robskatie

This is fantastic!!

AmerLisa

I've only just got "hooked" on this thread.....now I'll have to keep coming back for more installments. Love it!!

JEM3110

Sugarmooma, there's more up and downs/twists and turns to your story than the big rollercoaster at Six Flags! I think most of us would have packed up and gone at the 1st hiccup, your determination and drive is an inspiration to us all!

What an amazing journey you and your family have experienced, I am really enjoying reading your posts and look forward to the next installment

Lord Knows

Where have you gone and left this tale untold. Here we sit on pins and needles while you've taken flight back home !!!!:curse:

bevinva

Hope your having a good night SM, is it bike riding weather?

Lord Lionheart

Ask Mr SM

scrubbedexpat097

Have you ever had the type of phone call that only certain words seem to register in your brain? That's the way it was when our bank called....all I really heard was "we want to sell the house" and at that point my heart totally sunk. I vaguely heard her ask us to stop by and discuss the lease but at that point I wasn't really listening. I loved this little house, I wanted to stay in it. It was a happy home for us now and I felt like it was the starting point of our real life in the US, everything before had been a false start.

By the time M arrived home from work I was a wreck. After all the other set backs we had been dealt along the way we had sat and talked them through, each bolstering the other up along the way. This time I just would not be consoled. I was now the one who was ready to quit. I had really had it. I wasn't fighting anymore, I didn't want to have to keep worrying, I just wanted out. I know I was scaring the kids, they had never seen me break down this way but that night I sobbed myself to sleep knowing it was starting all over again. Maybe living in Texas was just never meant to be.

Two days later we were sitting in the bank managers office, me with a scowl on my face and M trying to make small talk and being polite. She started off by thanking us for being excellent tenants, for paying the rent promptly and for taking great care of the house. My scowl was growing! She then pointed out that we had three months left on the lease and the banks board members really didn't want to carry rental property so when our lease ended the house would be for sale. So that was it then......three months of uncertainty once again. I wanted to say something but I couldn't because I knew I would start crying and make myself look stupid. The tears were already welling in my eyes. What could we say anyway, the decision had been made.As we got up to leave she asked us to update our personal records for the bank as they didn't have our current employers information and they needed it. Hmmm.... I thought, it was a bit late for that, in three months time we would probably not even be banking with them if we had to move away.

Two weeks passed and even though we knew we should be making some kind of an effort to find another home we didn't. We were beaten this time, it was once too often. We hadn't told anyone what was happening and we just told the kids that when school was out at the end of May we would all sit down and discuss the future. It was easier to cope that way for some reason.


At the end of April I stopped at the bank as normal to pay the next months rent and was told that the manager would like to talk to me. I was sure she was going to say a For Sale sign was about to be posted in the yard. I had been expecting it to be there since our last chat with her. How wrong could I be

The bank had a proposition for us. They had checked our employment record, checked with our previous landlords, and there wanted to know if we were interested in buying the house? She knew all about the previous problems we had encountered and also knew that we didn't as yet even have a real credit history. Of course we didn't! We had never had enough money, permanent employment or permanent address to even apply for any credit let alone be approved for any. Where was this going then, she knew we wouldn't qualify for a mortgage and we certainly had no money for a down payment either.
She asked me to come back with M the next day and discuss some options.


I was confused. M was confused. How could we buy a home without money, without credit and only being in permanent employment for a few months. It was pointless getting our hopes up, it wasn't going to work.

The next day we sat with the manager and the loan officer and listened to their proposal. First of all they gave us some history on the house, which was really intriguing. It was built in 1975 and owned by a couple that had run a small market garden and craft shop in the big enclosed walkway at the back of the house. Sometime in the early '80's they had moved away to join a religious cult in Waco Texas and had let a relative live in the house. The mortgage was still being paid up until a year before we moved in. The relative had no contact with the owner and the bank was unable to trace them so that was when they took re-possession and the relative moved out. We had heard this story before from a neighbour but hadn't really thought it was true, and of course a few years down the line when the David Koresh story reared up in the news we often wondered if that was where they were!

Anyway back to the proposal. The loan officer told us how much they wanted for the house, it was a lot less than we had anticipated but still more than we thought we could afford. They also told us that they were willing to give us a mortgage and all the rent we had paid over the last nine months would serve as our down payment. The lack of credit history was not a problem with the excellent history we had with utility companies, previous rentals and with great references from our current employers. They were willing to take a chance if we were open to their terms. We were totally speechless, and I mean totally. If we were interested we needed to let them know in a week, if not then we could stay in the house until it was sold.

We were grinning, we were ecstatic, but we were sensible enough to know we needed to read all the fine print and do the sums. Never having been property owners before we were not really sure what we needed to know or look for but having lived in the house for nine months at least we knew there were no major problems. The terms of the mortgage were great, we had a good interest rate, the property taxes were all up to date and were also very reasonable. The house insurance had just been paid for a year and it would be transferred into our name if we went ahead. The mortgage repayments were lower than the monthly rent we had been paying so adding on the insurances and taxes for the year we were only paying out marginally more. It was too good to be true, but it was true. We gave a tentative yes to the bank providing the survey was good and then the I let go of the huge sigh of relief I had been holding all week. Finally no one would be able to kick us out again, we were growing up and settling down, we had just agreed to a massive debt but it felt sooooo good.


The evening after we had the closing on the house we walked hand in hand around our property. We had talked about all we would do as and when we could afford it and the kids were all into how they wanted their rooms decorated but that night was special. We didn't need to discuss any plans yet. For once we could relax, sit on our swing and just enjoy the Texas spring evening knowing we were finally in our own little home. This was what we had envisioned when our adventure had started three years earlier. It had taken a lot longer to get there than we could ever have imagined it would but we had made it and right at that point everything was perfect.Texas was now our home.

dakota44

Who would have thought it...a Bank with a heart. Good on you. Too bad it's Texas though.

scrubbedexpat097

I didn't mention did I........at the time the bank was owned by Nolan Ryan (well known in baseball circles) at the time of the closing we were also given a personally signed baseball from the man himself

dakota44

Ahhh Nolan...quite a great pitcher. Cool little extra.

Sally Redux

Very cool

ugacrew

Holy shit! First, tell me the name of the bank. I need to open a checking account there. Second, hold on to that ball! He just gave you a huge collectors item. I hope you've placed that ball in a baseball display case. Man on man.

Songbird

OMG .. I LOVE this thread!!! Thank you SOOOOoo much for sharing!!!

scrubbedexpat097

The bank sold out to Wells Fargo about 10 years ago. We do still have the ball and we still live in the same house......but the house has many more tales to tell and maybe sometime in the future I'll tell the rest of our story.


Thanks for all the interest and for all the karma and messages and for letting me share our journey with you all.

DollyLlama

Thanks for sharing your story with us.
I look forward to the other tales you have to tell