Unconventional Purchase From Homebuilder Leaves Unwitting Washington Couple Facing Foreclosure, Despite Making All House Payments

In Richland, Washington, The News Tribune reports:

• For 21 months, Tonya and Timothy Stapleton paid the mortgage, insurance and taxes on their new $220,000 Horn Rapids house on time. But today [last Friday] Tonya plans to go to the Benton County Justice Center to make sure her home isn't auctioned in a foreclosure sale.(1)

• The Stapletons found out their house was in jeopardy about seven months ago, when the bank notified them the man they had been sending their payments to had stopped paying the bank. She was on her way home from the grocery store when her husband called and told her the news. "Needless to say, my heart sunk and I went into panic mode," she said.

• The Stapletons bought their house from Steve Schlam, formerly of Redmond, Ore., who built at least 20 houses in the Horn Rapids area of Richland. Schlam had a loan for the house through IndyMac Federal Bank, and the Stapletons wrote their checks out to him so he could make the bank payments. But in January they found out Schlam hadn't made a payment since October, although the Stapletons had continued paying him, not knowing anything was wrong. When they confronted him, he refunded their January payment but no more.

For more, see Dream home turns to nightmare for Richland couple.

(1) For story update, see Couple resume fight for Richland house after auction:

• Tim and Tonya Stapleton attended the foreclosure sale at the Benton County Justice Center on Friday, where their Horn Rapids home was to go up on the auction block. [... T]he home went "back to beneficiary," meaning OneWest Bank, which holds the loan on the house, bought it for the low bid of $189,000. Tonya said she was relieved with that outcome, because a third party didn't end up with her home.