No More Mortgage

Standing proud at the front door of our mortgage free home (this morning)

It is official now, no more mortgage.  

Yesterday morning I visited my local bank to wire the funds to the mortgage company to pay off my 30 year mortgage.  Of course I had a few more hurdles to jump over and some flaming hoops to jump through but the funds were wired and now I have a zero balance.  All I need now is the satisfaction statement from the county and this unpleasant chapter of my life will be over.

Four years ago when Bill and I moved to Delaware, I got caught in the housing market collapse and ended up with a $100,000 mortgage to be paid off when I was 96 years old.  

This was something I had not anticipated when I signed a contract in November of 2005 to build my dream house in Delaware and sell our home in Pennsylvania.  In fact I was concerned that I would sell our Pennsylvania house too fast and would not have a place to live until the construction of our Delaware house was completed.  That was the situation when we sold our Philadelphia home and build a new home in the suburbs of Philadelphia in 1980.  Oh no, this time I got stuck.  

I was starring at the financial abyss when I realized I couldn't sell our home in Pennsylvania for the price that was necessary for me to avoid taking on a mortgage with our Delaware home.  I had close to 100 showings and seven signed sale agreements, all of which failed.  It was perhaps the worst experience of my life except for a terminal illness.  I only got out of it by underselling our house and taking on a mortgage.

Since November of 2006 I have been carrying a mortgage.  This home didn't really seem like our home.  It never does when a mortgage is hanging over your head.  All my life I wanted a home without a mortgage. 

We never had our own home with a front and backyard growing up.  My brothers and I grew up in rented apartments.  My first goal when I got out into the world and got a job was to save up enough money for a down payment and buy a home.  

Bill and I lived in apartments at first.  After a few years we had enough money to put as a down payment for a home in center city Philadelphia.  We had a 20 year mortgage but we got it paid off in seven years.  

When we sold our home in Philadelphia, we paid cash for our new home outside of Downingtown, PA. For twenty-five years we lived in that home without a mortgage.

Thus, we were not prepared for a mortgage when we moved to Delaware.  But that was the only way I could sell our home in Pennsylvania and avoid foreclosure on our Delaware home.  I did what I had to do to survive.  Taking on a mortgage wasn't what we wanted to do at this stage in our lives but I had no choice.  

I love our Delaware home.  Bill not so much (he prefers the Pennsylvania home in the woods) but we couldn't continue to stay there because of the high taxes.  

Even though I am very happy here at our home in Delaware I never felt like it was really our home.  The mortgage company owned it.  As of yesterday, that is no more.  

For the first time since we moved here I feel like this is really our home.  Now this is a wonderful feeling. 

I love it!

Gone Baby Gone

Last night I watched "Gone Baby Gone."  This was the actor Ben Afleck's directorial debut.  I didn't like the movie.  It was a muddled mess.  Plus, Ben put his brother Casey Afleck in the starring role.  Big time family nepotism here Ben.  Hey Ben, it didn't work.  The supporting actors from Edd Harris and Morgan Freeman acted circles around the almost unintelligible Casey.  And that brings up the question, what is it with so many movies today that you can't even understand what the actors are saying?  I'm all for realism but when they're mumbling and whispering and speaking in a heavy accent (Boston in Casey's case), you almost need subtitles.


But one good thing I got from this movie.  A title for today's blog posting.


Yesterday I called my mortgage company.  I called to ask them to prepare a payoff statement of my mortgage.  Yes folks that's right, I'm paying off my mortgage.  As of October 15th, I will no longer have a mortgage.  I will be a free man!


One of my earliest goals in life was to own my own home.  I grew up in second floor apartments.  We never had any land.


As I walked to the East Ward School on Washington Avenue in Downingtown, I always envied my school hood friends who had a backyard in which they could play in.  My brothers and I used to play down by the railroad tracks behind our apartment house on 120 Washington Avenue.  One of the constants I remember from my childhood was "Hey you kids!  What are you doing there?  Get out!"  


That about sums up my childhood....."Hey you kids.....get out!"  No summer camps for us, no Boy Scouts, no trips to "the shore."  Nope, just trying to find a little piece of earth where we could play Hide and Seek.


Bill and I brought our first house in Philadelphia in 1969.  We had a mortgage.  Our first goal was to get that mortgage paid off.  It took us seven years but we got it paid off.  That was a wonderful feeling.  In addition to being ahead of the game financially wise, we had our independence.  We didn't owe money to anybody.


When we sold our house in Philadelphia in 1980 and built a new one on 6.875 acres of land in East Brandywine Township, we paid cash.  We didn't have a mortgage.  For the next twenty five years we didn't have a mortgage.  We felt special.


The year 2006 arrives.  I decided that I want to build a new house and retire to Delaware near the shower.  This was my life long goal, to live near the water.


I did what I did the same thing as I did when we sold our house in Philadelphia and built the new one in Pennsylvania.  I got a swing loan to contract the our new house in Delaware.  I had no doubt that I would sell our Pennsylvania house quickly.  I was wrong.


I got caught in the housing market crises and couldn't sell our house in Pennsylvania.  I came thisclose to financial meltdown.  It was the worst time of my life.  Bill threatened to kill himself if he didn't sell our house in Pennsylvania.


I sold the house but at a loss.  I had to take a six figure mortgage, 30 year mortgage that would be paid off until I was 96 years old.  So here I was, back at GO again at this late stage of my life.


This is the burden I've been living with for the past four years, this mortgage hanging over my head.  I didn't realize how much it affected my life until this week when my financial circumstances changed and now I will be able to pay off my mortgage on October 15th.


Now I feel as if a great burden is being lifted from my shoulders.  That dark cloud that has been over my head these past four years is about to disappear.  Suddenly I have an interest in cleaning out my basement room which is still stuffed with unpacked boxes from our move four years ago.


I have a new spring to my step as I walk the boardwalk in Rehoboth.


Little things that were bothering me before suddenly seem small and unimportant now.


And I attribute this new dawn in my life to the fact in two weeks the my ball and chain that was my mortgage will be

 GONE BABY GONE  

HALLELUJAH!