Looks Like My Wood Heating Days Are Over

[Battenkiller]

New member here,just signed up.I burn firewood also but I am a full time landlord and house flipper for 25 years and thought I could give some advice.I am located in Schenectady county and have dealt with many of the area eviction courts getting rid of non paying tenants.Being there 21 years I am assuming your rent is current,which means the landlord needs to give you a 30 day notice if no lease.This notice does not run Sept3-Oct 3 and you need to be gone by Oct 3 in NY state a 30 day notice given on Sept 3 is not effective until Oct 30.The landlord probably does not understand this but that is the law,if he wanted you gone for the first of October you should have received the notice the last day of August.He cannot remove you himself, if he were to do this or remove a door etc that is called a constructive eviction and you call the police and he will have problems.He will have to take you to court if you refuse to leave,pay the rent as usual for October if you wish to stay for that month and he will have to wait till November 1 to initiate eviction proceedings on you as a holdover tenant.If he tries in October just show the judge when you received notice and he should throw it out as you have not received proper notice.Chances are if he does the paperwork himself he will probably screw it up and I can tell you what to look for.As others have said the USDA rural housing loan is perfect for what you would probably be looking for.100%financing and seller can help with closing costs can get you in for very little down and with low interest rates and lots of properties on the market you may be surprised what a monthly payment would cost you.I would be glad to answer questions offline if you would like I can be reached at [email protected]

Welcome to the forum, Ken! And thanks so much for the expert advice. This is an outstanding online community, and if you ever get in trouble yourself, the membership here WILL come to your aid if you need them. It goes beyond wood heating here... it's family.

Yes, unfortunately my landlord is a shrew fellow and apparently has all his bases covered. At first we thought that he was being at least a little reasonable, but after your information it seems he has given us no more than the exact time he legally needed to. We are to be out by Oct. 30... just as you suggested he'd have to give us.

We are composing a letter that we think is well thought-out and unthreatening, stating that we feel we are not being given suitable time to get our affairs in order. Maybe we shouldn't send this at all? What do you think? I will send a copy to you if you care to read it. I don't want it to be construed as a threat to fight him on this matter, merely as an impassioned plea to do the right thing and give us the time we need. It may fall on deaf ears, though. They have always done what was legally required here, but they are a mirthless lot who likely look at us as just another farm animal to milk. But it's real good to hear that we won't be shoved out by force on Dec. 1, although nothing would make me happier than to be out tomorrow. It'd be like my wife telling me she wants me out to make room for another man. Our hearts are already broken and we need to move on and put these people in the past.

I'll be looking into that USDA Rural Housing Loan. We have terrible credit, but I do have some cash and some liquid assets (as good a time as any to sell some of that silver, eh?) Maybe things will work out better than they have here. I'm an optimistic person by nature (don't listen to Lady BK), and am actually a little excited... in spite of the feeling of having been forced into war. We looked at several places today that were listed in the area we will be moving to. Most heartening of all? Every blessed one of them had a chimney of some sort sticking out of the roof. One even had pics of the living room with a Defiant neatly installed. :cheese: Time to move up in BTU output maybe?


Funny thing is that this is the first year in 25 years of burning that I got my wood supply together ahead of time. Four full cord of black birch seasoned almost a full year, as opposed to drying it in the Battenkiln every winter. As a renter, I was always worried that they'd change their minds and ask us to leave and I'd have to move/sell all my wood before I left. This year I listened to you guys. Y'all jinxed me. ;-P


Not to worry, though. I already promised to sell my wood to a member here. Amazing how this place works! I'd rather buy new wood than have to think about selling four cord at the last minute. I'm sure he will enjoy it... it's better than anything I've ever burned before. :lol:

 

[Battenkiller]

BTW Scott, if you are reading this, that's the black birch you are getting that's burning so nicely in my avatar photo. And that's green... you're gettin' the good stuff. ;-)

 

[certified106]

Bk, sorry to hear about the troubles with the landlord and the house it pisses me off even thinking about what you must be going through. Hope everything works out and you are able to find a better place than what you have now. Good Luck!

 

[Battenkiller]

At first we thought that he was being at least a little reasonable, but after your information it seems he has given us no more than the exact time he legally needed to. We are to be out by Oct. 30... just as you suggested he'd have to give us.

