In May 01' My Husband and I purchased our dream home. We our son and were all set. We were first time home buyers and worked hard to build our credit for this special moment. A friend of my Father's was Vice President of Home Federal Bank and had told us he would see what he could do for us. My husband was a Truck driver at the time so I had to sign all the papers upon closing. He was discharged from the Marines in Aug. 99' and we had his severance pay drawing interest. We were able to put $10,000.00 down on our home.
The Particular home we found was a split foyer home with a very nice fenced in yard, detached 2 1/2 car garage, paved drive way. The house had been repossesed from it's previouse owners thru HUD and the asking price was $79,500.00 My dad builds homes for a living and told me it was a great deal, he couldn't build that home for the price.
We knew from the start it had a ton of equity in it. Mr. Jeff Stephens from Home Federal even made a point to say that after the first year we could refinance our home and have the payments dropped. Now reminding we were first time home buyers, we put $10,000.00 down on a home costing $79,500.00 he added a P.M.I. (principle mortgage insurance) which supposedly would be dropped after we refinanced, and tacked us with 9.75 % interest rate.
One year later My Husband quit truck driving and went to work with my Dad building homes. They had built a home for Mr. Stephens as well. It was his Daughter and Son-in-laws. He wanted my dad to do some extra work (for free) and they ended up leaving there not on the best terms.
So it's been a year and we call Mr. Stephens to refinance. He kept blowing me off and finally one day he just appears on my doorstep. I wasn't expecting him and was still in pajama's doing laundry so I asked him to give me one minute. I peeked out the window and he was looking around the house at the back yard then he got in his vehicle and left. I was shocked! I called his cell phone number from his card and got his voice mail, then I called the bank and they said yes Mr. Stephens is in LaFollette. I know he was just at my house. Anyhow a few months go past I can't get ahold of him. I get a letter in the mail saying there is not enough equity in the home to refinance.
WOW NOT ENOUGH Equity? Something is not right.
Now the fun begins I started calling mortgage companies ect. To find some one we could refinance our home with. Our payments were $617.06 a month and I had just had our second child and was on maternity leave. We were struggling.
Finally in the end of 02' someone enlightened me and said Mrs. King here is the problem look on your credit report. Low and behold on mine and my husbands credit reports it had Home Federal listed twice, but not just that, each listing had two different account numbers. So I'm shocked and I called the gentleman back who enlightened me and asked "so what does this mean? What does this do to us?" He plainly told me I had to contact the bank and let them know what they had done and have one removed, because he couldn't get a lender to help me out and refinance if we had two home loans. We didnt' have two home loans we only had the one!
July 1 I was promoted to manager of a gas station chain. I was putting it 80 hours most weeks and my husband was still building homes. My mom was watching the kids for us while we worked up until Oct 4 when my Granny *her mom* had to have gallbladder surgery. My parents said it would be easier if my husband came home during that time to take care of the kids, so I wouldn't lose my job. My granny went in a coma and was on life support she went thru congestive heart failure during surgery. She was in the hospital fighting up to Jan. 04' This put us 2 house payments behind. I didn't make enough to pay them. Due to everything going on I also lost my job in Jan. 04.
We caught our payments up when my husband went back to work, but were still 2 more house payments behind and we called the bank asking if they could set the payments up for us due to the hardships. They would not, nor did they ever remove the duplicate account on our credit reports where we could refinance.
Sadly in March 04 my Granny went home with Jesus. Shortly there after we talked to a lawyer about bankruptcy. We were high in debt thru everything we went thru. We lost a vehicle and didn't want to lose our home. The lawyer wasn't the best and set it up where we had to pay $220.00 a WEEK! Not easy when your husband's job often depends on the weather. We somehow managed to pay in over $4,000.00 and received a statement when it was discharged showing that everthing we paid in went to Home Federal Bank.in Dec. 04 we spoke with a different lawyer and went thru Chpt. 7 we went to court Feb 15
Before we went to court, but while we were in the Chpt 7 a gentleman came to my home and tried to come inside saying he had to that he was from the bank. He threatened us and got rude until I put my lawyer on the phone. Then they ran it in the local press that our home was being forclosed upon for 3 weeks straight. Then they made it appear as though they would reaffirm our loan in court.
So Feb 15 we go to court and the trustee asked did we want to try and keep our home. Obviosly we told him yes. A gentleman representing Home Federal Mr. Brian Sellers took my husband and I and our lawyer into a room. He started the conversation off like this.."Mr. And Mrs. King it's like this, unless you come up with X amount of dollars there is really nothing we can do."
" How much is X amount of dollars?" I asked
Mr. Sellers " around 6 or 7,000 "
Okay I didn't understand that and I questioned about the money received during chpt 13. He didn't have record of that or so he said. So here we were in shock that we couldn't reaffirm. Then Mr. Sellers goes on to say that on Thursday they would auction our home off on the court house steps to the highest bidder. I asked how long we had to get out. He asked how long I needed. I said 60 days he said no. I said Mr. Sellers it's a big house we have 2 children. He said I can give you 30 days, but that's it.
The entire 30 days we were heckled with phone calls from Flo Wilder (bank rep) who wanted to assess any damages made to the home. Then on one weekend when we were moving with a u-haul she called again. I explained that we would be in and out all day and she had the nerve to ask would I leave the door unlocked for her! This is a sum up of everything.
March of 05 exactly 1 year after my Granny's death I had to move into my parents home. We had no where to go. My chpt 7 was discharged in June and I was told to wait a month to check my credit reports. I did so and lucky me Home Federal was still there. It still showed 2 open accounts. 2 bankruptcies 2 lawyers and here I am I still can't get a home, because of good old Home Federal. I have filed so many complaints and disputes with the credit reporting agencies it's not even funny. They finally reported one account as bankruptcy, but it still shows one open. I have been here almost a year fighting with this and frankly, I'm depressed and tired. I can't get a lawyer to fight them. I have talked to differnt gov. Officials, ect. Who have said yeah some laws sound like they might have been broken. You tell me. I came here hoping that someone might can help us and to warn others not to go there.
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