Slowly Going Back Into Debt (Update/Trigger Warning #420)

[muttleynfelix]

Have you checked your local re-store for a washer?

[shanendoah]

muttleynfelix- Not certain what re-store is. We did look at various used appliance and outlet stores, and this place with rebuilt washers for $150-250, with a 6 month warranty, seems like the best deal for now.

So, as part of the refinance, the refinanced loan paid my property taxes for the first half of the year. Just got a note from my current servicer that they paid my property taxes for the first half of the year. So I went to the county Treasurer's site to find out how you get a refund. And the answer is, you don't, at least not in April. In April, when double the owed amount is paid, you are considered to have paid for the whole year. It is only come October, if another payment is made then, that you will get a refund.

This is annoying partly because I have to bring around $1,100 to closing on the refi to cover 3 months worth of property taxes, to "seed" the escrow account. But I won't owe property taxes again for an entire year, and now, instead of getting over $3,600 refunded from the fully funded escrow account with the current servicer, I'll only get a little over $1,000 back (which will pay the amount I had to seed, so at least there's that).

[muttleynfelix]

Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. Www.habitat.org/restores

[shanendoah]

muttleynfelix - THANK YOU. There is one near me, and they do have a washer in stock. Of course, they are only open until 5p, but I can make C and roomie E go in roomie D's truck tomorrow. 

[muttleynfelix]

Great! Glad to help. I hope it is a good bargain for you. We bought some area rugs there for our basement and they were a fantastic bargain and they look cool (and they were new).

[tallguy]

Apr 17, 2017 10:30:19 GMT -5 shanendoah said:

And filed under "I should have expected this when the dryer died", the washer died this weekend. I had a load of laundry in, and I heard this odd clicking sound. I went down to check and the washer was supposed to be on fast spin, but it was pretty obviously not spinning at all, and just making the clicking sound.
Craigslist does not seem to be as good for washers as dryers, but we're hoping to get a rebuilt one for around $150.
Luckily, I put an extra $400 in savings last month, so we do have this covered.

Mine died last summer.  I could play around with it and make it spin for a while.  Turned out to be a broken lid switch.  Found some videos online to confirm the problem, and I'm also thinking they had a way to test if that was indeed it.  Found a place locally that had the OEM part for about $42 and another place that had a compatible part for $25.  Bought that one.  It was a fairly simple fix once I got the machine out.  Less than $27 after tax was a lot better than buying a new one.  Might be worth a shot to check that first.

[shanendoah]

tallguy - Sadly, nothing that simple. Motor issue. C and roomie E are going to run to the Re-Store today and check out the washer there.

Lawyer authorized the charge yesterday on the card, but won't actually charge it until we KNOW we're going to trial. And we now won't KNOW we're going to trial for at least another week and a half due to some scheduling issues. However, it also means if we do go to trial, it won't start on May 2.

Last Thursday the bank called me to tell me we would be closing on the re-fi this Thursday, and that the escrow company would call me to schedule a time. Well, as of yesterday, I hadn't heard anything. So I called the bank. I was told - oh, we'll get your paperwork over to escrow tomorrow (Wednesday, with closing on Thursday) and the escrow company will call you then. And I had to say no, give me the contact information for the escrow company. I have a very busy day on Thursday, and can't wait until tomorrow to figure out if I'm going to need to reschedule (or miss) a meeting. Luckily, they have offices closer to us than their main one, and I was able to make an appointment during the break I have mid-day, so it looks like I'll be able to make all of my meetings. But my day tomorrow will be 1 hour at start of day to do work, meeting, meeting, escrow (and hopefully some lunch), meeting, meeting, 1 hour at end of day to do work, home.

[finnime]

Whew, shanendoah. I hope this will be one of those days where every little thing goes just as planned.

[shanendoah]

Just talked to C. The Re-Store actually had two washers when he went today. A Whirlpool for $70 and a Maytag for $85. While the Maytag was older, it was in better shape than the Whirlpool (which had rust on the interior of the lid), and a quick internet search (via roomie E's phone) said the Maytag was a better deal - those things apparently never die/break. So, they got it home and set up. 
This means I now have new to me washer and dryer for under $150. Are they going to last 5 years? No. But I really only need them to last 6 months. If they last a year, we'll be in good shape.