The good Lady BK told me to inform you all that we are to be out by 11/30/2011, not 10/30. :red:

So I'll give him that, he gave us one more month than he knew he needed to by law. Still not enough time IMO considering our situation, and still a crappy deal after 21 years here.


Thanks again, everybody. Now I need a drink of something good and strong. :coolmad:

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

New member here,just signed up.I burn firewood also but I am a full time landlord and house flipper for 25 years and thought I could give some advice.I am located in Schenectady county and have dealt with many of the area eviction courts getting rid of non paying tenants.Being there 21 years I am assuming your rent is current,which means the landlord needs to give you a 30 day notice if no lease.This notice does not run Sept3-Oct 3 and you need to be gone by Oct 3 in NY state a 30 day notice given on Sept 3 is not effective until Oct 30.The landlord probably does not understand this but that is the law,if he wanted you gone for the first of October you should have received the notice the last day of August.He cannot remove you himself, if he were to do this or remove a door etc that is called a constructive eviction and you call the police and he will have problems.He will have to take you to court if you refuse to leave,pay the rent as usual for October if you wish to stay for that month and he will have to wait till November 1 to initiate eviction proceedings on you as a holdover tenant.If he tries in October just show the judge when you received notice and he should throw it out as you have not received proper notice.Chances are if he does the paperwork himself he will probably screw it up and I can tell you what to look for.As others have said the USDA rural housing loan is perfect for what you would probably be looking for.100%financing and seller can help with closing costs can get you in for very little down and with low interest rates and lots of properties on the market you may be surprised what a monthly payment would cost you.I would be glad to answer questions offline if you would like I can be reached at [email protected]

Fine intro Ken, welcome to the forum!

Ray

+2 Ray! Awesome piece of news to say the least...I wonder if an angel is sitting on BK's shoulder

 

[Battenkiller]

Can you store it? At least the woodworking stuff and stove? Some of the good handtools and such are getting harder to find. They don't take up much room either. Maybe you could make some chests out of that exotic lumber and put everything up for a while.

Matt

Matt, trust me, they're going to have to pry them old hand tools from my cold dead hands and put em' in the coffin beside me. They don't eat up much space. It's the metal lathe, and wood lathes, and table saw, and band saw, and thickness sander, and long-bed jointer, and three drill presses, and oscillating spindle sander, and industrial belt grinder, and welders, and forges, and metal shears, and gas cylinders, and anvils, and all the massive steel tables I welded together to put all those tools on, and... well, you get the picture.

Then there is the darkroom (with both 35mm and large-format enlargers), Lady BK's glass studio (electric kiln, gas cylinders, 500 pounds of assorted glass and all), the beautiful log arch I just finished building (takes up most of the truck all by itself), the big hydraulic lift table I just bought the day before my notice came. Well, at least that will come in handy, taking all the big stationary tools apart and moving them onto the truck without breaking my back like I did moving them in years ago. And what about all them chainsaws I bought over the last two years? May never have a place I can carve out of again without the neighbors taking pot shots at me. And there is the little matter of 6 truckloads of primo pine logs I got in order to carve stuff out of, and 6 enormous perfect 32" wide, 12' long white pine logs. They came last winter, in a 25-yard dump trailer and at considerable cost. They ain't goin' anywhere (unless I can get Smokin' and Zap to come over and mill them into a more manageable size). :coolsmirk:


You collect an awful lot of useful junk in 21 years, any least most guys do. Comes in one or two at a time, but to get it all out at once? May be cheaper and simpler just to put it all in a big pile and torch it. Can't leave it behind, they'll sell it and then sue me for the cleanup. :roll:

Yeah, I'll probably have to rent a couple storage units, but they ain't cheap. Can't go on with that forever. An interesting dilemma to say the least.

Pour me another three fingers, sweetie, I'm on a roll here.

 

[remkel]

Battenkiller- I am sorry to hear about your current plight and hope that everything works out for you in the end. All I can do from here is wish you the best of luck going forward. I suppose that is now two "1977" Vigilants going into retirement this year........

God Bless.

Remi

 

[VCBurner]

Can you store it? At least the woodworking stuff and stove? Some of the good handtools and such are getting harder to find. They don't take up much room either. Maybe you could make some chests out of that exotic lumber and put everything up for a while.

