Foreclosed Again, Naturally

Last year the owner of the condo I rented for 5 years got foreclosed on. I was a model tenant, I never once paid my rent late, I kept the unit in immaculate condition and that place was cleaner the day I moved out then the day I moved in. (For those of you who have been for me for awhile you know that cleanliness took me awhile to master, I learned that mold grows in cups of water left for days as well as loads of clean laundry forgotten in washing machines. I have since learned much.)

You can read about it in April 2009 (links on the right).

I’d been handed a pink slip at work (which was later rescinded), I am perpetually broke thanks to student loans and medical debt, and things were looking grim when luck struck and the condo next door to me opened up. It is exactly the same, just a backwards or mirror image of my original one. Better yet it has new paint, carpets, linoleum, and appliances PLUS the rent is cheaper.

I struggled with the decision to take it because I was really, really ready for a change in my life and wanted something with more light and maybe a backyard but my finances wouldn’t allow for such a thing and really, how easy is it to move next door? To the same place, just mirror image? I just put everything as it was and it only took a day. I did eventually reverse the living room because coming home to my bassakwards apartment confuses the dickens out of me daily. Imagine living in your home for five years. Now imagine flipping it exactly reversed and coming home to that one day. It really messes with your relative sense of calm.

Another bonus to taking this condo was that the owners live only a few hours away, so they are real, and I was told that I need not worry about foreclosure because they owned the condo outright. Yay! Security!

Yay! Lies! You know where this is going. You know what my luck is.

That day before New Years Eve I came home to default notices totally papering the entire door. The people who posted them had mangled my Christmas wreathe a bit and one of the pinecones was laying all sad on the floor. I just stood there and laughed.

And laughed.

And laughed.

Then called my boyfriend.

And my regular friends.

And one friend took me to a “Congratulations you’re being forcefully evicted due to no fault of your own in less than a year!” dinner where I got good and plowed on a work night.

Luckily this time I am far more prepared for this process having had ample experience and unlike last time I don’t have a pink slip in hand. There is even a good chance that my job will hold until June, and, unlike last time, I get a whole 60 days to figure out where to go since they aren’t in full foreclosure yet, just default. Wooo! I totally have this handled.

I do find it amusing that this is time number two, in under a year, on a condo that was supposedly owned outright, that I’m being rendered homeless, and I’m really not upset. My married friends came home to straight orange eviction notices in October on their condo due to the owner going into foreclosure and they had an 11 month old and 24 hours to vacate. My situation is hardly like that. (The friends wound up taking a place in the same complex just upstairs, much like I did, because it was close and seriously? 24 hours? With a BABY? JEBUS).


If I continue to rent condos owned by individuals I continue to run this risk. I’ve done the major apartment complex thing and I don’t want to do it again. Part of the reason I’ve stayed put so long is that I’m in a great location, I’m near a lovely “lake” (pond) where I can take walks if the drug dealers aren’t out in full force, I have enclosed underground parking, and a washer and dryer in my unit. It I move to an apartment complex I get a slew of lousy neighbors, an exposed parking space, and no walking trails or nice central locations.

I can’t afford to rent a house. I will not live with a room mate ever, ever again. I can’t afford to buy a house. The boyfriend has offered to move in together but unless that is like, the absolute only option, I won’t do it: I don’t want to live together before I’m married. I know, I know, spending every other night together is practically living together etc. but my reasoning is a topic for a whole ‘nother blog post entirely.

So, I’ve got to figure this out. At least this time I’ve got 60 days to figure it out. And on the bright side, if I do come home to straight orange eviction notices, there is some law that says I get 1500 bucks to move. My married couple friends got it and my current leasing agent mentioned it. So if I do have to scramble to move for some reason I’ll have the funding to do it, though I don’t see that happening because I know that foreclosure will start March 1(unless the owners pull it out of default, which won’t happen) and I have plenty of time to find a nice van and a space down by the river before then.

How is your new year shaping up?