Foreclosure, Bankruptcy, and Unemployment

Question: "How can I trust God when I am facing unemployment, foreclosure, or bankruptcy?" Answer: The loss of employment and/or income is one of the most distressing events in life, especially for those supporting a family. Foreclosure on the family home or having to declare bankruptcy due to unemployment adds additional fear, uncertainty, and emotional turmoil. For the Christian man or woman facing unemployment, foreclosure or bankruptcy, there can be additional doubts about God’s goodness and His promises to provide for His children. How is the Christian to react to these catastrophic life events? What biblical principles can we apply to the loss of a home or a job and benefits (health/life insurance, retirement)? First, it’s important to understand that God has ordained work for mankind. Work is described in the Bible as beneficial in that it provides for our needs (Proverbs 14:23; Ecclesiastes 2:24, 3:13, 5:18-19) and gives us the resources to share with others in need (Ephesians 4:28). Paul reminded the believers in Thessalonica that anyone who was not willing to work should not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10) and that he himself worked at tent making so as not to be a burden on anyone (Acts 18:3; 2 Corinthians 11:9). So loss of employment should not be an excuse for laziness, and all due diligence should be exercised to find other employment as quickly as possible (Proverbs 6:9-11). At the same time, it may not be possible to find a position equal in pay and status to the one that was lost. In these cases, Christians should not allow pride to keep them from taking jobs in other fields, even if it means lowered status or less pay, at least temporarily. We should also be willing to accept help from other believers and our churches, perhaps in exchange for work that needs to be done in homes, yards, and church facilities. Extending and accepting a ‘helping hand’ in these times is a blessing to those who give and to those who receive and exhibits the ‘law of Christ’ which is love for one another (Galatians 6:2; John 13:34). Similarly, loss of the family home through foreclosure or bankruptcy can even be a time of blessing for the family, a time when parents and children “close ranks” and become more keenly aware of their love for one another and the important things in life—faith, family and community—and less focused on material things that have no eternal value and can disappear in a moment. God can also use these circumstances to remind us of the truth spoken by Jesus in Matthew 6:19-20, and refocus our hearts on heavenly treasure. Above all, renewing our faith and trust in God’s promises is of utmost importance during times of financial stress. Revisiting passages that speak of God’s faithfulness to His children will strengthen and encourage us when the future looks bleak. First Corinthians 10:13 reminds us that God is faithful and will not test us beyond our ability to bear it and will provide a way out of the trial. This ‘way out’ may mean a new and better job that comes up right away. It may also mean a lengthy period of unemployment during which God’s faithfulness in providing our daily bread is shown to us. It may mean a new home or it may mean living in reduced circumstances with relatives for a period of time. In each case, the way out is really the ‘way through’ the trial, in which we learn of God’s faithful provision as He walks by our side through the entire ordeal. When the time of testing is over, our faith will be strengthened and we will be able to strengthen others by bearing strong testimony to the faithfulness of our God. Recommended Resource: When God Doesn't Make Sense by James Dobson. What's new on GotQuestions.org? GotQuestions.org seeks to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by providing Biblical answers to spiritually-related questions. To continue in this mission, we need your support! For more information, please visit https://www.gotquestions.org/support.html Got Questions? The Bible has Answers! We'll find them for you! www.GotQuestions.org This message was sent from GotQuestions.org. It was sent from: Got Questions Ministries, 6050 Stetson Hills Blvd., #254, Colorado Springs, CO 80923. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. Email Marketing by View this message in the iContact Community:    View message    Comment on this message    Receive as RSS     Share this message with others:    del.icio.us    Digg    reddit    Facebook    StumbleUpon

Appraisal, and Other Hurdles

In my last post, I mentioned that we would be considering our home mortgage through a different lender because the first lender we spoke to had sprung additional costs and restrictions on us nearly 45 days into the process. Well, there is news.

First, after speaking with the second lender on the phone, explaining the situation (including the fact that our bankruptcy would mature to two years on August 4), and providing the necessary information for the credit reports to be run, I heard nothing back from the lender. I made several attempts to call this lender (and because my goal here is to help others going through bankruptcy, I'll share with you here that this secondary lender was Fifth Third Bank), with no response. Finally, I called a toll free home mortgage hotline they list on their website and learned that 5/3 Bank uses only an automated underwriting system, which would automatically reject our application if we apply before the bankruptcy is two years old. Which put that idea on the back burner for another few weeks.