Matt

Matt, trust me, they're going to have to pry them old hand tools from my cold dead hands and put em' in the coffin beside me. They don't eat up much space. It's the metal lathe, and wood lathes, and table saw, and band saw, and thickness sander, and long-bed jointer, and three drill presses, and oscillating spindle sander, and industrial belt grinder, and welders, and forges, and metal shears, and gas cylinders, and anvils, and all the massive steel tables I welded together to put all those tools on, and... well, you get the picture.

Then there is the darkroom (with both 35mm and large-format enlargers), Lady BK's glass studio (electric kiln, gas cylinders, 500 pounds of assorted glass and all), the beautiful log arch I just finished building (takes up most of the truck all by itself), the big hydraulic lift table I just bought the day before my notice came. Well, at least that will come in handy, taking all the big stationary tools apart and moving them onto the truck without breaking my back like I did moving them in years ago. And what about all them chainsaws I bought over the last two years? May never have a place I can carve out of again without the neighbors taking pot shots at me. And there is the little matter of 6 truckloads of primo pine logs I got in order to carve stuff out of, and 6 enormous perfect 32" wide, 12' long white pine logs. They came last winter, in a 25-yard dump trailer and at considerable cost. They ain't goin' anywhere (unless I can get Smokin' and Zap to come over and mill them into a more manageable size). :coolsmirk:


You collect an awful lot of useful junk in 21 years, any least most guys do. Comes in one or two at a time, but to get it all out at once? May be cheaper and simpler just to put it all in a big pile and torch it. Can't leave it behind, they'll sell it and then sue me for the cleanup. :roll:

Yeah, I'll probably have to rent a couple storage units, but they ain't cheap. Can't go on with that forever. An interesting dilemma to say the least.

Pour me another three fingers, sweetie, I'm on a roll here.

Wow! I thought I had to get rid of a lot of stuff in my move. A 20 yard dumpster packet to the gills, about 50 contractor bags also. Not to mention the three trips the scrap metal guys took out of there. I dumped the old fridge and stove that were in the house whern we moved in and left them our newer ones as well as the dishwasher i put in. We also had two garages full of stuff, one was more like a two car garage with one door.

Good luck BK, moving isn't fun, we living out of boxes now. But it'll all get better.

 

[Nater]

I'll be looking into that USDA Rural Housing Loan. We have terrible credit, but I do have some cash and some liquid assets

We used the Rural Development loan a few years ago when we bought our house. We had a very hard time getting a car loan at the time, but the rural development loan was easy. No money down and very low interest. There were a few weird restrictions on it though, at least in this area, so make sure you know what they are before looking at the properties. We almost lost our loan a couple days before closing because the land was 18 acres and we were not allowed to have anything that was sub-dividable. Luckily we ended up being 4 feet short of road frontage, so we would have to put in a right of way to sub-divide it and they allowed the loan to go through as it wasn't able to be sub-divided as is.

 

[Ken S]

I wouldn't send him a letter,he could use it against you when you get to court.If he doesn't understand a 30 day notice he may well be looking for you to move October 1 and if he gets you into court you should be able to get till November 1 before he can even start the process.Most judges don't want to make a decision and will try very hard to get all parties to mediate so you may well be able to get a little more time that way.The USDA loan needs about a 640 credit score.Also owner financing is coming back stronger than it has in a decade especially if you have something to put down sdo don't be afraid to ask an owner to hold the mortgage.Look on craigslist and even put your own ad on there,it is free.want ad digest has a decent section for real estate and realtor.com has most of the listed properties.

 

[Battenkiller]

The USDA loan needs about a 640 credit score.Also owner financing is coming back stronger than it has in a decade especially if you have something to put down sdo don't be afraid to ask an owner to hold the mortgage.Look on craigslist and even put your own ad on there,it is free.want ad digest has a decent section for real estate and realtor.com has most of the listed properties.

Well, looks like we're SOL. Our student loans are so great that they put us forever into such an astronomically high debt/income ratio that we will never get a score that high. After talking to a few realtors yesterday, we found that the people looking to finance their own homes will be just as picky about doing a credit check, if not pickier. We were interested in looking at a place near where my wife works that my daughter's best friend is desperate to sell. The woman was all excited until we told her about our credit problems, at which point she said she was sorry but she wasn't interested in selling to us.

