Bill and I have been into real estate for the past couple years. We've bought several houses in the neighborhood, fixed them up, and are owner financing them. The first family we put in one of our houses actually went to church with us for a while. They have 3 children: 8, 5, and 3yrs. They had some marital trouble a few months back, and she went back to the ex husband for a week or two, realized she had made a mistake, and came back home.

Ex husband is mad now. Three weeks ago, he smashed in their truck windows. Two weeks ago, he slashed the tires on their van and on all of the children's bicycle tires (they caught him in the act, but couldn't detain him until the police showed up, so there have been no arrests yet). Yesterday while they were out of town for a doctor's appointment, they got a call from the Fire Marshall. Someone started their house on fire. They lost EVERYTHING, and the house is just a shell now. Of course they supsect the same person who's been giving them trouble, but it may be difficult to prove.

This is a double whammy, because not only are we heartbroken to see this family go through such a horrible experience, but we also loose one of our investment homes and a large amount of money. Fortunately, their children spent days at a time over at our house this summer, so I still had a few outfits for each of them, and our church is stepping up to the plate and helping them get a place to stay.

Please pray for the family, and please pray that the authorities are able to find out who did it, and that insurance follows through for them and for us.

Will do, sorry for everyone's losses

Praying Michelle. So thankful no one was home to be hurt. \0/

Yes, you and they have prayers!!

Yes, embie, it was a miracle that no one was hurt. In fact, the only reason they weren't home was because he is having some medical issues that have required them to go to Galveston several times. They had both younger children with them, and the older one was at school. Apparently, whoever started the fire must have let the dog and the cat out when he opened the door to go in, because both animals were okay. Cutest darn puppy, too. He's a chiuaweenie (chiuaua/weenie) named Flex. haha. He's about as tall as my ankle, as long as my forearm, and as big around as my calf. Anyhoo, he wouldn't have had a chance to escape if he'd have been trapped in the house, and I doubt that the jerk who did this would have let him go out of the goodness of his heart, so just the fact that he was okay was a big source of relief for the kids who lost all of thier things.

It was so sad, too, how the older girl found out; we picked her up from school that day (as we had already planned to do because of her parent's trip to the doctor), and so she had no idea that anything was wrong until the younger kids showed up at my house with their mom. Before the mom could get to her, the two little ones ran through my house screaming "Guess what? All our stuff and our bedrooms and our beds and our toys and our clothes just got burned in a fire with our house!!!" Poor thing was shocked, and just started bawling. Not to mention the fact that the ex husband is actually her father. She may need some extra prayers, because she's stuggling with the idea that her biological father would slash her bicycle tires and burn her toys and stuff.

No news yet as far as the investigation, but please continue to keep them in your prayers.

Thanks guys.

I hate a weak man like that...he can't deal with his problems so he makes everyone else suffer...I'm sorry for that Michelle...God knows I've had my share of sorrows...but I pretty much keep it to myself and if I talk to others...they try to help and I don't break their windows.

I'll pray for you and your family and houses and I wish you the very best...the insurance should cover it and I pray it does.

Yes...Devil's Advocate is now praying! Wierd? Thanks to you Michelle...and thanks...you're a great lady and I hope this all turns out for the best for you, your husband and little one(s). Embie is right...it could have been a lot worse...thank God it was just the house...

All my best to you and yours.

DA/Jim

Just a little Good to see you around DA

Thanks for the prayers. Turns out that it wasn't the ex. It was the husband. He admitted this week to burning his own house down to get the settlement.

We will get paid out, he will go to jail, and I feel so terrible for those babies. I doubt their mom will allow us to help her watch them anymore, just because she is probably too embarassed to face us. They've been avoiding us for over a month. Now we know why.

Well, more prayers for the family. I hope that this is a turning point in the man's life, and he will wake up and see what he's done and start out fresh when he's done serving his time.

Wierd indeed Allen...and all the best to you Michelle.

And best of luck to the man...he needs some help...I hope he gets it...

Also...if anyone cares I'm getting Paramedic upgrade here in Indiana...go back to Okinawa for a couple months...marry my beautiful fiancee...then move to Florida. I'll likely retire after 26 years as a PJ in Nov 2009...looking forward to a relaxing life in the Philippines...raising my kids and kicking back a bit...may do some contract work before that though...we'll see.

All my best kids.

Hey DA... Best of luck to you with all your upcoming changes. What part of FL are you moving to? We just bought a home in St. Pete, but my heart's desire is to move back to Melbourne.

All God's best to you and yours.

Wow DA sounds like you are going through some great times!!! Congrats!



Thanks for the update Forever! Praying even more for the family. (and of course for the hassels you guys have as well!

Update. The wife called yesterday. Seems that she didn't know that he was planning to do this. He had his brother actually strike the match while he and the wife went out of town to the Dr. appointment. Sad thing is, the brother is only like 16 yrs old. For him to drag a minor into this is despicable.

Anyhoo, so when the wife found out, she got so sick that she had to go to the ER from dehydration, and she made him turn himself in when she got out of the hospital. So now he's smacking her around and locking her up in the bathroom when he's mad, and she's just praying that they hurry up and take him to jail so that she can make a clean break.

