The First Move

As we evaluated our situation, we realized our first move was to move (pun intended!). About a year before we made this decision, we had this brilliant idea to consolidate our debt into a second mortgage. The thought was we were going to live in this house forever (well at least a long time), and the value would increase to cover the debt. Obviously, we were making regular payments as well. We were pretty sure we owed more than the house was worth.



My sister-in-law decided to become a financial advisor during all of this and asked us if she could do a financial evaluation on us. Since she was just starting, a supervisor came with her. They asked us about all of our assets and what our future goals were, etc. I told her we were thinking about selling our house and that I wanted to stay at home with our children. She took one look at our financial situation and said "you can't sell your house, it would be a short sale, and you don't have any money to bring to the table". Did she just say "you can't"??? That was an immediate challenge to my ears. I felt like if God had really called me to this, that was the only way. We were making a monthly house payment over $2000.



We figured we had better get an appraisal on the house to see if we could move forward. We prayed that if this was the Lord's will, the appraisal would come in at $275,000 which would be enough to cover what we owed and the second mortgage.



We had bought the house for $243,000 about 2 years earlier, so that much of an increase in equity was quite a stretch. This was right at the end of the housing bubble, so it wasn't impossible. The appraiser came out and voila, our first miracle. The house appraised for $278,000. We took that as a sign and put our house on the market.



We had sold our first house by owner, so we wanted to save realtor fees with this sale as well. Our house backed up to a main road, so we put a sign on that road and waited.



POP!! I swear the housing bubble had to pop right after we got our appraisal. The market started to turn. We had very few calls on the house and even less showings.



So we kept praying and waiting....