Looks like I'll be putting some Craigslist ads out there, but they'll be to sell everything we have. We'll be needing it. Even apartment rentals require credit checks. My son moved to NC last year and had to pay a full year in advance, even though he has a perfect credit rating. They wanted to see a full year at a job down there before they'd let him sign a conventional lease. :shut:

I'm too old and tired and sick for all of this. Is 8:35 AM too early to start drinking? :-S

 

[RoseRedHoofbeats]

Oh that is just cheap. I'm real sorry. My heart about shattered at the idea of you having to sell off your entire workshop. Is there anyone around who would store it for you? At least the table saw.... or do you need the money too bad?

Student loans are SUCH a racket. It's patently ridiculous that you have to put your head on a chopping block for the next 20 years of your life to get a decent education. I absolutely cringe at the debt my generation (I'm 23) is taking on, even to pay for a bachelor's, because who the hell can find a job these days that pays well enough for school, AND housing, AND food, AND a car, and and and. Don't even get me started on for-profit colleges....

How can 21 years of solid rental history not help out your credit score??

And no, it is totally not too early. Put some Bailey's in your coffee. Hits all four major food groups- fat, booze, caffeine, and sugar. =P

~Rose

 

[Jags]

Is 8:35 AM too early to start drinking? :-S

Considering the circumstances - no. A few fingers with a single cube, please.

Not the hand tools, BK - not the hand tools. You know that your lifes' collection of those things won't bring squat on the market. It won't make a fart in a whirl winds worth of difference in the long run. Keep them. Call in favors. A couple of boxes in a friends shop/attic/garage can usually be arranged pretty easy.

This crap sucks - I wish I were closer to help. You would have storage - on a hand shake (and mine has meaning :zip: ) as long as needed.

I wish that I could come up with a perfect plan, but I can't. One day at a time and things have a way of working out. Keep us up to date, my friend.

 

[thewoodlands]

BK; Sounds like a raw deal. I hope things work out for both of you, make that four fingers!


zap

 

[VCBurner]

The USDA loan needs about a 640 credit score.Also owner financing is coming back stronger than it has in a decade especially if you have something to put down sdo don't be afraid to ask an owner to hold the mortgage.Look on craigslist and even put your own ad on there,it is free.want ad digest has a decent section for real estate and realtor.com has most of the listed properties.

Well, looks like we're SOL. Our student loans are so great that they put us forever into such an astronomically high debt/income ratio that we will never get a score that high. After talking to a few realtors yesterday, we found that the people looking to finance their own homes will be just as picky about doing a credit check, if not pickier. We were interested in looking at a place near where my wife works that my daughter's best friend is desperate to sell. The woman was all excited until we told her about our credit problems, at which point she said she was sorry but she wasn't interested in selling to us.

Looks like I'll be putting some Craigslist ads out there, but they'll be to sell everything we have. We'll be needing it. Even apartment rentals require credit checks. My son moved to NC last year and had to pay a full year in advance, even though he has a perfect credit rating. They wanted to see a full year at a job down there before they'd let him sign a conventional lease. :shut:

I'm too old and tired and sick for all of this. Is 8:35 AM too early to start drinking? :-S

Hey BK,

Just our 1st, last and securuty was $3,900, about $200 fo uhaul one way 26' plus a cargo trailer. Dumpster was $425 for a 14 day rental of a 20yard unit. We will pay $5/day beginning today until we are done cleaning the basement and yard, which will be by the end of this week. The rest of the house is completely empty and clean. The new town electric company requires a $200 deposit. The cost added up really quickly. We had a hard time packing because the kids started school on the 30th and we had to drive them to three different schools that were 40 minutes away from the old house. Then we also had to pick them up at different times. It took the last two days of packing away from us! Except we still got a lot done in between. It was difficult, but we found a house rght away, they didn't do a credit check at all, they just checked employement and previous landlord reference. As a lot of landlords do when they don't go through a real estate agency. We only looked at two 4 bedroom single family homes and neither landlord required a credit check. The second house was perfect for what we needed.

Three bedrooms upstairs and a full bath, one bed downstairs with a half bath/laundryroom, large livingroom eat in kitchen and separate diningroom. The boys have the entire upstairs. There is also a garage and full basement for storage. My riding mower, kids go cart and tools are in the garage which has a worshop area in it already with benches and storage cabinets. The garage needs a little work but the house was remodelled in 1992 and was kept in great shape, the previous tenants were great at keeping the house clean.