So thank you again muttleynfelix for the recommendation.

[muttleynfelix]

Woohoo!

(It only took me until 5pm to "do something right" today).

[suesinfl]

Apr 18, 2017 15:07:46 GMT -5 muttleynfelix said:

Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. Www.habitat.org/restores

Thanks for the reminder, I keep forgetting to check our restore in town.

[seriousthistime]

At ReStore, I once bought a ton of high quality imported ceramic tile suitable for bathroom floors and walls for a fraction of the price, new in the box, when the upscale tile/design company in town decided to discontinue a manufacturer.  The worst part was getting all those heavy boxes home, but I had a nice strong back at that time. 

I had the floors and shower/tub walls in two bathrooms redone and had a lot of tile left over.  Even with all the other materials and labor, it cost me the same to do both bathrooms (including the floors) for the price that had been quoted to me for just one shower/tub wall area (tile, materials, and labor).

 

[shanendoah]

Call from the escrow office yesterday 4:30p. They'd just gotten our paperwork and were looking it over. Yes, we are still on for 11am signing today.
Escrow officer looking at it goes - it says your supposed to bring cash to signing to fund an escrow account, but you have a funded escrow account already. It looks like they want to pay your property taxes (being that those are due in April in our county). Do you know if your current mortgage company paid the taxes?
I say yes. I have the email. Do you want me to bring it.
She says yes, bring a copy of the email, and be willing to sign a piece of paper that says on the off chance they pull the money back from the county (which apparently has happened) and refund it to me, I'll be responsible for paying the property taxes. And you won't need to give us any money. In fact, you should be getting money back.

So yeah, instead of costing us $1100 today when we go to sign, we should get some money back. I don't know how much, and I don't really care. It will all go toward credit card debt anyway.

At this point, we had 2 months where we had to pay interest on credit card debt. We're back to the point where we won't have to do that, at least until the first 0% promotion on a card we got last summer ends (should be lasting through June). That card had a significant amount put on it for legal fees, and so we'll see what we have available on the HELOC at that point, and maybe move the balance there for less interest and smaller payments. But we'll have to see what the HELOC looks like after the re-fi is in place. And also, things will be determined by whether or not we go to court/owe the lawyer the extra $15,100.

But that's where we are today.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Hugs and good luck Shane. I hope everything goes smoothly from here on out.

[tcu2003]

Apr 20, 2017 11:04:16 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

Hugs and good luck Shane. I hope everything goes smoothly from here on out.

All of this.

[Chocolate Lover]

Apr 19, 2017 16:24:14 GMT -5 shanendoah said:

Just talked to C. The Re-Store actually had two washers when he went today. A Whirlpool for $70 and a Maytag for $85. While the Maytag was older, it was in better shape than the Whirlpool (which had rust on the interior of the lid), and a quick internet search (via roomie E's phone) said the Maytag was a better deal - those things apparently never die/break. So, they got it home and set up. 
This means I now have new to me washer and dryer for under $150. Are they going to last 5 years? No. But I really only need them to last 6 months. If they last a year, we'll be in good shape.

So thank you again muttleynfelix for the recommendation.

You never know, they might last forever. So long you start wishing they'd die already. 

[Wisconsin Beth]

My washer died two years ago, 2 days before we left for Disney. I'm still waiting for the dryer to die. I did replace the vent/duct to outside last year and it works much better since then.

[shanendoah]

Apr 20, 2017 16:07:19 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

Apr 19, 2017 16:24:14 GMT -5 shanendoah said:

Just talked to C. The Re-Store actually had two washers when he went today. A Whirlpool for $70 and a Maytag for $85. While the Maytag was older, it was in better shape than the Whirlpool (which had rust on the interior of the lid), and a quick internet search (via roomie E's phone) said the Maytag was a better deal - those things apparently never die/break. So, they got it home and set up. 
This means I now have new to me washer and dryer for under $150. Are they going to last 5 years? No. But I really only need them to last 6 months. If they last a year, we'll be in good shape.

