I'm sorry you had to endure all that. it seems like no matter where you go in American society you find either incompetents or cheats (the cheats are never incompetent... nope, they're good at what they do). When I bought a home, I picked the absolutely cheapest one on the market (69k). My wife wasn't really onboard, but with YouTube tutorials we managed to fix it up. Banks terrify me. Contractors terrify me. I can only imagine the stress you endured putting up with 3 years of banks writing checks on your behalf to people who didn't deserve to be paid. Our world shouldn't be like this. It seems like evil, abusive people are allowed to exploit hardworking families at every level of society. Then they run for president and aren't held accountable for their crimes. I sincerely hope things are going better for you now.