I typically don't pray that a woman will be able to make a clean break from her husband, but in this case, I think that may be the best for everyone involved. This guy seems to have gone off the deep end. He's already on probation for drug use, and it seems that he's clean from the drugs, but has substituted them for Vodka. He downs about 1 and 1/2 bottles a day, and he's always tripping, from her description.

So....needless to say, they all need prayers, the wacko, the wife, and the 3 innocent kiddos.

Will do Michelle.

...so sad how deceived we can become...

Praying Michelle.

That is absolutely nuts. I've heard of insurance fraud but that is just crazy. You guys can get your money back for arson right?

Mouse, fortunately we are the investor, and the insurance company has to pay us since it's cut and dry that we had no hand in this. It'd be like if you got a home loan from Wells Fargo and then burned your house down, Wells Fargo gets payment from the insurance company, and you have to pay restitution to the insurance company. We owner financed the home legally through an attorney, so essentially, we fronted them the money, and we are the bank. Works out nicely for us, except for the fact that we loose out on the interest. We get payoff for what the house had been worth if they had paid us cash for it instead of financing it. Fair enough, I'd say.

Glad it looks like you guys aren't going to lose it all, at least. Is the arsonist being followed up on?

Well, he walked into the Fire Marshall's office and signed a confession, but hasn't been arrested yet. I suppose there will have to be a proccess or something. Who knows? I hope, for his wife's sake, that the proccess is expedient, because he's gotten difficult to live with from what I hear. Not difficult enough, obviously, because she hasn't left him yet. I suppose that could be out of fear that if she leaves him before he's arrested, his family won't take care of her and the kiddos. If her fear is founded on that, it's probably valid, unfortunately. This guy has his parents brainwashed into thinking that it's ALL HER FAULT because she shouldn't have left him in the first place this summer, and that if she wouldn't have put so much pressure on him, he wouldn't have cracked. He still comes out smelling like a rose, and she comes out looking like the whore of babylon. Granted, what she did was wrong, in leaving him for the ex and then coming back, but she left in the first place because of his drinking and his temper...

He's on probation still from the drug charges a few years back, so I would think that he'll definitely get some jail time out of this. He's pretty manipulative, though. We'll see. Out of our hands now, though.

Well, we were sitting at home today, and their number came up on our caller ID. I assumed it was the wife calling, but when Billy answered, we heard the man's voice screaming "SAY GOODBYE". Then the phone hung up.

My stomach went sick, and all I could think was that she had tried to call us and he caught her and was hurting her (because that's what she said happened last time). I tried calling all their numbers and no one answered. I tried calling his parents and no one answered, so the only thing I could think to do was call the police and explain the situation.

Turns out that he wasn't screaming at her, he was threatening Billy's life because the insurance company called him today and told him that he owed us more money than he was insured for, so even after he pays restitution, he doesn't get to keep the property.

He was angry so he called Billy and screamed "Say Goodbye", whatever THAT means (I personally don't see any other way to take it than a personal threat). Well, they took him to jail anyway on account of the fact that the Fire Marshall had given him a time frame in which he was to turn himself in, and he didn't turn himself in in that time frame, so he's now behind bars. For how long, I don't know, but I pray it's long enough for him to cool down, because with his recent behavior, I wouldn't put it past him to do something crazy.

To make matters worse, this guys dad (who still thinks that it's not his son's fault that he burned his own house down; now it's OURS because we charged him too much money for the house to begin with) called Billy today and told him that if he was any kind of Christian, he would take 1/2 the money that the insurance company gives us and give the rest back to his son AND let them keep the property.

IS THAT NUTS OR WHAT??? It crushed Billy because he really respected and looked up to this guy's dad at one time, and so did I. I'm floored that he is saying the stuff that he's saying. How can ANYONE think that we should reward this guy for burning his house down? He's basically taking the parable of the man who was forgiven of his large debt but then wouldn't forgive his servant, so the debt was placed back on him and he's throwing that concept in Billy's face. I thought that parable applied to forgiveness as a heart condition not a free pass to not pay one's debt...

Billy's pretty bummed, so could you guys pray for him and pray for our safety as well? And, of course, pray for this guy and his family, crazy as they may be.

Thanks.

It's obvious the nut didn't drop too far from the tree.

The dad's theology is messed up something fierce if that is what he gets from that parable - Jesus preached personal responsibility (parable of the talents, etc etc etc). You owe him nothing - you can forgive him for burning down your house (it's still your house) but that does NOT free him from the consequences of his actions. Collect the insurance money then have them find another house to burn move into.

It's 12:30am, and his wife just called me. I've tried to reach out to her several times over the past couple years but she's never seemed to want to open up.

She called me under the pretext of "did you just call me?" Of course I hadn't, and I told her so, but then she said, "oh, okay. bye" so I tried to keep her on the phone for a while.

She ended up crying and we ended up praying...she's scared and confused and doesn't know what she's going to do with no husband and 3 kids in-laws that blame her and a brand new daycare job that pays $6 an hour.

He apparently hasn't been working since the fire, so he's leaving her 2 months behind on her rent with no electricity. She doesn't want to come stay with us...my heart really goes out to her right now. Could use some prayers in agreement for her. She's pretty broken.

Will do Michelle, be careful where he's concerned