
Help Rene Secure Her Future
Hello.
My name is Rene Roberta Haynes Nash. How are you today? Fine, I hope. As for me, I am feeling optimistic!
I have a giant task to complete as soon as possible, and I must ask a favour of you. I need to raise a lot of money to prevent losing my beloved little home, forever, from foreclosure. Could you possibly help me to save my Little Piece of Nowhere? It would really mean everything to me.
And why am I feeling optimistic? I am convinced that if enough people read my story, donate even a small amount, or just share my campaign with others, I believe that good things will happen. You are the engine that powers this bus; I am merely the driver.
If you have the time, I’d love to tell you what my hopes for the future are, why I so desperately want and need to keep my home, and how I ended up in this situation.
Thank you kindly!
Cut To The Chase
For a long time, I had been trying to do a loan modification on my home. I had been corresponding with Ocwen Mortgage since I had become delinquent with my payments, back in March 2014.
Due to an unfortunate misunderstanding on my part, I missed an important deadline, in early 2017, for submitting documents so that the modification could go forward. This proved to be a bad thing.
Checking the Ocwen website had been a multiple-times-daily habit while I was waiting for some good news. On 23 February 2017, I had discovered that the latest modification had been denied because I hadn’t gotten the paperwork in on time. My heart sunk, but I did my best to remain positive.
I sent an email to my Ocwen Relationship Manager requesting a hold be put on the foreclosure auction, scheduled for the next day, so that I could re-apply for the modification. I called Ocwen to see what could be done. I did the same with North Cascade Trustee Services, the company doing the auction, to ask the same questions I’d been asking Ocwen. To say that I was in a panic would have been an understatement.
The next day started out full of gloom. It seemed to me as though my luck had run out. My Beloved Little House had been sold earlier that morning: Friday February 24th. At the time, I thought that it was Ocwen who had purchased it when I looked for info on the auction website. Then, a few hours later, I received a rather encouraging reply email that seemed to have given me an out.
They needed a Reinstatement Payment to bring my loan up-to-date so it could then revert to what the current payments would have been. I could have then kept my home, and continued with the regular payments, as if nothing had ever happened.
Here is, in part, the email that had given me some hope.
.
"Please be aware, after the foreclosure sale you have a twenty day redemption period. The amount to
reinstate the account is $18,557.70 and would be due including the costs associated with the foreclosure proceedings before the foreclosure sale.
Description Amount - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Principal Payment 5,384.95
Interest Due 5,410.45
Escrow Payment 7,762.30
Total Amount Due to Reinstate $18,557.70
If you are unable to pay the Total Amount Due to reinstate your loan, please contact our office at
(877) ***-****.
Other Amounts Outstanding and Due
Description Amount
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Late Charge Due 148.08
Property Inspection Fee 387.75
Reset Sale 950.00
Trustee Fee 900.00
Title Commitment 100.00
Fee/Recording 18.50
Appointment of Substitute Trustee 20.00
Notice of Sale 162.48
Statutory Mailings 373.20
Posting of NOD 75.00
Posting of NOS 150.00
Publication 967.33
Postpone Sale/Sheriff 150.00
Certified Mail Cost 29.15
Title Search 464.28
Total Other Amounts Outstanding $4,895.77
Grand Total of All Amounts $23,453.47"
The Principal payment is the actual portion of a regular loan payment that is applied to the loan. It would be credited to the reinstatement amount first, then the Interest, Escrow, and finally, "Other Amounts Outstanding" being the last to be credited.
**Update 14 March 2017: I am still working with Ocwen, and Hubzu.com (real estate listing company who asists former owners with relocation), and Robinson Tait Law Offices (who work with the new owner). They have thus far allowed me to continue living in my home and keep up with my fundraising efforts to make that Reinstatement Payment. I cannot thank you all for believing in me, in the form of donations and sharing my story with others!
How Did Things Get So Out of Hand?
I believe most people are maybe one or two pay checks away from becoming homeless. I am also of the opinion that most people are maybe one or two bad decisions away from being arrested and jailed. Guess which one happened to me? It was jail.
And thus, I took a tumble down the rabbit hole, to a bizarre land called Incarceration.
