The Begining
It started out of necessity. The Owner of the apartment building I had been living in for the last 6 years decided he didn't want the hassle of having tenants anymore. He was selling and I had 30 days to get out. Six years in one place was the longest I had ever lived anywhere in my whole life. Thinking I had secure housing made me grow complacent. Instead of looking for a place to call my own all those years I had been helping him pay off his mortgage.
My Mother was in the same boat. She lived in a different apartment in the same building. We decided to go in together on a mortgage for a place that could be our own. She found a real estate agent from a major company that advertises on tv and he showed us a couple of multi family homes. They were run down and in need of serious repairs. Then he showed us one that looked good and had reliable, quiet tenants. It was at the top of our price range, higher than I wanted to go but we decided to move forward on it. What the realtor forgot to mention that he was the sellers broker for this particular house. When asked weeks later he admitted that he was the sellers agent but failed to provide us with a disclosue form.
By then we were already having problems. The original Mortgage officer "went on vacation" and never returned. This is what we tell people at my job when they get fired. The new mortgage officer was having trouble figuring out how he qualified us for so much money. The realtor stepped in and somehow convinced them to go ahead and give us the money for the house. He really wanted this deal to go through.
The inspection revealed several major problems. Some of which like the driveway needing work were obvious, but others like the electric wiring not being up to code weren't. We wanted the wiring upgraded throughout the house before we would go through with the purchase. The owner didn't want to do it. The insurance people I talked to said they wouldn't be able to insure us they way it was in the inspection report.
While we were going back and forth over the various repairs needed I noticed something on some paperwork my mother had in a folder. Each time the price of the house was written on a document it was a little higher. On the last one it was just $500 shy of the sellers original asking price. The broker had no answer when I asked him about it and became evasive. The owner was still unwilling to do the repairs so I told them the deal was off.
My mother still felt like it could work so I called the mortgage company and told them that there was no way I could co-sign on the house. I thought that without me the funding would never go through since with both of us they had a hard time approving the loan. But somehow, even without me on the mortgage the realtor convinced them to keep the financing in place.
After explaining the extent of the problems with the house, the real cost of the mortgage payments, and what I saw as shady behavior by the real estate agent my mother decided she didn't want to go through with the house either. When she informed the realtor he threated her, told her that she could get sued and various other threats. Its was only after days of standing her ground that he finally calmed down. Eventually I even got my deposit back.
This episode, despite my need to find new housing, soured me on the idea of purchasing a home. For almost two years I had been trying to clean up my credit. I had one major negative mark in the form of a credit card I co-signed with my sister 6 years ago that was never paid off. I had been doing what I could to add some positive credit history and putting money away for what I hoped would be a down payment on a home.
But time was up and I had to be out. All of my stuff went into storage and I moved into a trailer in my friends backyard.
I gave up on the idea of home ownership. That is until a book came across my path that made me wonder, The Challenge by Robert Allen. In the book the challenge is for him to take someone from an unemployment line and teach them to close on a house with no money down and have $5,000 in the bank within 90 days. I wondered if it was still possible in todays real estate market to do what they did. I wondered where those people in the book are now and if anyone else was doing this.
I decided that within one year I would close on a home with no money down. Thats my challenge. I give myself a year so that I can research wether people are still able to do this in todays real estate market. Also because I am alone in this and have a lot to learn, and it gives me some more time to improve my credit. Though they didn't need that in the book I would think it would make it easier to succeed. Hopefully it wont take me a year.
So I started this blog as a way remind me to work towards home ownership, hopefully with no money down, as a way to make contacts and share information with those looking to do the same thing. Also I want to make it clear that I have no affiliation in any way with Robert Allen other than having read the one book. I am sure I will read more of his and other books suggested in The Challenge.
Also this is not an Infomercial, I dont want to sell you anything. I want to share my experience and network with like minded individuals. Thats it.
With that welcome to OwnAHomeWithBadCredit.com
My Mother was in the same boat. She lived in a different apartment in the same building. We decided to go in together on a mortgage for a place that could be our own. She found a real estate agent from a major company that advertises on tv and he showed us a couple of multi family homes. They were run down and in need of serious repairs. Then he showed us one that looked good and had reliable, quiet tenants. It was at the top of our price range, higher than I wanted to go but we decided to move forward on it. What the realtor forgot to mention that he was the sellers broker for this particular house. When asked weeks later he admitted that he was the sellers agent but failed to provide us with a disclosue form.
By then we were already having problems. The original Mortgage officer "went on vacation" and never returned. This is what we tell people at my job when they get fired. The new mortgage officer was having trouble figuring out how he qualified us for so much money. The realtor stepped in and somehow convinced them to go ahead and give us the money for the house. He really wanted this deal to go through.
The inspection revealed several major problems. Some of which like the driveway needing work were obvious, but others like the electric wiring not being up to code weren't. We wanted the wiring upgraded throughout the house before we would go through with the purchase. The owner didn't want to do it. The insurance people I talked to said they wouldn't be able to insure us they way it was in the inspection report.
While we were going back and forth over the various repairs needed I noticed something on some paperwork my mother had in a folder. Each time the price of the house was written on a document it was a little higher. On the last one it was just $500 shy of the sellers original asking price. The broker had no answer when I asked him about it and became evasive. The owner was still unwilling to do the repairs so I told them the deal was off.
My mother still felt like it could work so I called the mortgage company and told them that there was no way I could co-sign on the house. I thought that without me the funding would never go through since with both of us they had a hard time approving the loan. But somehow, even without me on the mortgage the realtor convinced them to keep the financing in place.
After explaining the extent of the problems with the house, the real cost of the mortgage payments, and what I saw as shady behavior by the real estate agent my mother decided she didn't want to go through with the house either. When she informed the realtor he threated her, told her that she could get sued and various other threats. Its was only after days of standing her ground that he finally calmed down. Eventually I even got my deposit back.
This episode, despite my need to find new housing, soured me on the idea of purchasing a home. For almost two years I had been trying to clean up my credit. I had one major negative mark in the form of a credit card I co-signed with my sister 6 years ago that was never paid off. I had been doing what I could to add some positive credit history and putting money away for what I hoped would be a down payment on a home.
But time was up and I had to be out. All of my stuff went into storage and I moved into a trailer in my friends backyard.
I gave up on the idea of home ownership. That is until a book came across my path that made me wonder, The Challenge by Robert Allen. In the book the challenge is for him to take someone from an unemployment line and teach them to close on a house with no money down and have $5,000 in the bank within 90 days. I wondered if it was still possible in todays real estate market to do what they did. I wondered where those people in the book are now and if anyone else was doing this.
I decided that within one year I would close on a home with no money down. Thats my challenge. I give myself a year so that I can research wether people are still able to do this in todays real estate market. Also because I am alone in this and have a lot to learn, and it gives me some more time to improve my credit. Though they didn't need that in the book I would think it would make it easier to succeed. Hopefully it wont take me a year.
So I started this blog as a way remind me to work towards home ownership, hopefully with no money down, as a way to make contacts and share information with those looking to do the same thing. Also I want to make it clear that I have no affiliation in any way with Robert Allen other than having read the one book. I am sure I will read more of his and other books suggested in The Challenge.
Also this is not an Infomercial, I dont want to sell you anything. I want to share my experience and network with like minded individuals. Thats it.
With that welcome to OwnAHomeWithBadCredit.com
posted by Chris at 11:10 PM
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