Friday, August 28, 2009

Dear President Obama

Dear President Obama,

Please be informed that your plan to save people's homes is not working. My husband's income has gone down $12,000 in the last 2 years and another $6,000 so far this year. He hasn't had a raise in 3 and a half years and his piece rate stopped at the beginning of this year, just so you understand the story. (Sidenote to you cute people who thought Todd was a partner in the business: he isn't, and never has been. He doesn't even get benefits. But you are cute to think it was the 3 of them; don't worry, everyone else thought so, too, including me when I first met Todd).

When we saw deep financial trouble approaching, we called our mortgage company and informed them of such and asked ONLY for a refinance to the going interest rate which would have reduced our mortgage payment enough for us to scrape by. They refused, because we "have no equity in our home." Of course we have no equity in our home. We bought it for $252K and it's now worth about $100K.

So, we fell behind on our mortgage payments. After a couple months, we applied for a loan modification according to your new plan, Mr. Obama. We hoped the mortgage company would reduce our principal to the value of the home, since we are older than most people who have bought their first home and thus closer to retirement and relying on equity in our home to retire on (which would never happen at this point the way the market fell), as that was part of your plan.

After several months and multiple times repeating the entire modification application process, we finally received a modification offer from the bank.

They would oh so very graciously tack our late payments onto the end of our mortgage (increasing our principal rather than decreasing it) and lower our interest rate, reducing our payment by a very small amount--not enough to allow us to keep our home.

Meanwhile, because it's summer and my husband does air conditioning for a living, his paychecks have gone up (but only every third week, when he's on call and works over 80 hours in that particular week). Once the weather cools, that every third week decent paycheck will be gone. No long-term solution there.

My photography business is slllllooooow, since photography is a luxury item and most people don't have money for luxury items right now. Plus there are seemingly 5 million other "photographers" (who can't even tell you what a lighting ratio is, or how to control ambient light while using a strobe) out there giving away their "snapshots" for free.

If I were to go out and get a "regular" job, I would probably make about $8/hour, ALL of which would be paid to a child care provider to watch my 3-year-old child.

What has become of our great country? Your plan, sir, is not working. The bank is auctioning our home on October 6th. They will sell it to some strangers (who don't give a crap about my baby's footprints in the concrete) for most likely around $100K.

I am sick over this. Just sick.

Sincerely,
sandi miller

San Tan Valley, AZ

3 holla'd back:

Unknown said...

Heart breaking but very well written. You should seriously mail it to as many political figures as possible. Maybe call a news station?

The Hoot-Owl Harangue said...

ugh!!!!!!!! Don't even get me started!!!! My poor Dad, who has worked his butt off all his life, been self employed, is 60 and can't afford insurance is just about to go thru the same dang thing... I'm just sick about his deal, your deal and so many other hard working, tax paying folks out here who are going thru this... Again, I wish so bad I was a billionaire, then none of my loved ones (including you) would have to worry about this CRAP!!!!!!!!
ps--I like Tiff's idea!

sandi said...

Ang, that breaks my heart about your dad. So many hard working Americans are getting screwed right now. It leaves me speechless.

I dunno about media coverage, girls. So many other people are going through it, too. This is just my "therapy" blog. Gotta let it all out!

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