I_want_out
Junior Member
I live in Central Michigan. I currently live in a Habitat for Humanity home. My wife, 2 kids, and I have lived there for almost 3 years. We have had nothing but problem with the house since we moved in (house problems and problems dealing with the HFH board members). We bought our house for $82,000 in 2009, which is a little high for a 3 bedroom 1 bath house under 1100 sq ft in our area. We werent aware we could get an appraisal on the house and we were told we are only paying for the cost to build. As soon as we moved in we noticed things falling apart. One hallway light doesnt turn on half the time and when it does its dim and flickers. We brought it to Habitats attention and they just told us there is probably a small part in the electrical that needs fixing (it never got fixed). The grout in the tile is deteriorating. The siding started blowing off the house. The floor creeks throught the house. A water pipe burst under the house causing the furnace to sink in the sand under the house which made it stop working and it started blowing carbon monoxide throught the house (that problem was fixed, thankfully). The house was built by high school students.
When we first moved in, i was the only one working so we were very thankful to finally have a house of our own to raise our kids. Now my wife and I both have decent jobs and are in a position where we can buy a bigger house through a bank. We realized that there are a lot of houses we can buy cheaper than what we paid for our HFH home. When we originally signed for our house we were told we could give habitat the first right of refusal to buy our house if we wanted to sell, which means we offer it to them first if they dont want to buy it we can sell it on the open market. If we didnt want to sell it we can just deed it back and it would be like we were renting and we would just lose out on any money we put into the house. Well, they refused to buy which was fine with us. We just wanted to give it back, but now they are fighting us. First they said we need to be openly trying to sell the house before we deed it back. So we should them proof that we were trying to sell the house. Then they wanted us to get an appraisal on the house to see what its worth (a quick appraisal from a real estate agent was good enough for them). What we found out is that in 2009 we paid well over market value for our house. Our neighbors (also in a HFH home) paid almost $10K less than we did because they got an appraisal before they bought, which we didnt know we could do. Now the real estate agent says our house would only list for $49,000 at the most. We currently owe $63,000 (almost 3 years of payments plus a $10k grant). They said we would have to pay back whats left of the grant when we moved out which is $6000. High for us but we could manage it, but now since the house isnt worth what we owe (mainly because we were over charged) they want another $14,000 just for us to GIVE it back. All i wanted to do was give the house back to habitat and have it be like we were renting just like they said we could. I cant afford $20,000 to move out plus pay for all the expenses we would have buying a new home. Do i have a leg to stand on. HFH said they can charge us whatever they want because they own the mortgage. HELP ME!!!!
When we first moved in, i was the only one working so we were very thankful to finally have a house of our own to raise our kids. Now my wife and I both have decent jobs and are in a position where we can buy a bigger house through a bank. We realized that there are a lot of houses we can buy cheaper than what we paid for our HFH home. When we originally signed for our house we were told we could give habitat the first right of refusal to buy our house if we wanted to sell, which means we offer it to them first if they dont want to buy it we can sell it on the open market. If we didnt want to sell it we can just deed it back and it would be like we were renting and we would just lose out on any money we put into the house. Well, they refused to buy which was fine with us. We just wanted to give it back, but now they are fighting us. First they said we need to be openly trying to sell the house before we deed it back. So we should them proof that we were trying to sell the house. Then they wanted us to get an appraisal on the house to see what its worth (a quick appraisal from a real estate agent was good enough for them). What we found out is that in 2009 we paid well over market value for our house. Our neighbors (also in a HFH home) paid almost $10K less than we did because they got an appraisal before they bought, which we didnt know we could do. Now the real estate agent says our house would only list for $49,000 at the most. We currently owe $63,000 (almost 3 years of payments plus a $10k grant). They said we would have to pay back whats left of the grant when we moved out which is $6000. High for us but we could manage it, but now since the house isnt worth what we owe (mainly because we were over charged) they want another $14,000 just for us to GIVE it back. All i wanted to do was give the house back to habitat and have it be like we were renting just like they said we could. I cant afford $20,000 to move out plus pay for all the expenses we would have buying a new home. Do i have a leg to stand on. HFH said they can charge us whatever they want because they own the mortgage. HELP ME!!!!
