The system is still failing.

Call it an overreaction, but this month, Sara and I made a family decision to install a home security system.  A lot of thought went into it, but it’s the right decision and we believe it is justified.  So, I ask, as you read this, don’t read into this.  We’re fine.  Our neighborhood make-up hasn’t changed, just the situation; same players but different game.  And, it’s because the system is still failing us.

Why are we still in our house?  Mostly because, due to comps in our neighborhood, we’ve got, how do you say this politely, diminished value on our initial investment.  Despite the fact that the “economy” is on the rise, like many in NJ, we’re flat at best, and declining at worst.  Why?  Foreclosures.  In fact, the house that’s two doors down from us is the most local foreclosure that we have to deal with.  Some history:

In the middle of the summer, the niece of my neighbor told us that the dude who lives two doors down will be incarcerated for armed robbery on August 16.  Right…dude who lent me his leaf blower apparently didn’t want to pay for the goods or cash he was surely borrowing and intended to give back.  I don’t know what the weapon was.  I don’t really care.  I do know that this is still hearsay and gossip and may not be true…except for the fact that he asked me to vouch for his character as a good neighbor.  And I did…I mean the man let me borrow his leaf blower, right?  He’s frequently messed up on something.  I don’t see him with liquor in his hand, but his eyes are just not right.  The niece insists it’s a crack addiction, but I don’t have proof of that.  He did ask me for money and I know I’m not the only one on the block he’s gone to.  I said I was sorry and that I don’t have any money for him.  He said, (high) “Don’t be sorry for what you didn’t do, be sorry for what you didn’t try to do.”  Seriously?  If that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black I don’t know what is.

Regardless, dude is still not in jail.  It’s September 24, and my man is still driving around, at least I see his truck moved from one place to another.  I should mention that he’s in that house with his girlfriend and her kids, which prompted my concern.  Because when you look that address up on Zillow it clearly says that the property has been foreclosed on.

What what what was that?  Yep, a bank owns that house, most likely because when dude’s wife split, payments weren’t being made…mostly because my man didn’t have a J-O-B (hence the need to expedite the accrual of finances and goods from unwilling parties through force).  The wife left with the two kids from Georgia, and the new girlfriend moved in a couple of months after that.   I should mention that she (GF) used to live on the other side of me in a rental house that should have fallen into the Earth due to negligence by the landlord.  She was evicted for not paying her bills.  So, now the two lost souls have found each other in a (mostly) rent-free environment because the bank hasn’t changed the locks yet.

And, so, the former owner, his girlfriend and two kids are now squatting in a foreclosed house two doors down from me that’s bringing the overall property value of my house down inhibiting my ability to sell and get the hell out of the neighborhood.

What to do?  First, I really wanted to understand what bank was doing this to me.  What’s the timeline? And, with prodding, can they make the changes to make my problem go away.  Short answer is no…but here’s what I found out and why I think that the system is still failing us. 

A call to the Town indicated that the house mortgage is owned by the Federal National Mortgage Association, a.k.a. Fannie Mae.  Apparently the Philadelphia office was the original lender for the property.  A quick call to the 800 number for Fannie Mae was unproductive.  The most they would confirm is that they had been a lender on the property.  They didn’t know when locks would be changed or if the property would be listed, was listed, etc.  Thanks for nothing.

After hanging up…I realized something, it’s possible that Fannie Mae backed the loan from another institution.  I wrote my friend Julie.  “Dude, can you use your realtor’s license to check out this property.”  She said, “Dude, my license is up, but I can ask a friend.”  I said “Dude. Thanks.”  She said “Dude, no problem.”  A couple of days later Julie’s friend hit pay dirt:  the property is owned by some shit bank in the mid-west.  They put it on the market through Queen City Realty, who (after a phone call to them) recommended that the house be condemned, knocked down, and redeveloped.  They pulled it off the market, set up an auction…again, somewhere in the mid-west, and bought it from themselves for $100.  The bank now owns the property, and, in my estimation, are waiting for the Feds to “back their loan” to whatever the balance is of the mortgage owed before they seize the property and change the locks.  I should add that the representative of that bank was conciliatory on the verge of rude, told me that there’s nothing “we” can do, and that the property wasn’t on their list of foreclosures.  Of course it isn’t, because they own it outright, along with 3 other properties in NJ.  Needless to say that until they collect from Uncle Sam, there’s no impetus for them to act on their purchase, change the locks, and kick the squatters to the curb.  Fuck you very much.

Now, the only other piece of information I got was from a very nice woman at Queen City Realty.  She knew the property and was the agent who made the recommendation to the bank that, in its current state, the property was unlivable.  Uh, red flag?  She said that there was significant water in the basement and that the floorboards all needed to be replaced on the main level and that the house was generally unsafe.  Granted, she’s not a home inspector, and I don’t know what construction-level prowess she has to make that determination, but you have to figure that she’s in a lot of houses and knows a disaster when she sees one.  Great.

So, my concern is two-fold: one, that we can’t get out of this house because of issues like this, and two, there are KIDS living in that house.  So, there’s no good end to this story.  Shit is the same as it ever was.  Same as it ever was.  Convict is roaming.  Girlfriend is living there.  They put FIOS in because her credit must not be as bad as his.  The middle-school latch-key daughter rides her bike around the block for hours after she gets home.  Who knows where her brother is.  A neighbor had to tell her to go home at 10pm one night because she was riding through a local school yard unchaperoned in the dark.  The Police, legally can’t do anything.  Oh yeah, I went to the station to see what could be done.  Short answer is nothing.  Long answer is that they’ll keep an eye on our street and put in a health report that they were tipped off that living conditions at that address were, at best, unhealthy. 

Meanwhile, we have a new security system complete with door sensors and motion detectors.  It works as Sophie the beagle triggered it and I got a call from the monitoring company right away asking if they should notify police.  No, not this time as I knew why it went off.  I’ve since repositioned the sensor so that my couch-potato dog can shift positions on the couch without alerting the authorities.  But, I can’t help but feel like this mortgage crisis isn’t still going on between being underwater on the house and the increase in foreclosed properties (three houses down from mine is another bank-owned and vacant house).  But, we’re fine.  We’re making do.  An Eastern European family bought the house next to us from the slumlord and are fixing it up…at least they’re spending a lot of time inside making it livable.  They’ve got two little girls, one Jude’s age.  So things could be described as almost looking up, or being slightly better.  However, the banks inaction and the institution as a whole treating the issue as insignificant is just upsetting and something else to get used to.  We know people have it worse than us, but, it’s proof that, regardless of the news, the system is still failing, and I’m sure we’re not alone.