I havent used a blog in a long time. But I wanted to post something more indepth than sites like twitter would allow.
This past year plus has been an unwanted and painful lesson in reality. How cold and uncaring corporate America is.
Lets start this off on what was a positive note.
The Beginning of 2021 started off with a bang. After years of fighting and working hard all was right for once. My wife is a public school teach of 20 years and I am a stay at home dad of two over the top kids who are both severe autistic. We had everything in order for our kids and we finally after years of trying got approved to buy a new home. We had our dream home that was big enough to support us having to care for our kids as they become adults. There where some major issues in the purchase proccess but it was the perfect home. We even found a half acre lot in an area that didnt flood in the 2016 flood in south louisiana.
The home was The Summit by Clayton Homes.
https://www.claytonhomes.com/homes/30CEE32764AH/
Thats the link if you want to see it. It was everything we needed. A flex space for me to run a home office from and start making some income from home. Bedrooms for both kids. Even two living rooms so we could use one for Family and not have to worry about the kids making a mess. It wasnt the highest end home on the lot by far. In fact when we bought it we only paid $115k for it. But it was perfect for out needs. Would have taken care of us and our kids for a very long time.
Some things started going back and due to my own bad judgement we were taken advantage of. the company we purchased the house through had some pretty shadey practices. It didnt help that the salesman that was helping us knew he was retiring soon and was telling customers what ever you wanted to hear to make the sale. He promised us a lot of things that just were not true. That he could include a fence for our kids safety. A full driveway,The Pad for the home, Electrical and water hook ups. He had it painted that it would be move in ready.
Well after months of lets downs and finding out we were not going to get most of that. We got the pad. And we got a driveway of sorts. Just clay though so we cant use it when it rains. The house finally got put on the lot.
Ida decided our home needed to be cut in half by a tree. In one night all of our dreams were destroyed. When we got the call that there was a tree in our home it was almost a bit of denial. then the reality set in. After that things just got worse.
Insurance took forever to do anything so by the time they had decided there was to much water damage to repair the house. And no way to try and cover it. We went through months of back and forths on what was going to be done. Then in the end they decided to pay off the bank for the value of the house. $125,000. The bank then decided they wouldnt refinance a new home with out %20 down. We just used all of our savings on the original loan. We tried getting other loans but it was all the same. The only way to get a home atm is to take a tiny home that wont work for our family at a higher monthly payment than we had on the summit. And still not get a fence for the kids safety.
we have applied to every lender we can for this. We have even applied to SBA and FEMA. But because the insurance company paid off the house "despite we didnt see a penny of this" that means FEMA wont help us. SBA wont lend to us because of ability to repay the loan due to the mortgage from the land being on our credit. Oh yea did I forget to mention. We still owe $43k to 21st mortgage for the land with a destroyed house sitting on it. So now here we sit. Waiting and hoping for some miracle to happen. But hurricane Ida is no longer news. All I want is to get my home back for my kids. I just want what I had. And I cant even do that. We paid $115k for the summit. IF we wanted to get the same house now due to "Covid" shortages it would cost us $150k to $160k. So its not even an option any more.
On top of that we have to figure out how to clear our land now. We have a destroyed home and the tree that was pulled off the house all just chilling. If you know any one who might be interested in helping. Or able to help. Please reach out or comment. We do not know what to do any more. The banks wont help because this loan hit our credit and now we are not desirable. And The government wont help because we make just a hair to much money. We are tired of fighting but can not give up. My babies need their home. Ill do anything I have to in order to get that for them. We even tried a go fund me and that did not go well. The gaming community from Dual Universe has been amazing and supportive but they can only do so much. They have helps suppliment the cost of now having to support the cost of one place to live while paying the mortgage on another. Right now we feel like we are alone. Everything was so right. Now it feels hopeless.
Like I said we even tried gofundme https://gofund.me/736818da but that did not go well at all.
So right now we wait. everything we own sitting in two storage units. And we pray. That maybe the right person will see this and something amazing will happen.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and please share it. I am going to start posting weekly about the kids and this journey to get things settled.
Ray Owen
