The journey begins

[ClingingToHope]

From the "I don't know what I want" file. At dinner, D11 was talking about this open house STBXW took them to. It was in the same price range as the house we own now, but it had an inground pool. She was going on and on about how cool it was.

I'm torn. We're seriously underwater on the house. At best, hopefully our lender will let us sell it as a short sale and not come after us for the difference.

At best in the settlement STBXW is going to owe me money to even up the retirement accounts. She may also owe money to even up the cars and to take some of the credit card debts.

I plan on using all of it to pay off debt so I have more to live on and save each paycheck. Buying a house? That's a couple of years off at least.

So as far as I can tell she's going to have nothing for a downpayment and you can't buy a house after the real estate bubble burst without at least 3 percent down and more likely 5 percent.

Plus, if we have to go short-sale route then it'll be 2 to 3 years before a lender would take a chance on her anyway.

The only thing I don't know about is her mom. The MIL is down to less than $15k on a $50,000 home equity line she took out several years ago. She may give the money to STBXW to buy a house. But again, if we have to short-sale then there's no way STBXW can buy without at least 10 percent down.

None of this should be my concern. I should only be concerned about where the girls live. But ... well, hell, I hate to say that I want her to suffer a bit. Just stepping into some nice house while I bounced from a friend's place to a townhouse would sting.