Second, the lender we've been working with contacted me about having an appraiser come out to the house to assess it's value, and he was willing to do so without having yet received the application fee, so I agreed. The appraiser came out on Friday morning and was here for less than half an hour. He took some pictures -- inside and out -- and asked some questions, then left. There were two things he was asked to determine, and I got the news early Friday afternoon.

1. The value of the home was appraised at $6000 less than the agreed upon sale price in our purchase contract.
2. The fair market rent of the house was assessed at $100 per month less than we have been paying for the past nineteen months.

An FHA loan, which is what we applied for, limits the loan amount to 96.5% of the lower of the appraisal value or the purchase price. This means we would have to come up with a significantly larger down payment than initially planned.

Because the underwriter will only accept that portion of the rent paid that is over the fair market rent to be applied toward the down payment, the high fair market rent effectively eliminates $3000 of our rent credit from being allowed toward the down payment -- further increasing the actual amount of money we would have to raise for the down payment.

I have contacted the seller to discuss adjusting the purchase price and other methods that the rent credit can be used toward down payment -- such as rebating the rent credit to us in cash so that we can apply it as a cash down payment rather than a rent credit. I will also be speaking with the lender this week about using my VA loan eligibility instead of FHA, which has fewer restrictions than the FHA loan.

Of course, the process just cannot be simple. It seems that we've done everything over the past twelve months to prove that we can afford the home (including paying a monthly rent ON TIME every month that is greater than our monthly mortgage payment would be), and new hurdles keep popping up in our path.

I hope to get something figured out in the coming week and get this process behind me and start our life as Homeowners. Stay tuned...

The Mortgage Application Process Resumes

Nearly six months ago, I mentioned the possibility of getting a VA Loan. The VA has a provision where they can waiver the two-year post-bankruptcy waiting period under certain circumstances, and that's what I was hoping for. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

Our bankruptcy will reach it's two year maturity date on August 4, less than one month away. I contacted the same lender I spoke with in January and we met on June 10 to start the process in preparation of the maturity date. Having completed the entire loan application, the Loan Officer said he wouldn't collect the $325 application fee until the underwriter had indicated an approval.

I must say, I have been less than satisfied with this particular Loan Officer. It took nearly a month for me to receive any word through him from the underwriter, and at that time, the response wasn't exactly what I had been hoping for. The underwriter had a couple of concerns.

• The $5000 rent credit we're receiving from the seller of the home cannot exceed the difference between what we paid and what the fair market rent value for the home is. In other words, the home has to be appraised in order to determine the fair market rent value before we can proceed. By my calculations, the fair market rent value cannot exceed $920 per month for the underwriter to accept our $5000 rent credit toward the down payment. Of course, the requirement to appraise the home has changed the Loan Officer's flexibility about the application fee. He said he would need to collect the application fee in order to send out the Appraiser.
• The underwriter was concerned that we have not established several new lines of credit since the bankruptcy. The one credit card account I have opened is apparently not enough for him to be satisfied that we are now credit-worthy. The Loan Officer asked me to email him an explanation for why we haven't opened additional lines of credit. As if going through the bankruptcy in the first place isn't enough reason not to open several new lines of credit.
• In addition to the above, the last time I spoke with the Loan Officer to lock in our mortgage rate at 5.25%, he mentioned (for the first time) that there would be an additional fee of $325 required to get the rate because of our current credit score. No mention of that fee before.

My concern is that this lender had shown now sense of urgency about our loan, has sprung undisclosed fees upon us, and that the underwriter isn't happy with our existing open lines of credit and isn't certain he can accept the rent credit as a down payment.

What makes this funny is that I have not yet emailed the Loan Officer with the explanation he requested, and I have not given him the application fee, yet I have heard from the Appraiser twice trying to schedule a time when he can come to the house to do the appraisal. I am putting him off until I decide how to proceed.

Needless to say, I have contacted a new lender and begun the process anew, assured (so far) that we should be able to close in approximately thirty days. We'll see how that goes, and how the entire situation pans out.

The lesson learned in this is that it isn't always best to go with your first lender choice. It really does pay to shop around to different lenders, as they all set their own mortgage rates, their own fees, their own guidelines for things like rent credit, and some are more aggressive in obtaining approval than others.

Stay tuned for updates soon.