I have never been in any sort of trouble before, but due to a few very bad judgement calls that had a supremely monumental impact upon my family and friends, I served 367 days in county jail and 109 days in a WA state women’s correctional facility.
Between 25 March 2014, when I was arrested, and 15 July 2015, when I was released from prison, no one cancelled my electrical utility service, landline phone and internet, satellite TV, cell phone service, or made any regular mortgage payments. One friend did make a one-time payment of $916 towards my mortgage in May 2014, but my house payments became permanently delinquent after that.
From 1 May 2012 through 5 March 2014, I had 23 months of perfect, on-time house payments. Then I became woefully behind because of my serious error in judgement. My heart has been broken into so many pieces, on so many levels, for so many reasons, but I just cannot give up.
I am not feeling sorry for myself because I messed up badly. At the time, I had no clue that I had done anything wrong. I was in a mess, in way over my head, but it was a matter of perception where I really couldn’t see the forest for the trees. It has taken me quite a while to wrap my brain around everything, and it is something I continue to work on to this day.
It's too long and complicated to go into here, but if you'd like to read my story in its entirety, it is available upon request.
So...Who Is Rene, Really?
I am an almost-62-year-old mother of an adult daughter and son who are both in their 30s. I am Granny to one grandson and two granddaughters. Being an only child, I was very close to both my parents. Ma and Da are gone now, but not a day goes by that I don't think of them.
I was a union lineworker helper for 23-plus years, working for excellent wages with excellent benefits.
My job allowed me to save $10,000 for a down payment on a house. THIS house.
Although it was a great job, it was very hard on my body. Due to the cumulative effect from various injuries over the course of my career, I eventually had to quit that kind of heavy, labor-intensive, utility construction work in January 2000. I was 45 years old, and the future was a question mark.
I went on disability, where my Occupational Medicine physician tried various forms of treatment: physical therapy, massage therapy, biofeedback techniques, cortisone injections to the spine, and pain management through maintenance dosages of powerful medications. Surgery was even considered, but the neurosurgeon couldn’t give a guarantee that the final results would be worth going through such a procedure and the recovery time it would entail, or if the pain would be abated. That idea was abandoned.
Eventually, WA Labour & Industries sent me to college so I could learn different occupational skills. I chose something quite the opposite of what I’d ever done before: Administrative Assistant Certification. A desk job with all sorts of office machines. Even though I missed being a line worker helper, I was enthusiastic about doing something different.
By October 2002, I had earned my certification, and in early 2003, I was discharged from disability and was collecting unemployment benefits. I was anxious to get my resume out to prospective employers. I was ready to go!
However, once I started looking for work, it was clear that 9/11 had ruined the job hunting forecast for who knows how long. I plugged along, filling out applications, going to the local state of WA Work Source office for classes, scouring job lists, all with no results. But, there's a reason for everything, right? It couldn't find a job because my father needed my help!
In May 2004, I was alerted that my father was having memory issues and was possibly being swindled out of his savings. I temporarily moved down to stay with him at his home near the WA/OR border. In July, he was diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s Type Dementia. I became his guardian, to prevent anyone else from stealing from him.
I cared for him there for as long as I could, then in May 2008, I moved him up here to my home. From May 2004 until his death at 96-years-old in March 2014, I was completely thankful for the fact that I had nearly ten years of time with my dear, little old Da.
Our chats about current events and politics often became very animated. I learned a lot about him, that I’d never known before. He had a long, often very hard life, but his time in the US Navy for twenty years, his work at Boeing, and life in North Seattle with my Mother and I gave him purpose. He would often tell me how much he missed Ma. Those were very emotional subjects, but I did my best to keep him comfortable and content.
We had fun together. We'd go for walks in downtown Port Orchard, and sometimes go for drives, to see the sights, because almost everything was "new" to him.
We did all sorts of silly things.
Every New Year's Eve I'd buy me Da a $50-a-bottle of French Champagne...
...because if anyone deserved a $50-a-bottle of French Champagne, it was me Da!
Yes, we had lots of fun, and I count myself very lucky to have him as my father. He knew he was loved and I miss him every day.
