2 Weeks Later, The Neighbor Wanted His $10,000 Back

When I was 23, I bought 12 acres of hay ground next to my parents’ place. I’d baled that field since I was 14, I paid every dollar of the loan myself, and my fiancée and I had the plans for our house pinned up in the barn. My dad’s only part in it was co-signing the loan, because I was too young to have any credit. Eight years later, at Sunday dinner, he told me he’d sold my field to our 76-year-old neighbor so my little brother could open a bar. He’d already taken a $10,000 deposit, and he’d already spent it. “You don’t need a hayfield. He needs a start.” What my dad never understood is that co-signing a loan doesn’t put your name on the land. Two weeks later, we all sat down at the title company, and my dad found out exactly whose name was on that deed, and what it was going to cost him.