Dear kind individuals,
My name is Cynthia and I never thought I would be in a situation where I would ask for money. I have always hated doing that even if it was a $1.00 for a coke. I find myself in a situation, however, that I must humbly ask to help pay off a debt of $30,000. The last 3 years have been terrible both financially and emotionally. It started with my mother dying of lung cancer and then Covid happening. As a teacher, Covid was extremely hard on the teachers and student’s. When we finally went back, the student’s behavior was so much worse and the administration did not support us at all. At the end of the 2022 after 14 years teaching, I decided to leave for health and emotional reasons and become a Realtor. I thought becoming a Realtor would help my emotional health and my family financially. Unfortunately, it made both worse as I finished school right when the market took a downturn. We were just barely making it and I had just got my first listing when my master bathroom flooded in May of last year, destroying the flooring and some of the walls in every room but the front one.
Our insurance did not nearly give us enough and we hired a contractor that kept giving excuses to start after we gave him the insurance money. We were in a hotel for 5 months before, his one worker started, but after a month we fired him when he asked for more money as the work he had done so far was horrible. I had originally tried to fire him in August because they hadn’t started yet but the owner’s wife insisted we had a contract and I couldn’t break it. We were also told by our insurance company that they wouldn’t pay for the hotel anymore because our house should have been finished by then. The contractor’s wife said she would get an extension from the insurance but never did, which we were unaware of at first. We had also talked with the hotel manager and told her situation with the insurance and contractor and she told us we had enough funds until November the 3rd. We verified this more than once with the staff. My husband in August was also dealt a blow as he lost his teaching position for a miscommunication and had a mental break down which landed him at a psychiatric facility after trying to commit suicide. I was nearly at my breaking point but knew I had to keep it together for my 8 year old daughter. My husband was allowed to come home after 16 days and that is when the contractor asked for more money and we had to fire him for terrible work.
We finally found another contractor who was wonderful but they could not finish it all as we ran out of funds. We were able to move back in and leave the hotel in mid November. We had checked with hotel staff again in October about our stay there and they said we were still good for the 3rd but would have to pay if we stayed over. Because we had to stay a week after the 3rd, we had to pay an extra $700 since the property relocation team could not get our property back in time. When we checked out and the property team was supposed to bring back our stuff, they only brought our bed as he said they couldn’t fit anything else in the small van as their large one needed to be fixed and they would bring the rest the following day. Unfortunately, that was a lie. The property company wanted to charge over double the price of rent to our insurance, which was $17,000 for 2 months, so they refused to bring back our stuff. They had already charged the insurance 17,000 to pack and bring it to the storage facility even though they packed our front office room that wasn’t damaged and our garage to the fullest. In our office, they packed the first tank so tight that we couldn’t even feed the fish and they died. Also we found out trying to get to my business cards, that they had put our living room television in there, which we found out later the pixels in the screen were damaged. The insurance finally negotiated with them and they brought back our property on January 6th but still have yet to compensate us for the damaged tv or our fish.
Some good luck occurred during this time that my husband’s mental health improved and he was able to get another teaching position. Unfortunately, he fell behind on a few of his bills and I fell behind on my car payment. Another hit to our finances occurred when a month after our hotel stay ended at the Hyatt, we were charged almost $6,000 for our stay from August 31 to November the 3rd. They did not call, email or anything and charged our debit card a week before Christmas. Apparently, there were no funds. It was a credit card that our insurance gave them and the insurance denied the charge and we were then recharged. Due to all of this, both I and my husband’s credit scores were lowered, but my credit was still fair so I tried to get a car loan since I have to turn in the car at the end of February as it is a lease. Because I am delinquent now on the car payments, even with decent credit, I was denied the loan both without and with my mother-in-law as a cosigner and my husband was denied because his credit is so low. I am also unable to get a home equity loan because of his low credit.
I have been beside myself trying to figure out what to do but I don’t know what else to do as when I turn in the car, not only will I not have a way to do my job as a real estate agent or be able to go to any job interviews to get another job due to finances, but I will be charged for the hail damage that the car has since I had to use that money when my husband was out of a job for our mortgage. During this time, my beloved 19 year old chihuahua got sick and had to be helped to pass, and my car was hit by a semi-truck, luckily only damaging the passenger side mirror and bumper, but both affecting our finances as well. I am filled with anxiety and fallen into depression but struggling to move forward and keep it together for my daughter. I know this letter is very long but thank you for reading it and I hope beyond hope that someone on here can help us. I hate even asking when there are so many others in need but I feel this is my last resort. Please help my family and I get our heads above water. Thank you for your consideration and know that I will be forever grateful to anyone that finds it in their hearts to help us.
Warmest regards,
Cynthia