Why Should You Help Me?
I worked very hard to earn the money to buy this place. It is small, but it's my perfect home. It was in nearly every dream, every thought, every longing while I was Away. It represented my past, my present, and my future. Second only to a reunion with my kids, My Home was what kept me going when I was as low as I have ever been. Returning here meant that I would most definitely have a future.
But, there are other reasons to help me.
**I am very fearful of being homeless. The homeless situation in this county and state is at a critical stage, so adding even one more person would put stress on the already strained local and state resources. I have nowhere to go. I would not know how to handle life on the streets and in shelters. The prospect of losing this place would absolutely crush me, emtionally, mentally, and physically. I would die of a broken heart.
**I bought this place on 9 November 2001. It was brand new and I was so very happy and very proud that I bought it all by myself. It is the Heart and Soul of me.
I don't want to lose my home for so many reasons, not the least being that it is the only thing I possess that shows I had worked very hard for over two decades.
**I could never, ever afford rent or house payments anywhere else but right here. Originally, I had hoped that my mortgage would get reinstated, where my monthly payments would be somewhere between $350.00 and $450.00! In 2012, I took advantage of President Obama's Home Affordable Modification Program. The original loan was $119,000, minus the $10,000 down payment I made. The interest rate was 11.44%, and the payments were $1468.21 per month! After I qualified for HAMP, the interest rate dipped to 2% at $570.44 per month! Unfortunately, that ship has sailed. I am sketchy about the details of how I can still buy this place, but I think I would be able to put in a bid to purchase it. Or a cash down payment/earnest money. It is being offered AS IS. The listing is closed, for my eyes only until. Not sure, but I am going to find that detail out ASAP. Since I was arrested, the property value has gone way down, and now the house is worth nothing and the property is the only taxable item. I could NEVER find another place, in Western WA, with a 3-bedroom mobile on 2.5 acres of semi-wooded land for an "as is" price. To have the security of not worrying about having a place to live would be priceless...
**Working out in the yard keeps me active. It also keeps me happy. It is good for my mental, emotional, and physical health.
And it has been scientifically proven that digging in the dirt is actually good for all sorts of mental health issues. Here are articles that support the various beneficial claims of playing/digging in the dirt: Discover Magazine , Medical News Today , Very Well , USA Today , CNN , and National Wildlife Federation .
**The well water helps keep my skin healthy! I have a genetic skin disorder called Ichthyosis Vulgaris. It is the absolute worst case of dry skin, and includes scales. I am susceptable to getting infectins when my skin cracks open. One of the major ways of treating it is taking baths instead of showers. I literally sit and marinate in water that contains different sorts of bath additives. (Calgon, take me away?). I have a deep, large bathtub that lets me soak, completely immersed up to my neck. Since I have well water, it contains no chemicals, like chlorine, that you would find in city water. When I first moved in here 16 years ago, the change in my skin was remarkable. I completely attribute that to the purity of the well water. For more info on Ichthyosis Vulgaris, please go here.
**The birds I have been feeding for 16 years will lose a food source that they depend upon, especially in the colder months. I have Hummingbirds, Goldfinches, Pileated Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers, Mourning Doves, Chickdees, Nuthatches, Robins, Steller's Jays, and so many other bird species. At one point I had 17 feeders scattered around the property.
In the summer, during heat waves, I make sure that there's water for the birds, and watering stations for the other critters that pass through my yard
**I have been adopted by three Feral Kitten Brothers.
They were living in my woodpile out back.
I first noticed them in September 2016 and slowly they learned to trust me. Now, they sleep on my bed.
Pax, the Spokescat, is my solid cuddle kitty.
His two brothers Blue (the photo bomber on the left) and Felix (the photo bomb-ee on the right) are still skittish, but little by little they are coming around.
I cannot bear the thought of what will happen to them if I have no home. PLEASE help us to stay here.
What Are My Goals and Plans for the Future?
I have many things that I want to accomplish, and most of them involve my home and acreage.
**I plan on having both my knees replaced, and at least one hip. The orthopeadic clinic I go to is a good one and has everything I need in one location, aside from the hospital I would have my surgery in. I like the staff; physical therapist, and my doctor. I trust them implicitly.
