Our House

This is probably the most depressing topic one could talk about. At least at this point in my life. Let me start at the beginning.

Brian and I graduated May 15, 2005 with our Bachelors of Science's (mine in Business Administration and Brian's in Biology). 6-Weeks later we got married, on July 3rd, 2005. 2 days after we tied the knot we moved to California. I still can't remember exactly why we decided to make the move to California. Brian was taking the year off to work full-time and take a few extra classes before applying to vet school, and my parents were (and are) in California. I can't remember if it was the change of scenery we wanted, the California residency (for UC Davis), or what. It's bizarre to not remember why we moved out here.

We spent our first year living in a 1 bedroom apartment (it was 1,000 sq feet, so it was a big apartment for a 1 bedroom), we paid $1000 a month in rent, and lived less then 1/2 a mile from the beach. Brian got a job working for a 24-hour hospital, working graveyard, and he applied to vet school that October. After months of not so good news, some interviews, and a lot of waiting, in March he found out he had gotten in to Western! We decided we wanted to move closer to the school and the price of rentals were sky high that we decided to look into buying.

We got a real estate agent and we were pre-approved for $390,000. We were never asked how much money we made (ever, throughout the whole mortgage process), only what we could afford for a payment. We told them. We spent a few months house hunting, we made a few offers and were mainly the 3rd backup offer, and stuff like that, even though we were offering full price. Then we found our current house, we put an offer (it had been on the market for 2 days), they accepted and the process began.

They did an inspection, but we weren't present for it, (which later on we've learned we had the right to be), we had 30 days to close... and our mortgage company was moving slower then molasses. Our closing date came and went, about 30 days late, we finally closed. On closing day we were finally told our monthly payment, it was $800 higher then we originally had said we could afford, and we were told instead of the 30 year fixed we had asked for, we were given a 'special' loan. If I could have gone back ot that moment in time, I would have walked out the door, never signed a single document, and started looking for rentals. I knew that wasn't the way it was supposed to be, but all the 'professionals' and 'experts' in the room assured me (us), that this was the right thing to do.

We've now been in our house for 2 years and 4 months and we have paid -$9,000 in principle, and the loan we took out is now $40,000 more then what we originally borrowed. Our payment has gone up twice, and now it's not $800 higher then we could have afforded, it's about $1200 higher.

I've spent the last few weeks staring at the budgets for the last few years. Every month we managed to balance it, we even were saving money. But the mortgage was about 75% of our income, and since I lost my teaching job, it's substantially more then I make. We've tried to make it work for the last 8 months since I started my current job. We used all the savings we had saved up over the last few years, we stopped going out to eat, we stopped doing anything really that would qualify as 'entertainment' or extra expenses, and there is no way to make our ends meet. So I think we're finally at the point that we're going to say goodbye to our house, which I can't even begin to think about how much money it's cost us over the years, because then I'll just start crying all over again. Originally, I wanted to keep it until the baby came and we started our '4th year adventure,' but I think making it through the New Year and then moving on, is probably our best bet. Obviously, nothing is set in stone, nothing is planned, right now, we're just trying to get from one day to the next.

I just feel like a fool... but I take responsibility for my part, I know there are other steps I should have taken, advice I should have seeked, but I didn't, and it cost us a fortune for our mistake, but now we know, and hopefully we'll be able to make a better decision in the future.