“We were living the American Dream… small business owners, homeowners, a married couple on our way to financial success!
In 2005, I refinanced our home to provide some extra capital to expand our business. Little did I know that shortly thereafter, the economic downturn would begin. This was start of a whole new chapter in our lives...
We were scared and reality slapped us hard in the face one sunny morning at 8am when a deputy sheriff delivered our foreclosure notice.
We both stared at that piece of paper, afraid to touch it as though it were a venomous snake about to strike. It was the worst day of my life.
After a couple hours of silence, my wife said “We can pack up and go live with my parents in New Jersey”. That was not the best idea in my mind and living with the in-laws was not an option. I love them but living with them? Umm, no. “OK, I guess we have 2 months to move out and go…. somewhere”.
But we had no money. We needed time. Time to save up some money. Time to get back on our feet and get our ducks in a row. I started researching on how we can get more time and thus started Defending My Home. Through hundreds of hours of research on my laptop and dozens of visits to the county courthouse, I found out about Discovery, Production, Admissions, PSA’s, Unclean Hands, Credit Default Swaps, and so forth.
The more I discovered, the more ammunition I had in defending my home. Buying us an extra 3 to 6 months was my initial goal. Then it turned to a year, then TWO years and now, as of August 31st, 2009 it will have been 854 days since I last made a mortgage payment.
I’ve met many people this past year from Florida and from other states that are in similar financial struggles and have been trying to help them. Helping by pointing them to some great resources I have found and by sharing my experiences and what worked for me. These conversations gave them HOPE and hope is a precious thing when you’re standing on the edge of a financial cliff."