The best way to find a place is, hands down, Craigslist! This is the first time we used it to find a rental. No one uses the newspaper adds anymore, it costs way too much compared to a free add on Craigslist. All sorts of rental agencies advertise on there just go to housing/apartment to look at how much is available in the price range and size you need. We were looking for 3/4 bedrooms from 1200-1600. There were many listed at this range, some were rent to own. We could not find a rent to own property that would be a good fit but tried contacting some until we found the house we're in now.

I resisted the whole process at first, not even accepting that we had to move for almost three weeks. You would be better off coming to terms with it and getting on with trying to find a new place and getting rid of some stuff you may not need (which sounds like you are already ;-) ). Listing items on Craigslist is a full time job almost. I had a chicken coop(surprisingly went for $100), four wood stoves (sold for about $1850), a goat house(sold $25), 220 square feet of ceramic 12x12 tile (sold for $150), wire fencing, greenhouse glass. Everything sold except the rolls of wire fencing (ended up going with scrap metal) and the large sheet glass (one piece sold for $10 bucks.) If I had listed everything earlier I could have asked for a bit more for some of the items and could have put a washer and dryer as well as a newer fridge on for sale, but it was too late by the time I got around to it. The washer/dryer went to the scrap guys (free) who were in their early 20's and were hang drying and looking for a dryer. The fridge stayed at the old house and we dumped the older one that was barely functional when we moved in. The scrap guys took the old stove and fridge that were in the house originally. Two more updates the landlady will reap benefits from after we're all moved out!!

One thing I can say is put pictures of the items you are trying to sell because some people won't even look at it if there is no image. Also put a long description of what you're trying to sell. This will help the buyer decide if this is an item he/she wants and cut down on all sorts of calls you'll get if the person wants to ask questions. The long description will also attract potential buyers to the item by causing them to think about the item. The longer it is in their mind, the more they will want it. The items that don't have pictures will create a string of calls and emails just asking for pictures and will take up a lot of your time unnecessarily.

Good luck BK, I hope this helps, I'm sure you know all this already, you seem like a savy guy!

Chris

 

[begreen]

Just getting back from a trip to the mountains. Sorry to hear this news BK. I commend you on your philosophical outlook. Life is telling you it's time for a change. It's the end of a 21 yr era and that is sad, but it's also a new beginning. I hope it turns out to be a good one, even better than you expected.

 

[Dune]

Don't give up on owner finacing so fast.

Look for properties which have been on the market for over a year, the owner's perspective changes quite a bit during a year.

Sales are extremely slow right now, my parent's mini farm in Chatham Mass has been listed just shy of a year, without a single offer.

Remember, your history as a 21 year teneant is a form of credit itself.

The seller doesn't have that much to lose, they can always forclose.

I know it is difficult, but staying as positive as possible right now is important.

 

[VCBurner]

Don't give up on owner finacing so fast.

Look for properties which have been on the market for over a year, the owner's perspective changes quite a bit during a year.

Sales are extremely slow right now, my parent's mini farm in Chatham Mass has been listed just shy of a year, without a single offer.

Remember, your history as a 21 year teneant is a form of credit itself.

The seller doesn't have that much to lose, they can always forclose.

I know it is difficult, but staying as positive as possible right now is important.

Dune,

Not to highjack a thread. But it seems like you're working on lots of new alternative energy sources down there on CC. Your signature has changed quite a bit from the last time I remember looking at it. I agree w what you said to BK about his 21 year history as a tenant. There may be lots of potential places for him and MRS. BK out there, that won't care about his student loans. Mostly landlords look at is eviction, rent to own may cost a bit more at first but they may be able to find one that's suitable.

 

[Nater]

Well, looks like we're SOL. Our student loans are so great that they put us forever into such an astronomically high debt/income ratio that we will never get a score that high. After talking to a few realtors yesterday, we found that the people looking to finance their own homes will be just as picky about doing a credit check, if not pickier. We were interested in looking at a place near where my wife works that my daughter's best friend is desperate to sell. The woman was all excited until we told her about our credit problems, at which point she said she was sorry but she wasn't interested in selling to us.

