Unfortunately, we lost this one. The bank would NOT postpone the scheduled auction. We did well on donations for the first 5 days, considering our promotion help just started kicking in on Monday and Tuesday, but the amount was too low to get their attention and they went through with the trustees sale/auction this morning and we lost the house.
All donations will be refunded through GoFundMe according to their policies and procedures. I am initiating that now. It may take 1-2 weeks per their help center. I am not sure exactly how that part works, but please wait 7-10 days before asking them about it if you don't receive your donation back.
Thanks to all who supported us. It means a lot to me.
------------------------------------
I'm down on my luck and am about to lose our home. I am a long-time software developer, in the upper age category, and a little over 14 months ago, was laid off with two other "upper-age" category engineers, and our team's work was moved offshore. I had worked at this company (or its antecedents which it acquired) for over 9 years. A new offshore manager took over and dismantled the N American team as much as possible and moved the work to his country. Those laid off were all in the "upper age" category except one new junior-level guy. The few left employed were younger mid-age or young-age engineers needed to support the local support staff, since almost all of the customer base is in N America.
We had been building a house for our family. Because we started (planning, etc.) before Covid and actual groundbreaking and building during Covid, things were hard to manage and coordinate as contractors would ghost us, materials tripled or quadrupled in price, etc. But we got the house done to a level where we got a temporary occupancy permit and moved in. Two weeks later, I was unexpectedly laid off.
We're still on the construction loan and we stayed up to date as long as I had severance, for about 5 months. We've been able to make two payments since using funds from tax returns and similar sources. We went into default around Thanksgiving and the first trustee's sale was scheduled for the beginning of April. We were able to get it postponed by making a month's payment but they won't postpone again unless I have a job or we otherwise have a solid plan on how to continue payments, get the final occupancy (need a small amount of money to finish some stairs and stuff), and get a long-term mortgage. So we'll lose the house we spent 4 years building, with countless personal hours from me and my family put in, as well as a few hundred thousand dollars of our own, health damage, stress, etc. unless we can catch up and get out of default.
I've been trying for 14 months to get a new job. I've applied at countless places, both locally and for remote jobs. I've gotten through several complete interview cycles only to have the jobs go to another candidate. I've also done many partial interview processes, as well as have outright rejections, and of course, have been ghosted by plenty of companies who never respond. I've also taken a class, worked on side projects, worked on learning AI tools, etc. to better my skills and stay up-to-date.
But I'm at wit's end with the loss of the house. I personally spent countless hours in the cold, sick with Covid at one time, working on the house myself, as well as organizing and coordinating contractors, etc. At my age, the loss of hundreds of thousands of value I put in and the mark against our credit, and having to start basically over, is something I will probably not be able to overcome in my lifetime (I could retire as early as 5 years from now though plan to work 10-12 years if I can).
I don't like to appeal for help but don't know what else to do. I continue to follow up on jobs, work on my side project, finish my class, and work on other career skills. Anything will help.
We're needing to raise enough to clear any back-owed interest and get out of default, plus enough for 3 months of future payments to give me more job-finding time.
Thanks.
Short video link you can share: https://youtu.be/3TyzLwvfSyc