How The Housing Crisis Of 2008 Has Revolutionized My Life
…the housing crisis of 2008 revolutionized the way my generation looked at buying and owning your own house…
…though I didn’t have a home that went into foreclosure, I met a lot of young men my age who were all deeply affected…
…their stories and experiences revolutionized how I look at home ownership and wealth building…
…before the housing crisis I felt that I wanted to save enough money to buy my own house…
…I wasn’t very serious about my goal, and only started saving in 2009…
…though I didn’t own a house, I was still exposed to the effects of the crisis…
…while I was dating I met many men who had lost their homes, wealth or were about to lose their home…
…in addition, one of my mentors, Tracy Walker, lost her wealth in the crisis…
…the first man I met had been a successful real estate agent, owning 19 homes or so…
…he was living the high life with his wife when the real estate crisis hit…
…he ended up spending all his time negotiating with the bank, selling off his losses, dealing with is accounts being debited of all his funds for back payments on mortgages he couldn’t pay…
…he cut down the homes he owned down to a few and started a new business where he could rent them out…
,,,at the end of the 2 years or so of constant stress and making deals, he found his marriage in ruins as his wife asked for a divorce…
…I met him pretty much newly divorced…
…he moved to Hawaii and was focused on training for an Ironman to improve his health…
…he recommended renting as better than buying, and that he enjoyed having less assets and less stress…
…he taught me about negotiating, how to pay off debt quickly, and the importance of creating passive income streams…
…another fellow I met was currently in ownership of a home that was underwater…
…he had bought it before the crash…
…unable to make payments he had left it and gotten a job in the military…
…he was just waiting for the bank to finally foreclose on it…
…he was starting a new life…
…Tracy Walker is a powerful leader in our internet business…
…she had also been living the high life when the crisis hit…
…she said the lowest point was when she was driving her luxury car that was soon to be repossessed, and living in a fancy house with no furniture in it…
…she had sold everything that she could and was living on food stamps…
…then she became a millionaire internet marketer…
…then there’s the story of my husband, Jomel…
…he bought his home when the market was up later to find it decrease in value by about 50% after the crisis…
…he was paying interest only payments to the bank all ten years or so that he “owned” the home with is ex-wife…
…in the divorce proceedings he agreed to take responsibility for the house…
…unfortunately the bank did not allow her to remove her name from the second mortgage so they did a short sale…
…he didn’t feel like buying another home anytime soon…
…now we are faced with an interesting turn of fate…
…the home we are renting is up for sale due to death of the owner…
…we wanted to make an offer and buy it, even with all of the information we’ve heard about the dangers of buying a home…
…we looked into it and if your credit score is not in the 700s, the bank adds points (charging you more fees upfront) and increases the interest rate…
…by the law of 72, at a rate of 4% you will pay double what you borrowed in 18 years!
…so we decided that now is not the time…
…the future of where we will live is uncertain however, I think it’s wiser to keep up our investing and passive income building for now…
…I’m at peace with where the Universe will take us next, and visualizing a nicer bathroom…
…what about you?
…were you affected by the housing crisis of 2008?
…if you had $300,000 would you use it as a down payment on a $1,000,000 dollar home with a mortgage payment of nearly $5,000/mo, or would you invest it instead?
(thanks for the photo provided by https://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/foreclosures2.jpg)