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Tuesday, January 16, 2007

SBA Takes Back Our Grant

We had Waring Architects drawing up our plans, and had signed a contract with Abry Brothers to level and straighten our house. We were hunting for a general contractor. Things were looking great for a change, and we could see light at the end of the tunnel. Then I come in to my office after class today, and get a phone message from Dave with the SBA. He says they are reducing our SBA loan from $118,000 to $10,000. To make a long story short, because we are receiving $120,000 from the Road Home, the SBA is cancelling their loan to us because they say that the funds can't be duplicated. So now we have the following funds to rebuild:
$120,000 Road Home
$10,000 SBA
$70,000 Allstate
Total=$200,000.

If our house didn't need to have the structural damage fixed, that would be just enough to fix it. I'm not looking forward to telling Therese about this latest development.

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:14 PM

    Words fail me.

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  2. Anonymous3:37 PM

    Gutted is one word that fits. Damn, Mike, that sucks.

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  3. Wow! It's going to cost you over $100,000 to get the house straightened out? Davies is doing mine for a fraction of that. Did you get an estimate from Davies? Just curious. Abry came out to my house once but never gave me a bid. I was happy with Davies' price and impressed with their professionalism (they guy sat in his truck and worked up the bid on the spot, complete with a drawings and diagrams), and am next on their list to get the work done. (Still haven't settled the issue with State Farm, though.)

    I hope you find some way to work this out.

    How's the All State suit going? I met a contractor with the same All State/Haag story, and I told him about you. I think I heard the words, "class action suit" uttered...

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  4. Abry Brothers is charging us $46K to straighten the house (so it's not racked), level the floors, and pour a new foundation. That is an estimate by the way. I'm sure the final price will be higher. Moreover, the Road Home has $30K for us in addition to the $120K, and we can only spend the $30K on raising the house. So I think we're going to raise it 3 feet so we're above Katrina's water line. Davies was clearly our second choice, and it did take much time and energy to get a contract with Abry Brothers. Abry Brothers is currently doing our neighbor's house, and they do great work. Nothing new with the Allstate suit. If you happen to remember the name of the contractor with the same Allstate/Haag Engineering story, let me know his/her name.

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  5. Hang in there Michael.

    I'm also at a loss for words.

    Damn!

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  6. Also no words, at least fit to print! But I still pray this will all work out for you all.

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