I am really looking forward to this, as I am in pain 24/7. It gets old and being able to get around with new joints that don't ache all the time is priceless. I could walk up to my mailbox again! Puttering around the yard is good therapy.
**I want to go back to school to learn the different facets of Horticulture. Since I have 2.5 acres to play with, I plan on building a greenhouse for Native Plants to start a home business utilising Sustainable Landscaping and Gardening, Landscape Design, Landscape Restoration, and many other Green Services.
The school that I want to attend, Edmonds CC in Snohomish County, has a very comprehensive Horticulture Program . Restoration Horticulture is an Associate of Technical Arts Degree, along with a few other ATA degrees and Certificates and Certificates of Completion. I am very excited about going back to school, and am anxious to get started. I plan on applying for various Scholarships that specialise funding for these programs. I don't think I'm too old to do that..LOL. There is a Community Garden that has Beekeepers to aid in pollination and producing honey for sale. That's way cool!!
**I need to repair a lot of damage made by people while I was incarcerated. There were two people I knew who wanted to help me with my house, and they even paid $916 towards my mortgage. Unfortunately, they had their own problems and I was sad that things did not work out for them at my home. That's when squatters moved in. They may have had good intentions at first, but something weird happened here and the results are: interior doors are missing; exterior doors cannot be secured and need replacing; out of eight windows in the house, five are broken and need to be completely replaced; nearly every interior wall has some sort of damage; electrical wiring and outlets need to be replaced; kitchen drainboards and double sink need replacing, and on and on. When I finally came home, the inside made me cry. But it can be fixed bit by bit.
**I need to have some work done on Fred the 4Runner. Just to get him running so I can have transportation again until I can get something else. He was the abuse victim of tweakers. Poor Fred.
So all that was then. As of Friday, 7 July 2017, I am still living in my home-that-is-not-my-home. It took me a while to realise that the owner is not Ocwen, but the Bank of New York Mellon. I have been in communication with BNY Mellon and with Robinson Tait Law Offices, and for the time being, I can live here while I figure out the whole business of getting my home back.
(Fun Fact! The BNY Mellon is the same financial institution founded by Broadway musical darling Alexander Hamilton on 9 June 1784...233 years ago!)
It’s not over yet. I am optimistic because I must be. But, I know that often optimism and realism are not allies. I will exhaust every avenue I have, until I either get the deed back into my name, or I am satisfied that this poor place is a dead horse. Obviously, the latter is not the desired outcome. But, if it comes to walking away from my beloved little home in the woods, on the road that I named, then so be it. I will know that I tried everything I could to keep it.
If you are curious, or are just unsure if I am being upfront with what I have shared in my request for help, here is the link to my house as it is currently listed on the real estate auction site, Hubzu.com. I am the Occupant to which they are referring. Time is getting short, as the lawyers for BNY Mellon are starting to ramp up the process which will evict me from what is legally not my home anymore.
I am hoping that if I could show them a significant amount of earnest money/down payment/whatever, that could go towards reclaiming my home, then perhaps the process to vacate could be suspended.
I am trying to glean some information on what I need to do to turn this situation around. I am still in written contact with Ocwen, and also now with BNY Mellon, as well as with their lawyers. There is still an opportunity to succeed with this "pie in the sky" that I have been fantasizing about for more than three years...and I can't tell you how much I appreciate your continuing interest in my hope of hopes.
I wish to thank you for taking the time to read this fundraising effort. I have never liked asking anyone for help, which is kind of why I found myself tumbling down the rabbit hole in the first place. Asking for help when one needs it is not a weakness, but a strength.
If you do donate, I thank you! If you can't donate, that's okay because you can help me just by passing this on to others.
If 5,000 people donated $5.00, then my goal would be in sight...
If 2,500 people donated $10.00, then my goal would be on the horizon...
If 1,700 people donated $15.00, then my goal would be reached...
If 1,250 people donated $20.00, then my goal would be close...
Any amount will help.
Thank You from the bottom of my heart for your understanding, kindness, and generosity. It is most truly appreciated more than you could ever know.
Rene
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