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Fallout: In the real estate boom, one mother took a chance on American dream -- and lost big

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In the search for a better life for her children, single mother Daverena White took a chance on a $698,000 home. But circumstances soured from there. Her story is one of an America in the midst of a relentless real estate boom.

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"There's no way," she said. "I can't do this. This is way too much."

She asked to step outside. "Oh my God," she kept thinking. "What did I do? What did I do?"

The others at the table appeared to be looking at her and speaking in Chinese. She excused herself. She found a bathroom. She splashed water on her face. She called a friend in New York on her cellphone.

"Don't sign," the friend insisted.

She walked back to the table.

Now the conversation was in English. The sellers were offering to help cover White's initial mortgage payments.

She signed.

Months later, she would remember how blurry it all seemed. There was talk of refinancing down the line. There was a first mortgage. There was a second mortgage. For not using a real estate agent, the sellers gave her a 5 percent credit. Some of that was used for closing costs, but about $15,000 came back to White in a check marked "settlement proceeds."

Added to the $13,000 that had been deposited into her bank account and $11,200 toward the first two mortgage payments, White ended up leaving the closing table with nearly $40,000.

The sellers took away more. After owning the house for 22 1/2 months, Zhang and her husband sold it for $203,000 more than they had paid. "In that market, the profit is very, very reasonable," Zhang would say later. Her only mistake, she said, was helping White. "I tried as much as I could to help her. Believe me, I did."

The deal done, White soon moved to Clarksburg, arriving before the furniture and before the heat was turned on. She and her children snuggled together on a carpeted bedroom floor, near a space heater. "Well, we did it," White told them. "A new house, and it's all ours."

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