Yes

by Gary Maclean

Created on: January 29, 2009   Last Updated: April 22, 2010

We met and married midway through our lives. We had both experienced life with another person and that didn't work. Now, finally, we felt we had met our true "pull-apart." We still had our young twenties dreams and aspirations. We still wanted what every American wants. We still intended to make the best of our situation and to establish a happy, productive relationship. We were excited, happy and full of energy and anticipation.

We married in 1994, rented a big farm house and immediately acquired a family dog. Children from both sides eagerly came to live with us. We were forming a family that was already in existence but now we were forging it together. It was working, we were becoming one very happy unit and we loved it. Our young twenties dreams were taking shape as we entered our young forties.

I was working full time at a strong company in a very lucrative position. At one point the owner approached me and gave me an even more interesting offer; leave his company, go into business for myself and secure Quality certification for his four divisions. I presented this opportunity to my wife and though it sounded very risky to leave the comfort of working for another company, we agreed and took the offer. With that, our own, home based business was born.

We were very successful. For eight years I was able to secure a six figure income. I knew my subject, I had very good connections and I was eager to work hard to get where we wanted to be. My wife worked equally as hard keeping the books, maintaining the mailing list, editing and publishing our monthly newsletter, advertising, communicating, doing everything related to making a home business work. We felt we had made it.

It came time to strike out and build our own dream home. We found a perfect ten acre plot, bought it on land contract and started improving it right away. We did only what our income would allow us to do. The first year we brought in utilities and cleaned the entire ten acres. It had been used as a junk yard for many years. We spent hours mapping out where our home would go and what it would look like. Yet, we restrained ourselves and depended on our income to do what we could with cash, without having to go into debt.

It worked. Over a period of five years we first cleaned the property and got it ready with utilities. Next, we put in the basement. The third year we built the first floor. The fourth year we built the second floor. The fifth year we had the structure sided, windows and doors installed and a roof put on. Everything had been paid for in cash. In addition, everything had been done by our own two hands. We swung the hammers and we wielded the saws. This was indeed OUR home. We didn't owe anyone anything. But we still could not move in. We needed the finishing touches.

Finally we buckled under the pressure and got a mortgage to finish the house. We hired a local builder and acted as contractor ourselves. We hired only who we thought would do a good job. We watched them like a hawk. Slowly, over a six month period, our dream home came together. When it was done we had a small mortgage with a very small monthly payment and we moved in. No more renting. We had experienced the real American dream. We had built our home, with our own sweat and our pain.

Now, we needed a garage. Our business was flourishing, we were making more money than we had ever made in either of our separate lives. We had no time to do anything on the house, if we were to keep our business going. We decided to turn the garage addition entirely over to an independent contractor. We did, the expansion grew, we added more than what we thought we were going to and the price tag climbed right along with it. But, we were making money hand over fist, there was no concern.

Toward the end of the expansion, we made our last financial draw and the new part of the house was opened up for use. We drove our cars into our brand new sparking garage and walked up the few steps into our new breezeway and marvelled at our accomplishments. Here we were, two twenties wanna-bes, experiencing the thrill of our lives. We had done it, we had made it, we had arrived. What's more, we had done it through the sweat of our own brows and the pain of our own bones and muscles.

My business was based on a lucrative Michigan automotive industry. Shortly after we got our new mortgage for the garage addition, Michigan automotive took a turn for the worse. My business turned as the American automotive business turned. When I tried to schedule I would get comments like "I can't even afford to buy my raw material, how can I afford you?"

I began to give away time just to keep my clients on the roster. I dropped my rate, I combined days, I offered promotions. It just didn't work. Our dream had come to an end. We began selling our personal property; extra truck, furniture, tractor. We sold anything we could do without just to make money to pay that ever-looming mortgage. We stopped services; newspaper, magazines, dry-cleaning, house cleaning, mail order coffee; anything we could discontinue, we did. We quit going out to eat, quit going to the movies, quit our Sunday drives, all the things we envisioned as our reward for a life of hard work.

We drained both of our savings accounts in our attempt to get that ever-pressing house payment for the month. We borrowed, sold, combined, discontinued. We turned our beautiful home into a bed and breakfast in the hopes it would bring in enough to make the house payments. I took on extra jobs, my wife did extra work, we collected on old favors, we challenged each other to come up with the next month's house payment.

That was our drive, make the house payment. We did everything we possibly could until the first month came that we simply could not make our meager income stretch. I was frantically looking for other employment, with any local company. Once they found out I had been a consultant for the last eight years they all turned away. It seemed no one liked a consultant.

A second month goes by and we miss the house payment again, along with every other payment. I had secured unemployment though, so we did pay the utilities and we did get some groceries in the house. We approached the bank, we went to social services, we spoke with everyone we could think of. We even did what we thought was the worse thing we could ever have done, we placed our beautiful, hand built home up for sale. We invited strangers to traipse through our personal quarters and cast their judgement upon us. No interest, nobody wanted a 4800 square foot behemoth that was personally built for a man and a woman and their in home business.

We missed the third month payment and we received the final notice letter from the bank. We went to HUD and pled for mercy. They assured us they could work with the bank and we would be safe. We provided every slip of paper they ever asked for and then some. We explained our circumstance. We cajoled, we begged, give us another chance. On July 3, 2008, the answer came through that we were being foreclosed upon.

Now, we are certainly not the only couple faced with foreclosure. I am certain we are not the only couple who feels they are victims of the system. And I'm sure we are not the only ones who are certain to lose their dream home to a system that appears to be insensitive to an individuals needs. So, I speak for all of us when I write this article and I once again plead for mercy.

I read article after article and listen to newscast after newscast about how a person can profit from a foreclosure. What is happening is that those who have, are waiting at my doorstep so they can pull our dream home out from under us. Our great, personal loss is no more than an opportunity for some one else. Our sentimental despair is someone else's anticipated opportunity. I think that is what makes me hurt more than the actual loss of my dream home. That normal people, guys like me and women like my wife, would drool at the thought of us losing our home so they can have a chance to scoop it up.

People are making businesses out of telling others how to take advantage of the poor fool's misfortune who has lost their home to foreclosure. There is never any concern for those who have lost the home, it is only for those who may have a chance to profit from that loss. It saddens me to think that the years of struggle, sweat and pain my wife and I put into our home comes down to no more than an opportunity for someone else.

We treied, we struggled, we worked hard to keep our home. It's not like we drank the mortgage payments away, or gambled them or just threw them away. We were victims of a failing society and we feel that society owes us more than a laughing epitaph. I shudder to think who will be enjoying our private third story deck this summer while we wander about trying to find housing. Who will spend their evenings in our honest to goodness, in-home theater, watching the latest releases. We know it won't be us but will the new owners even see us in the carpeted walls, the theater like floor carpeting or the built-in snack bar?

We believe we epitomize the real struggling home owner in foreclosure and we strongly believe the federal government owes us as much of a relief as they do those who were displaced from their homes in any earthquake, forest fire, or flood. We lost our home due to no actions of our own. The collapse of the economy is as much a federal disaster, as is any tornado or hurricane any place in our country. Yes, we do feel a federal bailout is in need. We plead now for that assistance.

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