Looks like I'll be putting some Craigslist ads out there, but they'll be to sell everything we have. We'll be needing it. Even apartment rentals require credit checks. My son moved to NC last year and had to pay a full year in advance, even though he has a perfect credit rating. They wanted to see a full year at a job down there before they'd let him sign a conventional lease. :shut:

I'm too old and tired and sick for all of this. Is 8:35 AM too early to start drinking? :-S

If you haven't talked to a bank yet, I would do that right away. I wouldn't write it off until you've talked to the bank, you may be surprised. The worst they can say is 'no'. And even if they deny you, then you still could be able to do a rent-to-own / owner financing.

We have a huge amount of student loans (and debt/income ratio) and the bank wasn't concerned about it at all. We used a small mortgage company to get our loan, as I think they actually rated the person rather than just looking at a credit score. It also sounds like you were talking to a realtor about getting owner financing, which sounds like it would probably be considered a private sale and the realtor wouldn't get a commission, hence why they would try to talk you out of it.

When we first started looking at houses, we used a realtor. We were not impressed with him at all (wouldn't show us some houses, or told us they were sold). We ended up dumping the realtor and bought a house private sale.

 

[Battenkiller]

Guys....

I put the cork back in the bottle.


I just got off the phone with a realtor/mortgage broker. Unbelievably, he says we are pre-approved for a home purchase. Not sure exactly how much because it depends on taxes, but it is more than we thought was even possible. I actually have tears of joy running down my face, but I can't get ahold of my wife Rose to tell her the fantastic news. I still feel like I'm in a dream. How could we be so wrong about our credit?

Turns out we haven't made a single late payment since our bankruptcy six years ago... not one. The student loan is in repayment (and having it is actually a plus rather than a minus). We don't owe anything to anybody else for anything. Utility bills always on time or early, cars paid off, credit cards all paid off (but a few still active), and a small overdraft that we forgot about that is actually a line of credit that we have never been late on since they always take out the interest each month automatically.

And those 21 years of timely rent payments? As in, we were never late more than 10 days, and that was only a couple times many years ago? Yeah, they helped a bunch. Bottom line? We got a 703 from all three credit rating agencies. That qualifies us for the lowest USDA or FHA fixed rate available right now - 4.25%. Cripes, my parents paid 4% over 50 years ago. Turns out that this is truly the best time ever to purchase a first home. Looks like all those years of trying to do the right thing really do pay off. They say karma's a groan, but right now...... she's my groan.:cheese:


Biggest problem will be the closing costs. I can't just throw a bunch of cash in the bank, I need to leave a 60-day trail on it because there has been a lot of terrorist money that has been thrown into real estate to hide it. I need to do some (legal) trickery to make sure I don't raise any suspicions, but this guy said he has lots of ways to do this when we talk. I have lots of silver metal that I've been riding up to see how high it goes. Maybe now is the time to take and sell it, all on the up and up. We'll figure all that out.


I just knew if I kept my best outlook that things would work out better than I thought. Unless this guy is dead wrong... yes, this is a blessing in disguise. We meet with him tomorrow afternoon to sign some papers and go over some listings. Given what I told him on the phone, he assures me that there are at least thirty homes at the present that would meet out search criteria. After our meeting he says he will have an even better idea and we can eliminate about half of them, leaving at least a dozen choices that we will have. The USDA is rural loan, so maybe we'll find some place with a woodlot. Maybe we can even find a way to get a new Woodstock hybrid stove installed as part of the purchase. Now wouldn't that be cool as all hell. :coolsmile:

Thanks so much for the support and I will keep you all up to date as things develop. We have been more devastated than I've been letting on, especially to my family. They have all lost so much in the flood (my baby sister lost her home in Waterford, NY) that my problems here seem minor. But that's always the way. It hurts the most when it happens to you.


Now I can have the peace of mind to go down to Schoharie County and help out there. My daughter, in spite of her own losses, went down to help out this holiday weekend. The destruction there is complete and it happened in one of the poorest counties in our state. These people have lost everything. I will start another thread in the Can with some pics and videos now that the water has finally dropped and the "cleanup" has begun. More like a bulldozer fest in some areas. There won't be a dry eye on the forum here after seeing the carnage there.

For all of you who have stated that they would rather donate than have their tax dollars taken... do so. Most of these people couldn't begin to afford flood insurance. Now they have nothing, not even clean clothing. If you live close enough... get there. If not, I will post some info on donating money that will go directly into the towns that need in the most. Any amount will help get these folks their lives back.