So thank you again muttleynfelix for the recommendation.

You never know, they might last forever. So long you start wishing they'd die already. 

That's very true. We are VERY good at just living with things. At the last house, we knew from the beginning that we should do something with the cabinets in the kitchen because they were so dark and dated. Did nothing until we were prepping the house for sale - 10 years after we'd moved in. We looked at those cabinets, which had simply been painted white and thought - why didn't we do this years ago. 
So yes, as long as the "new" w/d work, we will probably live with them.

We will be getting around $1,000 back from the re-fi. Because we have a 3 or 4 day right to rescind, the money won't show up in our account until the middle of next week, but that's okay. 
Between that $1k and not having a mortgage or HELOC payment in May, we will have $3,700 to throw at debt and shore up a little savings. And starting in June, our new mortgage payment will be $460 less than the combined amount of the HELOC and the old mortgage.

The 0% APR on one of our credit cards (which still have a $15k balance) will expire at the end of May or June. However, it only has a 7.4% APR. The APR on the HELOC is 7.24%
While we will still have the HELOC, the available balance on it may change after the re-fi goes through. Depending on what it is, we will have to decide if we want to move the money off the credit card onto the HELOC for a little bit of interest savings, and a 15 year repayment period. 
Of course, if we end up in court, we will need to move the $15.1k off another card (this one with an 11.29%APR) onto the HELOC.
If we don't end up in court, the lawyer's office will refund most of the $15.1k, but keep $4980, as that is what we still owe on the initial fee (three more payments). However, that means that $1670/month payment ends now (or before the May payment is made), instead of after the July payment. But that gives us more room to mange and organize debt in the most efficient way for us.

So we're not out of the woods yet. And a lot still depends on whether or not we go to court. We'd hoped to know by early next week, but now it looks like late next week/early the following week are more likely guesses for knowing. However, we've made some good decisions that make the path a little easier to walk, and we can definitely see where the trees end. 

[debthaven]

Any news about court yet shanendoah?

[shanendoah]

I forget all the places I need to update. Due to attorney timelines, the possible trial date was pushed back to June 27. We should know by early June if we are actually going to court.

[Wisconsin Beth]

May 2, 2017 13:51:12 GMT -5 shanendoah said:

I forget all the places I need to update. Due to attorney timelines, the possible trial date was pushed back to June 27. We should know by early June if we are actually going to court.

oh that sucks shane. I'm sorry.

[raeoflyte]

May 2, 2017 13:51:12 GMT -5 shanendoah said:

I forget all the places I need to update. Due to attorney timelines, the possible trial date was pushed back to June 27. We should know by early June if we are actually going to court.

That has to be exhausting.  I'm so sorry.  

[debthaven]

Oh poor Shane. I'm so sorry. That has to be a blow.

[lund]

How exhausting and annoying that must be!

[zibazinski]

May 2, 2017 13:51:12 GMT -5 shanendoah said:

I forget all the places I need to update. Due to attorney timelines, the possible trial date was pushed back to June 27. We should know by early June if we are actually going to court.

Is that good or bad?

[shanendoah]

zibazinski - 
In this case, neither. There were people who needed to be interviewed by the lawyers who couldn't get scheduled in the original time frame. They should be interviewed on the next couple of weeks, but then the lawyers have vacations scheduled in June. So the trial has been moved to June 27, but we have a check in on June 2. We should know by then if we're actually going to court.
It gives us time to work a couple other angles, but it also puts us in limbo a bit longer.

Our lawyer refunded about $10k of the court fee we paid. They kept the amount we still owed on the original contract. So that means that monthly expense is gone. Plan on doing an update with real numbers, and rejoining WIRR, later this week. Am at a professional conference through tomorrow, so don't have my spreadsheets.

[debthaven]

Our lawyer refunded about $10k of the court fee we paid.

Wow that sounds like great news!!!

[TheOtherMe]

I hope this all works out in your favor.

[shanendoah]

debthaven - If we end up going to trial, we will owe the full $15k again on June 13. But by that point, if we're paying for trial, it will be because we're going to trial.

[zibazinski]

I hope this resolves for you and soon.