Shelly Smith-McClure endured a modern-day economic nightmare on Monday, losing a 15-month bid to avoid foreclosure and forestall eviction on her Herald home and property.
By early afternoon, a locksmith was changing the locks on the two-story house where, until this week, she lived with husband Rob McClure, her 17-year-old son Nicolas Johnson, four dogs and a cat.
An agent for the asset management company handling the foreclosure was there. So was Sacramento County Sheriff's Deputy A. Gonzalez, whose job it was "to make sure that everybody leaves peacefully."
Peaceful it was.
And these days, it's increasingly commonplace.
Since January 2007, more than 21,000 Sacramento area homes have been lost to banks, according to housing market researcher MDA DataQuick.
The process is never easy.
Smith-McClure's 16 horses, including some she had rescued months earlier, were removed from the 5-acre property by midday. Half went to a neighbor's property.
After a veterinarian's visit to the site, Smith-McClure surrendered six of the horses to the Grace Foundation of Northern California, which provides care and adoption services for horses and livestock.
Chris Andis, spokeswoman for the Sacramento County Animal Shelter, said the surrendered animals, which may have been those Smith-McClure rescued during the summer, needed some care.
Monday afternoon, as Smith-McClure looked on, a group of her friends and neighbors raced to empty the house before the new locks were in place. After that, she would have to call for an appointment to retrieve the rest of the family's belongings.
"I fought and I fought," Smith-McClure said through tears. "I don't have any more fight in me."
By Monday night, Rob McClure said the family had found a home to rent in Wilton where they would have room for horses.
The family's ordeal capped a growing anxiety over Smith-McClure losing her home and failed efforts to work with the mortgage company to modify terms of her $455,000 loan.
She said she moved into the house 10 years ago. Over time, she refinanced the mortgage, pulling out about $250,000 for improvements to the property.
At the time of the latest refinance in 2005, the house and barn, other buildings and acreage were valued at about $650,000.
She and McClure married about three years ago. During the peak of the real estate market, McClure's work as a real estate appraiser was profitable. After the downturn, his business fell by 80 percent, McClure said.
The couple invested money in breeding sport ponies. Then Smith-McClure was injured by a horse that kicked her in the leg. When she could no longer train the animals, McClure said, that put the kibosh on another enterprise.
Smith-McClure said she could no longer make the $2,300-a-month mortgage payments. In July 2007, she contacted the lender for a loan modification.
She thought she was making progress toward resolution. Eventually, she found a buyer for the property willing to make a deal that would avoid foreclosure, her attorney said.
But real estate attorney Yolanda Huang of San Francisco said it was all for naught.
On Monday, Smith- McClure found herself pleading with Steve Hillier, the agent working on behalf of Precision Asset Management, a marketing company handling the foreclosure.
"Can we stay through the evening to get my stuff out?" she asked.
He would ask the owners, he said.
"Everyone has their own personal situation," Hillier told The Bee later. "They are all unfortunate."
Call The Bee's Loretta Kalb, (916) 478-2641.