 

[Dune]

Totaly freakin awesome.

 

[Nater]

Guys....

I put the cork back in the bottle.


I just got off the phone with a realtor/mortgage broker. Unbelievably, he says we are pre-approved for a home purchase. Not sure exactly how much because it depends on taxes, but it is more than we thought was even possible. I actually have tears of joy running down my face, but I can't get ahold of my wife Rose to tell her the fantastic news. I still feel like I'm in a dream. How could we be so wrong about our credit?

Turns out we haven't made a single late payment since our bankruptcy six years ago... not one. The student loan is in repayment (and having it is actually a plus rather than a minus). We don't owe anything to anybody else for anything. Utility bills always on time or early, cars paid off, credit cards all paid off (but a few still active), and a small overdraft that we forgot about that is actually a line of credit that we have never been late on since they always take out the interest each month automatically.

And those 21 years of timely rent payments? As in, we were never late more than 10 days, and that was only a couple times many years ago? Yeah, they helped a bunch. Bottom line? We got a 703 from all three credit rating agencies. That qualifies us for the lowest USDA or FHA fixed rate available right now - 4.25%. Cripes, my parents paid 4% over 50 years ago. Turns out that this is truly the best time ever to purchase a first home. Looks like all those years of trying to do the right thing really do pay off. They say karma's a groan, but right now...... she's my groan.:cheese:


Biggest problem will be the closing costs. I can't just throw a bunch of cash in the bank, I need to leave a 60-day trail on it because there has been a lot of terrorist money that has been thrown into real estate to hide it. I need to do some (legal) trickery to make sure I don't raise any suspicions, but this guy said he has lots of ways to do this when we talk. I have lots of silver metal that I've been riding up to see how high it goes. Maybe now is the time to take and sell it, all on the up and up. We'll figure all that out.


I just knew if I kept my best outlook that things would work out better than I thought. Unless this guy is dead wrong... yes, this is a blessing in disguise. We meet with him tomorrow afternoon to sign some papers and go over some listings. Given what I told him on the phone, he assures me that there are at least thirty homes at the present that would meet out search criteria. After our meeting he says he will have an even better idea and we can eliminate about half of them, leaving at least a dozen choices that we will have. The USDA is rural loan, so maybe we'll find some place with a woodlot. Maybe we can even find a way to get a new Woodstock hybrid stove installed as part of the purchase. Now wouldn't that be cool as all hell. :coolsmile:

Thanks so much for the support and I will keep you all up to date as things develop. We have been more devastated than I've been letting on, especially to my family. They have all lost so much in the flood (my baby sister lost her home in Waterford, NY) that my problems here seem minor. But that's always the way. It hurts the most when it happens to you.


Now I can have the peace of mind to go down to Schoharie County and help out there. My daughter, in spite of her own losses, went down to help out this holiday weekend. The destruction there is complete and it happened in one of the poorest counties in our state. These people have lost everything. I will start another thread in the Can with some pics and videos now that the water has finally dropped and the "cleanup" has begun. More like a bulldozer fest in some areas. There won't be a dry eye on the forum here after seeing the carnage there.

For all of you who have stated that they would rather donate than have their tax dollars taken... do so. Most of these people couldn't begin to afford flood insurance. Now they have nothing, not even clean clothing. If you live close enough... get there. If not, I will post some info on donating money that will go directly into the towns that need in the most. Any amount will help get these folks their lives back.

Congrats! I wouldn't worry about closing costs. 99% of the time, the sellers pay them. The first house we put an offer on and the one we actually bought, they seller's were paying closing costs . The only money out of pocket for us was for the Uhaul. Congrats again, it really is a great feeling when you own your home.

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Woohoo BK. Excellent News to hear on your mtg.
Now, you can probably put down that bottle

 

[begreen]

B-K, that is great news. I think you are about to begin a fantastic new life adventure. Be careful in finding a house and watch out for money pits. Get one that has been well cared for and has a great location. If necessary, rent short term if necessary and put stuff in a storage facility.

 

[VCBurner]

I knew something great would come of this. You seem like too good of a guy for anything else. Congrats! Good luck on the now HOME PURCHASE!

Sorry to hear about the loss in your family, at least they are all healthy I hope, lives cannot be brought back, homes can be rebuilt. Good luck to all!