Taking The First Step

Today was our appointment with the housing counselor.

The Reader's Digest version is that Yasar would have to make about double what he pays himself for us to realistically keep the house. We've pretty much been advised that bankruptcy is going to be our best option. Sure, it will drop a nuclear bomb on our credit ratings. But we were told there's not too much further down we can go than where we're currently at, FICO-wise.

The good news is we have a few more months in the house. I thought we'd have to be packed and out of the house in the next 3 weeks!

So, first thing, we're going to contact an arbitration board and try to work something out with our lender.

Then we need to consult with a lawyer for both the business and the personal finances. They're hopelessly intertwined, and we need to get some of this untangled before we make that appointment.

We're also going to be contacting someone to mentor us with our business, maybe they can direct us towards some of these new government programs that Obama has unrolled this past month.

This is going to suck. But Yasar and I are going to stick together. We've basically already faced the worst-case scenario, and we're prepared to stare it down together.