Clarification

OK I feel the need to clarify a few things for people out there that are interested but hesitant to help out. This is a very complicated situation and it’s difficult for me to know what I should post and what I shouldn’t. I know I won’t be able to answer everyone’s questions but I’m going to try to hit the most important ones. I think the easiest way to do this is to create a sort of time line so you can get an idea of what happened. I’m going to try NOT to go into the intimate details of every little thing so I know there will still be some people with questions. All I can say is, don’t hesitate to contact me if you need to know more.

2000 February 29, Leap Day. We signed all the papers buying the house we paid
(with closing and other costs) $72,000

2003 April The company I work for goes bankrupt.
June I file Ch 13 myself in an effort to try to control mounting bills and lack of income.

2005 My unemployment exhausted and no indication of any kind of a job forthcoming, we are again feeling a financial pinch. I begin searching for some way to keep our house and come in contact with a group called ‘Trust Program”. In May we sign papers with them putting our house (actually the title to it) into a real estate trust.
August, Ray injures his back and is out of work for 3 months.
September, I return to college to get my degree in Graphic Design.

2006-7 We make numerous attempts to re-finance our house so we can pay off the trust and get the title to our home back. No one has told us that we won’t be able to re-finance because now we actually don’t own our house due to the title being in the name of the trust.

2007 January, We have to have our truck repaired to pass inspection. Due to the fact we have been putting off a number of repairs we end up paying over $2500 to get everything done. We are now behind on the payments to the trust. We get a letter dated January 11th indicating we need to make our monthly payment of $978.61 plus additional late and unspecified charges for a grand total of $3481.00. We can not raise enough money to satisfy this. Until we can pay this and additional monies which are now accumulating monthly our mortgage will not be paid.
May 6, the trust has come to term and is officially terminated. After the failure of our last attempt to re-finance we resign ourselves to having to sell the house. Without our knowledge or approval the attorney for the trust signs a real estate agreement with a real estate agent we had been talking to about selling the house. We were NOT given the opportunity to read the agreement or sign it ourselves and were NOT allowed to set the sale price of the house.

September 11th we are named as the plaintiffs in a class action suit against all of the parties involved in the trust transaction. (Yes we finally found an Attorney)


As of this writing our home is still listed for sale.
Our mortgage is in foreclosure and headed for a foreclosure sale.
We can’t stop the foreclosure by doing a work out of our back mortgage payments with our mortgage company because the trust still holds the title and we would need to get the trustees permission to work directly with our mortgage company.
The trust isn’t about to cooperate because:
1. We have filed a law suit against them.
2. According to the terms of the trust the only way we can regain title to the house is by paying the trust the amount originally invested plus any and all fees they deem reasonable.
3. Where the trust has now expired we are now required to purchase our house from the trust for the agreed upon fair market value.

The attorneys are trying to get the trust rescinded so we can work with our mortgage company, but that could take months and by then the bank will have foreclosed on the house.

We aren’t looking for a hand out and we don’t just want people to pay for our house for us because we’re too lazy to do anything for ourselves, we are trying.
Ray is a wire platter; he makes $11.40 an hour and works overtime when it’s available. Living on one income in Massachusetts is tough to do when you’re on salary, when you work by the hour if you don’t work, you don’t get paid.I still have 2 years of school left to get my degree and still haven’t been able to find work. Aside from lacking a college degree I’m permanently partially disabled. While ineligible for disability or SSI I am limited as to what I can do. (In case you’re wondering I’m an honor student with a GPA of 3.92.)

We're also trying to help other people like us who have been victimized by unscrupulous 'investors' taking advantage of people in a difficult situation. That's why we're involved in the law suit.

So, that’s the story behind the 165,000 dollar question. (so far)