Coben law firm

Today we had our long-awaited appointment with the lawyer. Turns out it wasn't with the lawyer himself, but with Lora, probably his paralegal. Not that it matters. I liked her no-nonsense attitude, and she was clearly on our side. Basically what we really needed to know today is what the ramifications would be whether we "strategically defaulted" vs. trying for a short sale. The problem with just walking away is that the second lender can come after us, or a debt collection agency will buy the loan and would certainly try to collect what they could. In a short sale, both lenders would agree to accept an amount much lower than the actual loan. Usually the second lender will not agree unless they get some cash out of the deal. It's not going to come from Chase, as they are unlikely to feel terribly charitable, so it must come from us. There is no way of knowing whether they would accept $5000, $14000, or the full $60,000 to just "go away." And that's only if Chase itself agrees. And after all this, there doesn't seem to be a lot of benefit except perhaps taking less of a hit on one's credit score, from what I have read. Short sales seem more of a option for our unlucky peers who live in shitty states like Florida, which allows BOTH lenders to come after you with a deficiency judgment.

So, foreclosure, then declaring bankruptcy to get rid of Nation Star seems our best bet. As predicted, we earn too much to qualify for a Chapter 7, and Chapter 13 sucks because we'd still have to pay back most or all of the Nation Star debt of 60k. Maybe they'd accept 15 grand or less, but maybe not. But Lora did some trick with the numbers based on if we were in arrears for 7 months, and thought we might qualify after all. There's a lot of things you can count, apparently, that makes you look poorer. Like going to church (and actually giving to the church, unfortunately). Or forking money over to adult wayward children, which Joe does with some regularity. I guess maybe our debt to earnings ratio would be enormous if we simply didn't pay for 6 months. It would look like we owed $20,000. I guess we WOULD owe 20,000. I'm not sure I understand it. It just seems like a judge would know all these tricks, and just roll his/her eyes, and deny the claim. I guess if that happens, we're in no worse place than before. It's still better to settle for $15k or something, than stay in this house.

The advice right now is: do nothing, sit on your ass, save your money (but not too much money or they can take anything that exceeds $22,000. And our Toyota counts as an asset towards that). Kind of difficult advice, because I feel like I should be doing something. So many questions. If we save as we plan to, we will have well in excess of 22k; not sure if we should put it in somebody else's name, or hide it under the mattress or whatever.

I half-heartedly packed up a box of random kitchen shit that has not seen the light of day for years. Will take it to the good will. Or set it out for the cerebral palsy guys to pick up. We sold Joe's 1992 Honda within minutes of posting it on Craigslist. I guess we'll gradually begin the process of our inevitable move.