moving into our new home, purchased as a foreclosure. feeling weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - you're fortunate. Usually families strip the place clean, including all lighting and bathroom fixtures

This sounds made up.

That is done by other people who break in most of the time, I think. But it is does happen with houses being foreclosed on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When we bought our house my wife found a folded up note with child's writing that stated:

"Mommy, it's OKK to be sad after I'm gone. I love you forever."

We didn't know it when we bought the house but later learned through neighbors that the owners had a 10 year old daughter die from leukemia. Apparently the dad couldn't handle it, drank himself jobless, and eventually they divorced.

Still puts a lump in my throat 15 years later.

Now I'm sitting at my computer bawling.

Our house has a little finished room in the unfinished basement that is colorful with wood floors and windows - set up like a classroom. Turns out a family before us had a child back in the 50s or 60s who was not quite there - no one knows exactly. But they had that as her space. Her name was written in the concrete outside. She ended up institutionalized which just breaks my heart. I like to know that she is still remembered as well.

[Anonymous]

OP, open all the windows. Sage every room in the house. Silently wish the family love, light, and abundance. And then begin creating new memories in your house.

[Anonymous]

Just love the home and treat it well; it's not the house's fault.

The one house that would have made me feel bad to own was one in the Palisades. There was a brokers open, and our realtors told us to go by. It was a mess/deferred maintenance (probably health and mental health issues) and a family were all layed about on couches watching daytime tv and several were on the phone fighting out financial/disability issues in different rooms. They carried about their personal business as everyone walked through. It was clear it was in a shambles and they were in squalor until they would be forced out. We got to the basement and there was black mold all over the wall, the wettest most horrible leaky basement smell and DH and I knew the home (with great bones) would be too $$ for us, on top of the miasma of misery/neglect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"For those of you feel sorry that the previous owner of your house lost their house due to bad luck, bad financial decision, or they are not white, etc, why did you buy a foreclosed or short sale ? There are plenty of other houses on the market for you to purchase. You are greedy and heartless when you decided to look the houses and knowing other families were hurt badly."

Maybe that is why I feel guilty and maybe your memory doesn't run as long as mine. We bought a foreclosure because in the neighborhood we wanted, almost all the sales were foreclosures. It was 2008- we signed days before Lehman Brothers collapsed and foreclosures were EVERYWHERE. As it was, we were constantly putting in contracts against 5-6 investors and this one we happened to get. Either you bought a bad flip or a foreclosure at that time. The fact is that we are "poor" by DC standards, but because we are white, we had access to college and understood how credit works and we were taught how to use and save money. We could rush into the market while everyone was jumping out. The hispanic people who owned our house before us did not have those tools. They also took out a huge loan to add on to the house and that is what tanked it for them. They may have been okay if they stuck with their original loan. I feel sad for the family (We still get their mail btw) because I had the ability to take advantage of the system and they did not. However, this is the system that we all have to work within. I would think the "heartless and greedy" you refer to would be the investors who did the same thing, but only to make a profit.

Now I understand why the blacks hate the white so much. It is the white people like you who suck blood out of poor people and feel good about your victory. I wish you sleep tight. Demon and karma will follow you and your off spings for generation.

No, look at this

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/couple-lives-13-million-4900-square-foot-home-five-years-without-making-single-mortgage-payment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - you're fortunate. Usually families strip the place clean, including all lighting and bathroom fixtures

This sounds made up.

No, not made up. I have a relative who is a real estate agent and she has seen this many times. If you ever watch any of those house flip shows on HGTV, you see it sometimes when they enter a house they bought sight unseen.

DP

This happened on our street! The family took whatever they could. Even the screen door.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"For those of you feel sorry that the previous owner of your house lost their house due to bad luck, bad financial decision, or they are not white, etc, why did you buy a foreclosed or short sale ? There are plenty of other houses on the market for you to purchase. You are greedy and heartless when you decided to look the houses and knowing other families were hurt badly."

Maybe that is why I feel guilty and maybe your memory doesn't run as long as mine. We bought a foreclosure because in the neighborhood we wanted, almost all the sales were foreclosures. It was 2008- we signed days before Lehman Brothers collapsed and foreclosures were EVERYWHERE. As it was, we were constantly putting in contracts against 5-6 investors and this one we happened to get. Either you bought a bad flip or a foreclosure at that time. The fact is that we are "poor" by DC standards, but because we are white, we had access to college and understood how credit works and we were taught how to use and save money. We could rush into the market while everyone was jumping out. The hispanic people who owned our house before us did not have those tools. They also took out a huge loan to add on to the house and that is what tanked it for them. They may have been okay if they stuck with their original loan. I feel sad for the family (We still get their mail btw) because I had the ability to take advantage of the system and they did not. However, this is the system that we all have to work within. I would think the "heartless and greedy" you refer to would be the investors who did the same thing, but only to make a profit.

PP, you could be writing about my brother-in-law and sister-in-law who have a Hispanic last name. I really wouldn’t feel guilty. In our family’s case, the couple were strongly advised by my husband and me not to take out the additional loan, but they did it anyway. Possibly in many of these cases of bad financial decisions leading to the loss of a home, people received advice that they wouldn’t listen to. Even with job losses, there may have been advice, given over many years or a lifetime, that was ignored. But at the same time, people who insist on ignoring advice and making mistakes may have a low level of anxiety. They might not feel the same level of stress as others who can feel instinctively that a situation is heading in a dangerous direction. Or the possible loss of a home may not seem like the end of the world to them. After the foreclosure, our relatives ended up renting a place very far out, with long commutes, to their new and lower-paying jobs. Eventually they bought a new place even farther out. But they are happy. The couple is happily married and has good relationships with their now-grown kids. Everything has worked out for them.

Now, when the loss has been not financial but of a family member, especially of a child, that is truly heartbreaking.