Day 141: Looking Ahead

Credit Score: 654

Things I'm looking forward to in the next place we live:

Neighbors that know how to park without damaging other people's property

Parking spaces wide enough to encourage neighbors not to damage others' property

A shorter commute for Cory

No HOA fees or assessments

No HOA board or meetings

Neighbors that don't have domestic disputes, drunk arrivals, or outdoor telephone conversations, all at 3am. In English or otherwise, I'm not picky.

Bedroom windows that don't face a parking lot where such events would still happen anyway

Windows on more than one side of the house

A kitchen big enough for two

More counter space

Enough space for a table AND computer desks AND guests over, all at the same time

An interstate that's more than a block away

Walking to restaurants

Being debt-free

Temporarily pretending spiders don't live in the new place

Central heating, and I wouldn't complain if there's air conditioning

I think we can get all that in an apartment. The only questions will be where, and for how much. If we didn't leave the neighborhood we're in now, we could get all that for the same as the mortgage used to cost us. We'd really like if we could get it all for less than the mortgage. If we go to the nice areas of the city, the areas we'd really like to live in eventually, we really couldn't get it for any less than our mortgage+HOA dues. While we could afford that, I'd rather put less rent in to the apartment and be saving the difference for a future down payment. Or if we find we're permanently disillusioned with home ownership, save it for retirement or a great vacation or something.

They say rents are at an almost all-time high right now though - a response to home ownership and home prices being at almost all-time lows. So everyone in this foreclosure situation is pretty much doing the exact opposite of what we "should" be. But we've all got extenuating circumstances that make foreclosure the only thing we can do. I'd sure love to be able to go out and buy a house right now. Prices are low, interest rates are low, and if I ever buy a house again, it'd be one I plan to live in for the full 30 years of the mortgage. But it's not practical. The $100,000 debt on the condo is looming over my head and forcing me in to renting for a pretty long time. Sorry Market, I can't help ya.

Day 122: When It Rains, It Pours

Credit Score: 654

Voice Mail: 15

Email: 3

Paper: 23

On-Time: 134/136

We're now up to NINE Notices of Default! No kidding. These guys are serious about making sure we got this document. It feels very Harry Potter and I'm half expecting letters to come down the chimney soon. 

After getting the first notice on our door on Saturday, we received four letters in the mail Tuesday. Two addressed to me and two addressed to my "unknown spouse and/or domestic partner." Poor nameless Cory. :) After that, we got four notices via certified mail on Thursday - two for each of us again. And finally, Friday, we got another envelope hanging on our door knob asking us to call the mortgage company. 

Sorry I can't share all these notices with all the people that are still eagerly awaiting theirs. I hope yours turn up soon. And I hope none of us will owe the huge tax burden that creeps closer every day. 

Now that it's July, my next credit report became available (based on my self-inflicted rules). I checked Experian this time and it was very interesting. It included all the same information, it now reflected three months of missed payments on my mortgage, but it included one new tidbit. It tells me when each entry will drop off my report. My original student loans will drop off ten years after they closed. My consolidated student loans are still current so don't have a drop off estimate yet. It looked like all my closed loans drop off ten calendar years from when they closed - January 2014, January 2015, 2016, 2017, etc. Always January, which is good to know. The month of closure is irrelevant. 

Instead of a drop-off date for the mortgage, since it's not closed yet, there's a date when the loan will report as positive. January 2019. Seven calendar years from now, or seven calendar years from my original missed payment. I won't be able to tell which until I see the report again with more information. It's possible that date won't change and that'd be really nice for the homeowner. No matter how long the bank takes to foreclose then, your credit is only affected for seven years from the start of the default. If it updates on my next view of the report though, when we're in to 2013, then it's just another way for the bank to be controlling your life by neglecting their duties. I would think, though, that if the 2019 estimate were going to move to 2020 then they wouldn't have mentioned when it was going to go positive until after the account is closed/foreclosed/settled. Experian would be creating a liability if that date changes. If January 2019 rolls around and that loan is still reported as negative, I can hold up my print out of today's report saying I was promised a positive report. They've been doing this a lot longer than me though and probably have some legal disclaimer in place that it's only an "estimate" or that there's an assumption that all future reports are positive. 

Anyway, it was very useful to learn when each of my credit lines will drop off my report. Starting in just a couple years, I might start losing some of the positives that are bolstering my score and be left just with the actual accounts I have open - my two new credit cards.