The estate liquidation sale has been scheduled and Duke's photographs have been circulated in an effort to find a new home for him if we are left without a choice. I hate this and neither of us want to lose Duke. We will fight to the end to not have to let our little buddy be taken from his family. I was up most of the night lying in bed crying while I could hear him at the window sill having his night time visit with our resident raccoon. Its been a regular event for the past several weeks. The little raccoon comes to the window and gets up on his hind feet, Duke wagging his tail as the press noses up at each other against the window.
We turned the sprinklers on for the birds today as usual and it hit me real hard. I just had to come back inside. The emotional defense mechanisms are falling into play and I find myself trying to detach from habits that will soon be ripped away. It hurts deeply wondering if someone is going to tear everything down including the nesting areas, perhaps giving no consideration that this land is home to so many of God's creatures. They have been a very important part of surviving these past few years, especially after Prince and the little ones had to go to rescue.
God provided some very precious moments that touched both Mike and I deeply. For me it was a much deeper matter of healing the very broken little girl inside that has longed for peace and safety. After a very traumatic life of violence I was to have it, and finally a secure home away from that which caused me so much pain.
Mike calls the backyard
"Netty's home to all woodland creatures." He would often joke about the fact that I wanted to bring them all inside, bugs n birds; knit them sweaters and give them a bed to sleep on. It's true! I would not let him kill a spider or the wasp that stung me in the bathroom. The rules were clear, you had to go grab the jar in the kitchen and transplant them outside in the bushes. Mike even scooped up a scorpion one day, taking it in a jar and driving him up the road to be released along with a nasty looking and cantankerous red butted spider.
I was the daughter who always showed up with some creature or stray animal. One year neighbors couldn't believe that my Dad made me a full sized china cabinet with safety glass panels, a heat lamp, and a ladder for the now six foot long Iguana I had raised from a baby.
I always disliked the Southern California lifestyle growing up. It just never fit me; and as I grew up I continued to long for the country life, having no interest in going to shopping malls, acrylic fingernails, spa treatments or luncheons at nice restaurants with the girls. Nah, I'd rather be growing a garden, playing in the garage or cleaning stalls. I just couldn't believe it when we actually put our home on the market and began to make plans to move out of state. Since I can remember I have wanted to be in Texas. Finally, TEXAS!
We prayed and were so blessed when our condo sold so quickly in a very difficult buyers market. The woman who purchased our home was concluding a very difficult divorce involving sensitive issues. She was very much in need of help and as a fellow sister in Christ we were anxious to reach out to her. We worked with her on the price of the condo and donated our refrigerator, washer and dryer, bedroom set, dresser for her daughter and a school desk. We also had some trade available in the form of an all paid two weeks stay in the High Sierra Nevada mountains in a lovely trailer that would be delivered to a campground. We had produced a series of commercials for a company called
Adventures In Camping in barter exchange for the two week vacation which we gifted to our buyer and her daughter for a surprise vacation get-getaway of healing.
Everyone was so excited and blessed at the life transitions taking place. She was starting a new life and so were we. We all prayed together and have stayed in touch through email and snail mail.
Mike would be moving back to his home state and I was on a mission to set up the meeting between he and his birth father. And of course, I would now finally be safe; no longer afraid to answer my front door or deal with panic attacks in fear of running into my abuser. Our Realtor here in Texas knew of my situation and seemed sympathetic as she related similarities. I prayed with her on the phone about her work load and upcoming potential sale and we had plans to go to dinner with she and her husband at a popular Mexican restaurant, Julio's, once we had settled in. There were also plans to go see our first cutting horse competition and our Realtor's cat fish pond. We didn't just have our new home and life waiting; we also had new friends waiting for us in Texas!
People may have thought that five acres was extravagant, but this was actually downsizing for us with regard to our mortgage. The market value of our town home was about $150,000 more than this property, and the property taxes were relatively the same as were the association fees. The outdoor time spent working the property was a welcomed change of increased physical activity for us city folk. We had a back-up property we were looking at as well, which was a little smaller horse property in a community with a small lake.
We arrived with a scheduled meeting with the Fort Worth Convention Visitor's Bureau on the calendar and we weren't here very long before we had our big presentation at their office. Plans for a campaign went on the back burner as communication continued.
A new client in a posh desert community back in California was on the books with a multi-property buy set to go forth in our first radio and television campaign extending from Santa Barbara to San Diego, incorporating top stations throughout these regions.
We had several fires in the oven in Fort Collins, Colorado and other areas and were doing very well, but then it all broke loose and within just a few months of moving in to our dream home came a natural gas pad and flash flooding. A few months later the FEMA map revision hit which resulted in the the unexpected burden of a mandated flood insurance policy of approximately $6,200 or so a year on top of the regular policy. And of course we now had the unexpected burden of an unplanned tractor payment which we finally succumbed to as the waterflow created so much erosion and debris that we just couldn't handle with a mower and wagon.
Consequently, with all of this also came sleepless nights and physical stress; both of which have been constant and steadily increasing since April 2008. Through this all, our $80,000 cash down payment has been locked into a mortgage on a house appraised at $0 and land reappraised at $25,000.
