I spent a good part of this weekend trying to open my mother's eyes to the reality of living with her mother. My mother has been financially strapped lately, mostly because she's been trying to help me out, and, as such, she has been given serious thought to moving in with my grandmother. My grandmother claims that, if she does, she'll sign over the house to my mother. Now if my grandmother was the type of granny who baked cookies, planted pansies, and went for long, poignant walks with her grandchildren, I might actually buy that promise. However, that description does not depict my grandmother, not by a long shot. No, my grandmother is the type of granny who sells out her family for a con-artist half her age; keeps her house as a shrine to the man, even as she admits that he stole all of her, or should I say my deceased grandfather's, money; expects all of us to drop what we're doing at any given moment to get her cigarettes, Diet Rite, milk, her roots touched up, etc., even if what we're doing is work, school, or our child's birthday party; promises to do something and then five seconds later forgets that she did so; and will literally pull her hair out if she thinks that it will get her what she wants. Yeah, she's a lovely woman.Quite frankly, I would not put it past my grandmother to tell my mother that she will sign the house over and then, after my mother has sold everything she owns, renege on the deal because one of her nosy, little friends told her to. I wouldn't put it past her at all. Even if she did sign over the house and make it my mother's legally, my grandmother would never allow it to be my mother's in reality. As she would be living in the house with her, my grandmother would be constantly telling my mother that it was her house and that she couldn't change anything in it. That means that my mother would be forced to live with the dust-mite laden, shag green carpet that's in 95 percent of the house; the country wallpaper; the cheap, white, flat paint; the bar stools and linoleum floor in the kitchen that are older than I am; and even the ridiculously floral, dog unfriendly sofas in the den. She would also be forced to pay all the bills--I highly doubt that my grandmother will go 50/50 on them--and wait on my grandmother hand and foot. My mother already waits on my sister and nephew that way; I don't know that she can take waiting on one more "kid."
Consequently, I'm going to call Chase tomorrow and see what I need to do to do a short sale on this house. I really don't want to short sell, but after having this house on the market for six months with little to no activity, I don't have much of a choice. Besides, if I sell this house, my mother no longer has to pay my mortgage, cable, utility, security, and other house-related bills every month and can get back on track. Then I'll be the one who has to deal with my granny. I'm younger, so I guess it's better me than her.
