By Ivana Kottasová
Joyce Reid had come to court to see whether it was still possible to salvage her dream.
Eleven years ago, with money she borrowed from her mother, she had purchased a four-story brownstone in Bedford-Stuyuvesant. Reid, who works as a school administrator, found tenants, and settled into the life of a homeowner and landlord. She painted the wall in her bedroom red. For good luck, she said. She picked dark green color for her kitchen. “It’s kind of forest green,” she said.
But soon, Reid realized her house needed repairs. That’s when the troubles started. “You don’t even know how you get there,” she said. “Banks and lending banks, or not even banks, just lenders, they all tell you they’ll give you money and you just get caught up. They tell you everything will be fine and that you can always lower your interest rates later. But that’s not true.”
In 2008, Reid needed to repair the front door and part of the sidewalk.. “It’s an old brownstone, so some renovations are always needed,” she said. To pay for the renovations, she had to refinance. She replaced her old mortgage with a new one – a common way for homeowners to get some extra cash. But that meant that her mortgage payments suddenly rose. “I pay almost 4,000 a month,” she said.
With the house full of renters, the payments were not a problem. But the renters began moving and Reid couldn’t find new ones. Late in 2009, she couldn’t pay the mortgage anymore. The house went into foreclosure. Her bank, HSBC, first took her to court almost exactly a year ago. She has been a regular visitor to court ever since.
“The sheet outside said it’s my seventh time here,” she sighed as she sat on a hard wooden bench, waiting for a clerk to call her name.
“I’m giving it the best shot,” said Reid, a single mother. “It’s a three-family house, I have renters and I am responsible for everything. I had to tell them they might need to look for a new home. If I can’t do it, I can’t.”
After 40 minutes of waiting, her attorney walked in. “Did you get anything through the mail?” she asked.
Reid shook her head.
“They approved it,” the attorney said cheerfully. “Hallelujah!”
Reid started to laugh nervously. The bank had agreed to modify her loan. Reid will pay $2,000 a month. “If I can’t do this, I don’t deserve it,” she said, with a smile.
She rushed out of the courthouse to go to work. “Then I will go home,” she said. “That’s my celebration.”
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