We conducted the buy with our new California client and were scheduled and working on preparations for another larger campaign that was going to include partnering with Alaska Airlines; the campaign reaching up as far as Northern California and Washington. But the storms, stress and circumstances at home dealing with the ongoing flood issues prevented us from being able to travel. The next thing we knew we would receive a call from one of our media partners at the #1 radio station in Los Angeles telling us that our new client had simply decided to go behind our backs; taking our unique barter advertising program (intellectual property); going off by themselves behind our backs to all of our media partners in an effort to make buys without paying our commission. This was in violation of our verbal and written contract, but what could we do? We were already overwhelmed with the real estate fraud issues and problems with the property so we had to pick and chose our battles.
Next the economy began to plummet, and with it the leisure travel industry and budgets for advertising and marketing took a huge hit. Little by little our budgets would dwindle and we would work tenaciously seeking after new opportunities within and without
Mutual Advantage, a business my husband has run successfully for over 28 years.
NettyWebsites.com was one of our small back up ventures, and a portfolio was developed creating websites for several non-profit organizations and our own attorney. None paid and some even dragged their feet on reimbursing our out of pocket expenses.At the same time I also sought out opportunities within the litigation field where my expertise was focused over the past several years, running my own successful corporation which specialized in preparing cases for trial and handling the electronic presentation of exhibits and deposition transcripts/video amongst other things in the courtroom during trial. Nothing was happening.
When I began my business I was one of the most sought after litigation vendors in California providing a new cutting edge service; the very first to bring this technology in to many of the complex litigation court rooms. But law firms caught on and insurance carriers began demanding that much of the data services be outsourced to India and other countries to cut budgets. In addition, law firms began in-housing the type of services I provided in order to become full service vendors to their clients. Some of them even used me to train their paralegals. Trained myself right out of work!
The stress of everything hitting us left and right was momentous and my blood pressure began to be at issue along with the sudden reoccurring of seizures. A survivor of a stroke back in 1997, I was diagnosed with a small lesion on my front left temporal lobe and treated for several years with anti-seizure medications until I began improving. But about a year after the move here the stress began to overwhelm us and I again began to have seizure activity and many bad falls; consequently suffering multiple lacerations and a very bad concussion. Mike played doctor on each occasion for lack of medical insurance. It got so bad at one point that Mike wouldn't let me out of his sight for fear that I would get hurt and he wouldn't be there to take care of me. I was stubbornly independent on occasion only to show up at the door bleeding and crying for doctor Mike to patch up.
We had some great goals set, but with the stressful consequence of each delay of our lawsuit we could never seem to get our feet back on the ground, and we couldn't get at our only savings locked into the down payment on our home. The snowballing circumstances were beginning to take us down hill with greater force. We were now paying more monthly than we anticipated on a mortgage and flood insurance along with the tractor payment and yet couldn't sell or refinance our house. The truth about the flood characteristics and drainage easement issues were serious issues and cloud on title.
We now had a house devalued to $0, and the ethical duty to fully disclose to any potential buyers not only the flood characteristics and drainage easement, but the truth about the experiences we were dealing with from storm runoff and the consequential impact and the very costly FEMA mandated engineering study and remedy required per the County Flood Plain Administrator and a FEMA representative.
The stress only increased with the pressure of knowing that without possession of the house we would lose footing with regard to our civil litigation in the recovery of damages; our entire life savings plus flood insurance and other expenses.
We've been asked what hit us hardest, the real estate fraud or the economy? The answer simply put is that the impact of this real estate fraud case has been the overwhelming complex stress factor in our lives financially, physically and emotionally for over three years. It has impacted our ability to focus on our business and travel. Moreover, it has been almost a full-time responsibility in commitment of research and preparation involving our TREC complaint, FEMA, the County Appraisal District, etc. Add the issues involved with the actual property during and after storms and our plates where quite full with flood zone issues.
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I can tell you without reservation that had we not had the dynamic of this fraud and our property issues we would have had more time to focus on our business and personal lives. We have a proven record as two very successful, skilled and very resourceful individuals; we just never seemed to get a break and be able to catch our breath. And resume's have received no response; perhaps due to our age and/or lack of a competitive college education. It has been like trying to swim against the current with this extra 200lb anchor attached.
Sure the economy hit us and everyone else pretty hard, but we were never pre-approved for a mortgage PLUS an additional monthly mandated flood insurance; approximately a 25% increase to our monthly financial obligation.
So today we are tearing down our lives and sorting through anything and everything that can be sold at our estate sale or a small fraction of the value and amount we spent on these items. We have to get rid of everything because we won't have room for anything more than our clothes, some books and select few items from our kitchen.
Depending on what the estate sale brings we may or may not have a means to have somewhere to sleep together. We won't go to a shelter and be separated no matter what. We just want our little Ricky and Lucy trailer, each other, and a means to support our meager little lives.
Humble acres is gone. The wedding ring is at the dealer's. The battle is over and the locals seem to have won. We've been run out of our dream home by locals and the effective delay tactics of their insurance funded defense firms.
We need a miracle right now; and are very much in need of healing.
