How We Got the House At 840

I thought that since our house is now paid off, I should write about how we got the house.

On the night before Thanksgiving 1984, my dad had a dream. Mentally, I was in a rough spot. He told me on Thanksgiving Day at church about the dream; he said that he believed that it was from the Lord. He heard the Lord say that we were going to get a house for $59,000.

We were a family of five; two adults, a boy, and two girls. We were renting a little two-story house that had two bedrooms; one just off the dining room on the first floor and one upstairs. It served our needs and only had a few things wrong with it such as mice, short ceilings in the basement, and its address was “666”.

The house was owned by a friend of a friend of ours. His brother had purchased the house because it was very close in location to his house. His mother was dying in another state and his brother had purchased the house so that when his mother died, his father would be closer to his brother.

We were renting the house under the agreement that when the mother died, we would have two months to vacate the property. This agreement worked well and we lived at this house for several years.

In June of 1985, we received notice that the homeowner’s mother had died and we were given notice that we need to vacate the house by the August 31, 1985. We spent the next two months looking for a house to purchase with no success; sometimes looking at five houses each day.

Then we came to the point where we had only two weeks left before we had to leave.

Although we had been looking to purchase a house, we had nowhere to go. And, to make matters worse, because I wasn’t employed (other than odd jobs) we had no credit rating and no money in the bank. We were not the candidate that realtors want for prospective buyers.

I was in a bad spot. I said to my father-in-law; “God has finally let us down. In two weeks we will have nowhere to go. No job, no money, no house and no prospects!”

My father-in-law lovingly responded that he knew that God would come through. He said; “One thing I know is that your and Cathy’s life has always shown the provision of the Lord; He has always been faithful to you. In two weeks, you will have a great testimony of how God came through”.

My response was cynical and I said something to the effect of; “Why don’t you go through this and then I will read the book that you write as to how He came through!” My father-in-law said; “You need to go through this; it is something that you need to walk through and in two weeks you will have a great testimony of how He came through”.

Meanwhile when I was with my father-in-law, Cathy was with one of her sisters looking at houses. Cathy found a home that she liked on Ohio Street. The flyer said that it was a “Charming, two-story four-bedroom house with an Upper 3rd Floor located in a convenient area close to shopping areas, bus service, parks and schools. Because of the large corner lot, its South exposure fills the home with passive solar during the winter months and keeps it bright and cheery!” It was listed for the asking price of $59,900 as a “Contract for Deed…Like renting”

Later that Night Cathy, my parents, and I went through the house and it was agreed that we should try to get the house. The realtor (who was also the homeowner) told us several things about the house not listed in the flyer.

The house actually had a “contract for deed on a contract for deed” In other words the realtor was still making payments to someone else for the house. Also, another person had already signed a “Purchase Agreement”. My mom suggested that none of this mattered (if Cathy really wanted the house) and said she would call people and ask them to pray.

This began a week filled with one road block after another. Each time one road was cleared (like the original person requesting to back out of the purchase agreement) another road block would come up.

And each time my mom would call friends and ask them to pray. And each time one road was cleared another road block would come up. And each time my mom would call friends and ask them to pray. This took us to Sunday night, one week after we first looked at the house.

One week Later…On August 18, 1985, Cathy, my parents, and I met at the reality office (again who is also the owner of the house) to sign a “Purchase Agreement and give a check for two thousand dollars earnest money given towards the purchase of the house.

She said to me; “You two are the worst possible scenarios for selling a house. Why am I doing this sale?” I sheepishly muttered to her “Because they prayed”, referring to my mom and Cathy.

When asked what I mumbled, I spoke up and said that my mom and Cathy had prayed that this sale would go through. The realtor smiled, shook my hand again expressing what a risk it was and proceeded to congratulate Cathy.

As I stood in the office I noticed that this realtor had been “Realtor of the Month” for ten of the past twelve months!

When she gave a hug to my mom, my mom noticed that the realtor was tearing up. When asked what was going on, she explained; “Two weeks ago I was talking about this house with my husband. He said that we would have no problem selling in the next two weeks before going on a trip overseas. I told him how long it took to close on the sale of a house. He told me that the sale would happen; after all they were going to have an audience with the Pope. I told him that if the sale went through in the next two weeks, it would have to be God.

When you told me that you prayer, I wondered if God had indeed heard your prayers and that is why we were doing this”

After a brief discussion, the sellers agreed to rent the house to us for the month of September, 1985 for the amount of $375 so that we could move in immediately; and, so that they could head to Europe to see the Pope.

The official signing was scheduled for October, 1985 when they returned from Europe. Keys were given to us; one week after we first set foot in the house and one week before we needed to get out of the house we were currently renting. We had beaten the “two-week deadline” as God came through with one week to spare!

My understanding is that we would owe a payment of sixty five hundred when we signed the official paperwork in October. I tried doing everything that I could to get the money and nothing worked. I had been doing construction on people’s homes; no one seemed to have money to pay me. I even tried selling antiques and was offered well below market value.

October 4, 1985, we signed for the house. My parents came with in case we needed to borrow money for the down payment; which we did. There was also a bill for $65 dollars which covered some filing fees and back taxes. We were able to write a check because we had that amount of money in the bank. The entire closing took only fifteen minutes! The monthly house payment was around $540.

I came home from the signing and was not filled with hope but rather fear as I wondered how we would pay for the house. I asked Cathy; “Yes, God had gotten us into the house, but how would we pay for it?” She left me alone in my thoughts and headed to the store still rejoicing for how God had provided for us. The mail came and along with it was a local newspaper (the kind normally left to die in the front bushes). I opened it and saw the name of a company.

This was an ad stating what the company offers as a service and products. The ad was not saying that they were looking to hire, but something about the company stood out to me so I picked up the phone.

I need to digress and state that this was a bit out of the ordinary for me and it followed a year of application and interviews with no success and only left me more discouraged.

The owner of the company answered the phone and I asked him if they were hiring. He said to me; “Can you start tomorrow?” and asked me what I would like to make as an hourly wage; to which I gave him a number. He said that he would pay slightly less, but after two days he paid me more than I originally asked. I worked for this company for about eight years.

August 21, 1995. Ten years after we purchased the house we were to make a balloon payment of approximately eight thousand dollars. Once again I looked to myself to come up with the funds necessary to cover the debt that was owed.

Once again my efforts were met with no success at all. After months of trying, we didn’t have the money for the balloon payment. Once again I wandered and couldn’t see how we were going to come up with the money.

We asked the people who met in our home Bible study to pray for us and the situation; asking for favor from God for the money.

On the night before the papers were to be signed and the check would be due, I got a phone call from the realtor who owned the house; the one to whom we would be writing the check to buy out her portion of the contract for deed. The realtor had a strange request. She said to me; “I know that tomorrow you are coming with a check for eight thousand dollars; and I want you to know that contractually we have to take the money. I am asking if we might talk”.  I didn’t tell her that we didn’t have the money.

One phone call extended the balloon payment to September 1, 2000. After that we transferred to a mortgage company; to which we made monthly payments until we were paid up.

All of the years that we have been in the house, we NEVER missed a house payment; and we were ALWAYS able to replace furnishings including furniture, appliances, remodel rooms, replace the roof, soffits, and facia. 

Praise be the Name of the Lord for His faithfulness!

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matthew 6:33-34 NKJV)