Our Introduction to the Financial Crisis

Sometimes adults say the stupidest things. Things like, "Ya know, we haven't really been affected by the financial crisis going on around us," or "Wow, we haven't had any big trials lately." Next time I say something like that, hit me over the head. ;)

Actually things aren't as bad as we thought they were 24 hours ago, but here's the story. Sunday night I was cleaning the kitchen and I found some of the landlord's mail on the counter. One letter was from a government agency dealing with finances which set a bell off in my head. I commented to Kaylon that it was letters like this that made me nervous. Jokingly, Kaylon took the letter, held it to the light, and started "reading" that the house was in foreclosure. Then he stopped and actually read it- the loan was actually in default and headed toward foreclosure. We goggled our address and it came up listed for sale on 3 different websites, including the newspaper. Kaylon called the government agency that had sent the letter and they confirmed that the house was headed into foreclosure.

We went into crazy mode- making sure that we had all our facts strait before we confronted our landlords, who had never mentioned these problems. The area where we live now has raised the rental prices, so we found that we could not afford to stay here, sad as that is. We decided to move to Manassas, VA, and rent for another year or two to save money to buy a house. We worked out commutes and looked up utilities. And then we called the landlord.

Turns out that they did not realize what was going on. They knew that had missed a payment or two, but didn't know that the house was on real estate sites or nearing foreclosure (which is why I hate that we still get their mail- had the letters gone straight to them, they would have figured this out, not us- aren't they lucky we're nosey). At least they weren't scamming us like we thought. Supposedly the landlord is going to work this out and get the house in the clear, but neither of us are very comfortable with the situation- we were paying our rent, but it wasn't going to the mortgage, and that raises red flags. We'll have to decide very soon if we want to continue here for a while and give them another chance, or if the risk is too much and we move to Manassas anyway. It needs to be soon so that we know what school Grace will be going to in the fall, though.

So that's where things stand. Some people knew this was going on, so this is an update- for other's I'm sure it's the first time hearing of it. But we are fine- we are not getting evicted- and we have some power over the situation again, which is good. Thanks for all of you that helped the past couple days- we really appreciate it.