Our Harlem apartment has been our home for 18 years -- and we are the third generation to live here -- so when my husband and I fell behind on our mortgage payments it would have felt uncomfortable to give it back to the bank or do anything of that nature.
My husband and I are doing everything we can to work something out. We don't want to let our home go.
This situation affects our entire family. Our two sons were born and raised here. My husband's brothers and sisters were born and raised here. They come over to our place for holidays, because it's the main family home. This apartment holds a lot of memories for them and us.
READ ABOUT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CRISIS:
I'M WALKING FROM MY UNDERWATER MORTGAGE
We bought the place for next to nothing -- just $250 -- in 1997 when the city sold apartments in the building to the existing rental tenants.
In 2003, we got a mortgage and took out $150,000 in equity to start a restaurant.
Most of the loan went to renovate the restaurant and buy equipment, but before we could open, our lives fell apart. I lost my job as a marketing representative and my mother-in-law got cancer and needed our help. She moved in with us, and we paid for her transportation to the hospital for treatments.
It was hard times, and we decided not to open the restaurant.
We trusted the mortgage broker for the best deal we could get. The mortgage, as it turned out, was an adjustable-rate loan that resulted in the interest rate ballooning to 11.5 percent after two years.
A lot of things happened really fast. I wish now that I would have known better, because we would have made better decisions. But we thought we could keep up.
Our monthly payments after the re-set, of course, were really, really high, and we fell behind. We got late notices, and they raised the interest to almost 18 percent. My husband was working but the payments started to get way more than we could afford with one income, my un employment and the costs of my mother- in-law's care and -- after she lost her brave fight with can cer -- her funeral.
Still, we thought we were working things out. I was try ing really hard to find another job so we could keep the apartment. Then I got a call from my sister-in-law -- there was a legal notice in the paper that the apartment was going to be auctioned off.
That was the toughest moment. I had to go to my husband's sister's and pick up the notice. Reading it was appalling. I couldn't believe it. I tried to call the bank's lawyer, who refused to call us back. It seemed like it was more important to them to sell the apartment than give us a chance to pay back the loan.
Time was ticking down, so my husband filed for bankruptcy last May. Now we have a chance to figure out a way to pay our debts -- while continuing to make our mortgage payments. Our lawyer, David Schaev, is working out a plan to cut our interest rate that will slice our monthly payment by at least $400.
I was afraid of going into bankruptcy, but if we can keep our place, it's worth it. We might end up owing more than the apartment is worth but we are going to stay and fight for our home.
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