In Response to Anonymous

Dear Anonymous
Regarding your response to my last posting...and I apologize for the delay in posting it and this reply as well.
I am obviously neither sophisticated nor a scam artist. If I was I wouldn’t be in this situation. I do at least have the integrity and courage to put my name on what I publish. I AM posting your comments because you are entitled to your opinion and people reading this have a right to know that there are other points of view in the world. I freely admit on the house site and here that my husband and I HAVE made mistakes. I was NOT ‘taken out of bankruptcy’ I had the bankruptcy discharged. By the way we had very little unsecured debt, so we weren’t living in the lap of luxury. The exact amount of money involved in the ‘legitimate program’ was not disclosed and is incorrect. We did have the option of selling our house back in 2005 at which time it was worth quite a bit more and in a much more secure market. By the way, the person who invested in our equity did so by way of an “Uninsured investment” which had no FDIC or bank guaranty of loss and because he or she would be get almost 100% return on their “investment” at the end of those 2 years. We did “Get back on our feet” and tried to ‘finance’ our way out of the “Investment” which, by the way, had we been successful would have seen said investor end up with a tidy profit. BUT, because of the somewhat questionable way the ‘legitimate program’ was managing the title to our property, no bank or finance company would lend us money. The reason being, as we were finally told on our fifth attempt. “No one is going to lend you money on that house…you don’t own it!”
No, I don’t feel ‘sorry’ for the person who "bought a piece of our homes equity." The person knew they were taking a substantial financial risk but with the promise of quick turn over and significant profit which was their temptation. So it seems that they were also suckered in by the ‘legitimate program’ run by people who make their money by pulling in both homeowners in trouble and investors looking for easy money.
Also…I’m not the only person in Massachusetts who was involved in this ‘legitimate program.’ There were many others who lost their houses when the ‘legitimate program’ sold them and got not only the amount owed to the ‘investor’ (Who in these cases made their 100% profit) but a tidy profit from the sale for themselves. There is and was no “big payday” for us. All we wanted was to get the title to the house back and to warn people about becoming involved with such “legitimate programs” unless they are aware of ALL of the terms of the programs. The “legitimate program” we were involved with WAS determined by the State Attorney General to be in violation of MGL 940 CMR 25.00.
Our house isn’t a huge, hundreds of thousands of dollars house. It’s a small house in a working class neighborhood with a city lot worth less than $100K in this market. In other words a little old house on about 1/10th of an acre of land, actually 50ft x 90ft plot of land. As to hard working people, my husband and I are. He’s been working at the same factory for over 12 years. I worked my way up the ladder at my last job and have been working since I was 14. I never expected to be out of work this long. I never expected to be out of work period. I even followed the advice of the DET and went back to school but since I finished classes in December of 2007 have not found a position yet. I’ve at least had interviews but no job yet. Yes, we’ve made bad choices; one of them was becoming involved with this ‘legitimate program.’ We have to take responsibility for signing papers that we didn’t fully comprehend. (Then again all the attorneys we spoke to including the ones who finally got our title back, couldn’t understand them either and said they seem to have been written to be intentionally confusing and misleading) That mistake taught us a hard lesson. Ah…but can’t the same be said for our investor? Did they not knowingly take a risk by investing? Isn’t our investor also responsible for his or her own reality which he or she CHOSE to create? Are they any more deserving of sympathy because of their involvement? They did lose money on this one investment…but isn’t that the point of high risk investment? Taking a risk on something with the potential of above market yield? They did lose some money; and we can still lose our home unless we manage to change our situation, even if that means asking others for help. We don’t want anyone’s sympathy, we don’t want a free ride, we want what any self respecting individual does, an opportunity.
Yes, with any luck the REAL truth will come out, if someone has the guts to say something…and Karma usually has very little to do with it.