capital at opening. We make decision to refinance our home to get a buffer until we can sell business or commercial realestate. Our credit scores have plummeted from the 840's to the 600's. Mine was better , 620, so the mortgage company did a low doc loan, sub-prime, inflated appraisal and gave us the equity. I was not taken advantage of. I knew exactly what had transpired but I was desparate. I had employees and I thought I could save our new business. Knowing I could not make the payments we put our home 4 sale
2007- Thought we had sold our home by owner. Closing was scheduled and their loan was approved in writing by loan officer. We moved into a condo, lease purchase. They move into our home. Purchasers closing cancelled, loan recinded, they say they will pay rent until 1st morg obtained. Commercial building sells! Thank God, we have 300,000. equity. We can pay off our BOA mortgage. Oops. During buyers due diligence it is revealed that the Ohio
Dept of Transportation has targeted our property for major Interstate right of way in 2014.(acquisitions to be made in fall of 2010) Sale cancelled. 2008- occupants of our home can't get loan and stop paying so we can't pay BOA as we are paying our condo lease purchase. 11-08, we get them out and list property w/realtor & apply to BOA for loan mod, now 5 months behind in mort. 7-09, no sale, listing cancelled. I called BOA daily & Faxed & Express mailed our situation and begged someone to reply about our decision to move back into our vacant house. No one would respond to our situation. On 7-12-2009 we moved back in. We had always been taking care of it and knew occupancy was a major criteria and knew that without the sale of this property we could not go forward with the condo purchase. August 2009, we are 12 months behind in our payments to BOA on our first mortgage, (no second) we have NEVER gotten a collection call. I call every 2 days to Home retention services who is acting as an agent to BOA to modify Fannie Mae Mortgages. We have never been denied or accepted for Modification. They say please be patient. Our income/debt info has been given to BOA 3 times. With arrearage, Mort bal is around 280,000. Current Paym P IN TAX = 2377.00 Our realtor said he never had an offer over 200,000. I sold my business 11-08, and it paid the businesse's obligations with 2500.00/mo. left over for 6 more months. My husbands Soc Sec is 1600.00/mo and the lease of our building to the new occupant covers the commercial mortgage and taxes only. I was supposed to return to the business I sold full time as the store manager in 11-08 but my father was critically ill and I was the only relative/caregiver for him and so I couldn't except the position. My father died 11-30-08. Our debts beside our mortgage are only small car payment, health/life insurance utilitities short term my fathers cremation expense, some installment debt, but we can now make an 1100.00 mo payment on this mortgage starting 08-15-2009. I'm not sure we should send it because if they are going to accelerate the payoff regardless, we will need this money. In closing, I feel a personal and ethical responsibility to BOA for a contract that I willingly entered into and knew the consequences. Our exit stratedy was our commercial property which we had no idea was not a saleable property until ODOT informed our buyer. I take my contract with BOA seriously and I do believe that your WORD and your SIGNATURE is your bond. I will willingly take a bad modification from BOA as long as I get a chance to mitigate the damage and fulfill the contract I signed. It is an issue for me of personal responsibility. My 73 year old husband does not have a move left in him. I will come up with whatever payment they call for. The arrearage (forbearance) concerns me. I know this a badly rambling post but I actually feel better now. Thank you for you time.
J. Read, Cincinnati, Ohio