I lost a great friend last year to cancer. Surprisingly, he left everything to me, as he had no family. I am 50..just turned 50 and that's hard to type..!
I now own a successful bar/lounge, and a nice home mostly paid for. I want to move back to Florida (I am from Fort Walton Beach) and retire. I have 3 sons ages 28, 17, 15, and 1 grandson aged 9. The bar income pays for itself and the household, which is very good in this economy and compared to other bars in the area. The bar has been established since 1989 and has a good following.
The building the bar is in is leased. A month after my friend died the building went into foreclosure. We had never been late with lease payments. I did not have the down payment to purchase the building. So the stress of my friend dying was compounded with the building foreclosing twice (first time improper). The owner of the building filed bankruptcy right before the second foreclosure was to end, which drug things out through the holidays and into the new year before the judge awarded the property to the mortgage company. This went on for a year. I had to sign a new lease with the mortgage company, new security deposit ( we had initially given $6000 security deposit to previous owner ) and let them list the building. We have invested $70,000 into the building just to make it operational..it had been empty for 3 or 4 years and was in bad condition.
No one has put an offer on the building yet. The building was originally built as a Hardees in the early '70's. Our bar is the only business that has ever prospered there. The business continues to do well. The defaulted mortgage amount was $165k and they are now asking $270k. I plan on buying the building next year as I had to establish an income first. I am now writing myself paychecks and just depositing them into the business acct as "loan from owner". We had a 20 year lease with previous owner and the new lease is 1 year.
To make things unbearably worse, my younger sister died in December. She was 1 year younger and we were very close. I really don't have the spirit to have to deal with all of this, but I know I have to.
I have a lot of questions and need financial advise but I can't think of them right now as it is 3am, as usual I don't sleep much since my sister's death.
I'll start with this: I had previously been a single mother struggling to support my children. My credit is not the greatest, although it's not too bad. It definitely wasn't good enough to buy the building without a lot of $ down. My house payments are only $600 a month as he had it paid down. The amount owed is $70k. I know I can refinance for even lower payments. But I was told by one bank that I had to have 2 yrs tax returns and show income. That's why I am writing myself paychecks. I haven't filed personal taxes in 3 years. I had moved in with my friend to take care of him.
So the question would be is there some way I can get to the equity in the house before 2 years of writing myself paychecks? I do have the judgement paperwork from his estate saying that all belongs to me although the house is still in his name.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated as this is all new to me.
Thank you and I look forward to chatting and getting to know my way around in here
deblmw
"Whether you think you can or you can't..you are right."
I now own a successful bar/lounge, and a nice home mostly paid for. I want to move back to Florida (I am from Fort Walton Beach) and retire. I have 3 sons ages 28, 17, 15, and 1 grandson aged 9. The bar income pays for itself and the household, which is very good in this economy and compared to other bars in the area. The bar has been established since 1989 and has a good following.
The building the bar is in is leased. A month after my friend died the building went into foreclosure. We had never been late with lease payments. I did not have the down payment to purchase the building. So the stress of my friend dying was compounded with the building foreclosing twice (first time improper). The owner of the building filed bankruptcy right before the second foreclosure was to end, which drug things out through the holidays and into the new year before the judge awarded the property to the mortgage company. This went on for a year. I had to sign a new lease with the mortgage company, new security deposit ( we had initially given $6000 security deposit to previous owner ) and let them list the building. We have invested $70,000 into the building just to make it operational..it had been empty for 3 or 4 years and was in bad condition.
No one has put an offer on the building yet. The building was originally built as a Hardees in the early '70's. Our bar is the only business that has ever prospered there. The business continues to do well. The defaulted mortgage amount was $165k and they are now asking $270k. I plan on buying the building next year as I had to establish an income first. I am now writing myself paychecks and just depositing them into the business acct as "loan from owner". We had a 20 year lease with previous owner and the new lease is 1 year.
To make things unbearably worse, my younger sister died in December. She was 1 year younger and we were very close. I really don't have the spirit to have to deal with all of this, but I know I have to.
I have a lot of questions and need financial advise but I can't think of them right now as it is 3am, as usual I don't sleep much since my sister's death.
I'll start with this: I had previously been a single mother struggling to support my children. My credit is not the greatest, although it's not too bad. It definitely wasn't good enough to buy the building without a lot of $ down. My house payments are only $600 a month as he had it paid down. The amount owed is $70k. I know I can refinance for even lower payments. But I was told by one bank that I had to have 2 yrs tax returns and show income. That's why I am writing myself paychecks. I haven't filed personal taxes in 3 years. I had moved in with my friend to take care of him.
So the question would be is there some way I can get to the equity in the house before 2 years of writing myself paychecks? I do have the judgement paperwork from his estate saying that all belongs to me although the house is still in his name.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated as this is all new to me.
Thank you and I look forward to chatting and getting to know my way around in here
deblmw
"Whether you think you can or you can't..you are right."