Credit Score: 652
Paper: 38
Email: 3
Voicemail: 48
My auction happened Friday! I took a couple hours off work
so I could go see it happen and verify for myself that it wasn’t postponed.
They said I couldn’t take any photos or video, but I had been planning to show
you what happened.
The auction took place exactly where and when the notice
said it would. The address turned out to be the trustee’s office building, with
the auction happening in their parking garage. Right at 10am, a guy started
reading off a bunch of regulations, probably about the rules of bidding,
consequences, and ownership rules, but he was waaay too quiet to actually be heard.
The forty or so people there had obviously heard it all before so didn’t bother
to stop their conversations.
There were three auctioneers with all the auctions of the
day split up alphabetically by owners’ last name. Mine turned out to be third
on the list for one of the auctioneers. He read someone’s address, read the
minimum bid, asked for any bidders, nobody answered, he read the next address.
He read my address, read off that the minimum bid was the value of my loan plus some extra (late fees or lawyer fees or interest?) for a total of $173k.
There was a booklet that everyone got and it said my appraised value was at
$93k. With that kind of ratio, of course
nobody bid. It would’ve just stuck them in exactly the same position I am, of
being (apparently) $80,000 underwater.
I think that appraisal is a really high. Yes, there are
three units for sale in my complex and their list prices are between 95,000 and 128,000
but the only 2-bedroom units that have actually sold in recent records were
both last month with one at 65,000 and one at 65,400. Another is pending at
66,000, and a fourth is pending short sale at 88,000 but has been very nicely
remodeled (dunno if it’s 22,000 nice, but that’s the buyer’s problem).
I am oddly upset that the appraisal is so skewed, but shouldn’t
be. I wanted the numbers to actually reflect my situation. I am not 80,000
underwater, I am solidly 108,000 underwater. That’s what I’ve been living with
for a year and it was belittled to less than 75% of my real burden. If I had to
pay taxes on that difference though, I would definitely have wanted a higher
appraisal so that less of the loan would have been forgiven. Less forgiven,
less taxable income, less taxes.
Anyway, they read my name, address, minimum bid, asked for
bidders, paused, read the next name and address. There was nothing conclusive
afterwards so that was rather disappointing. There were still a lot of homes
for auction, and mine was done by 10:20, so I left. Maybe something else
happened once they were all done, but I decided I’d rather get back to the
office and keep going with my day. It didn’t really end up being worth my time
to have attended, especially since I came away with zero evidence that it
actually happened, but at least I proved to myself that the auction took place
and was not delayed. The trustee had the right to delay it up until the moment it
was auctioned, so there was always the chance it wouldn’t happen that day.
The auction wasn’t my only adventure since my last post
though. I notified the HOA board that we were leaving and that we would only
own the condo for 7 of the 31 days this month, so proposed that I wouldn’t pay
them the December HOA dues. They could get them from the new owner since they’d
own it for three times longer than I did that month. Before giving them that
proposal, I did check the rules of the association, and looked for anything
that said “HOA dues are the responsibility of whomever owns the unit on the 1st" or something. I didn’t see anything like that though. Just that a late fee
would be assessed on the 15th – after I no longer own it.
Their first response was that if we weren’t paying the dues,
we couldn’t use Cory’s parking space anymore since it’s rented and paid for
with the dues. Fine. He can park on the street. Their second response was “you
have to pay your dues” which isn’t exactly helpful. They started throwing out
numbers and making themselves sound like they knew nothing about
how foreclosures work. Before this started, I wouldn’t have known anything
either, but with how many foreclosures and sales they must have experienced in
the last few years, how can they (and the management company) not know the
rules of who pays dues the month that ownership changes hands?
I asked our lawyer again because we had heard from him back
in our February meeting that some number of months of HOA dues can be tied to
the sale and become the responsibility of the new owner - they put a lien on the
property. When I asked for more clarification from him this week though, after the HOA
started trying to bully me in to paying, he said it was actually dependent on
the year the condos were built. Any condos “built” (I don’t know if that means
permitted, ground was broken, last one was completed, or first one was sold,
but does not mean any of those if it was first constructed as apartments and
later converted to condos - then the
conversion date is what matters) any condos built after July 1, 1990 have the authority to put
the lien on the property and get dues from the new owners. Before that, they
don’t have that authority so it’d mean they come after me for any missing dues.
I’ve no idea whether my building was built before or after July 1, but the
paperwork all says 1990 – the least convenient year possible. I told the HOA
all that information, suggested they find out when exactly these officially
became condos, and that I’d be willing to pay 22% of the month’s dues for the
time I actually own the unit, I’d keep using the parking space, and that if I
could prove to them before the late fee that I no longer own the place, I
wouldn’t be liable for the remainder.
They haven’t answered me since that proposal, so I haven’t
paid yet and Cory’s still using the parking space. He’d rather we just pay the
dues so that it’s not hanging over our heads, but our dues are $330/month. That’s
a lot of money, and if I don’t have to spend it, I don’t want to. I hope to get
an official document posted on our door soon, saying that ownership officially
transferred. Maybe Monday - first business day since the sale? Then I can show
that to the board, prove I don’t own the place, and won't have to pay the dues.
Maybe we’ll still pay the 22%.
We’re moving out in a week though! This time next week, we’ll
be in an apartment. Hopefully we’ll have no mortgage debt, no HOA board still
bullying us for money, no HOA board EVER again, and no worries about a huge tax
burden looming over us. We’ll be closer to Cory’s work, which will make him
much happier, and we’ll be working towards saving enough for a 20% down payment
on a home. The goal is still to buy in June, and if we’re able to save our
average amount every month, we can probably make it. The question will be
whether we can qualify for a loan.
The news keeps telling us that qualifying
for a mortgage is still a huge hill to climb – high credit score, clean credit
history, large down payment, and a low percentage of your income going towards
the mortgage. If we just use Cory’s credit and income, we meet the first three,
but for the loan size we’d want, it’s close to 50% of his income. If we use
both of our credits and incomes, we only meet the down payment and percentage
requirements. I’ll be very disappointed if we can’t buy a home next year, but
getting out from under $100,000 of debt was necessary for our future. Maybe
that future doesn’t include home ownership again soon, but at least it includes
control of our own money, freedom to change our living situation, and a lot
less worry.
