Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The Never Ending Saga of our House is coming to an END

As I think about this situation its bizarre but a great reminder of our Gods soveriegnty and provision. Here are some of the details and people involved:  We have the famous spokesperson, host and auto expert: Barbara Terry who has signed a contract on our house and moved in her mother into our home to rent the house.  We also have a well known Fort Worth realtor Robbie Renfro who also has made a name for himself in his field of business. This realtor was representing Mrs. Terry.  The Tutens, missionaries who are trying to sell or rent their home so that they can continue their work in S. America at peace. And some random subleasers caught in the middle of a scam. 
In a matter of seconds our whole renters/sellers situation got chaotic.  We were baffled and confused why these two very successful people mentioned above would do this.  We received an email notifying us that our renter left our house (Barbara Terrys mother) and they subleased it using this reputable realtor Mr. Renfro whom should of known better.  Well if thats not bad enough we were also dealing with evictions because they weren't paying us our rent due even though they had already collected the rent from the subleasers. Oh it gets crazier, then were notified that they have put our house on the market for sale and said they were the owners of our home once again using this realtor who was very aware that it was OUR home.  Craziness, huh! In the eviction process we had the right to remove the subleasers from our home since they were considered "trespassers" though they paid rent and signed a contract just not to the rightful owners.  We decided that they were innocent bystanders and that we would not remove them from our home.  They are now out of our house and thanks to God did not destroy our home. 
To this day we have no idea why these apparently successful people would come together to do this to us.  Why us? Why our home? Why? Why? Why?  After consulting our God, our property manager, our realtor, a lawyer we decided to not sue or pursue. 
The best thing for us was to cut all ties with Ms. Terry and her mother and free ourselves of all this drama because in end it was only causing us stress and we were losing money.  Before we did cut all ties I wrote Mrs. Terry to inform her that she was hurting not just a name on a contract but a family. That this home is not a retirement fund for us but on the contrary the rent we collect doesn't even cover all of our mortgage. Also, asking  her to please be honest with us on her intentions with our home and that if she wanted out of the sell and lease contract there are appropriate avenues on accomplishing this. To my surprise she did write back and she wanted to make things better by keeping her contract and paying our rent through Dec and then buying the house.  These were the initial terms of the contract. But once again this was to good to be true at the end she once again didn't keep her word in any form or fashion. 
Both our lease and sell contract with Barbara Terry and her mother was now in default.  Leaving us out of September rent and with an empty home to rent or lease once again.  Ms. Terry, her mother and Mr. Renfro go on living their lives as normal not realizing the damage they have done to our family. And in some way that is frustrating but I trust that God will take care of all this dishonesty and damage.  I learned that though we have every right to pursue justice sometimes its better to just let it go for His Name Sake.  This all started in June and now October is rolling around and its not prime time for moving or selling. Only reminding us that God is bigger than the dishonesty and damage that was done to us.   So here we go moving forward trusting God to take care of us financially and to quickly fill our home with good honest tenants or buyers. Please pray the same for us!
UPDATE AS OF 9/24
Spoke to soon. We thought it were done but at this point Ms. Barbara Terry and/or her mother have not signed the release of contract form, therefore, still legally binding us to this contract.  Which means we can't sell or rent the home to anyone else.  She is at her 7 day limit and we have not rec'd the contract signed which now leaves us with no choice but to bring in a lawyer.
UPDATE AS OF 9/27
We emailed Ms. Barbara Terry and her mother again on Saturday to let them know we would be following through with legal action if the release of contract form was not signed.  We are at our wits end and feeling really frustrated that she is dragging this out and envisioning our home sitting empty for another month with no tenants to pay the mortgage.
At 2p.m. we received the form signed.  YES, WE ARE FREE!  THANK YOU GOD for sparing us the overwhelming process of going to court.  IT'S OVER! 

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