“Dear Steve,
We have a LOT of debt and have some rental houses. Have several cards that are maxed. We still barly make all the bills on time, we don’t want to lose our houses, and we really don’t want to get bad credit. So what do we do?
How do we get out of debt without hurting our credit and no losing our rental houses? We still make all the bills on time BUT barely.
Amanda”
Dear Amanda,
If your credit cards are already maxed out your credit score is already suffering.
I think that you really need to face reality. I understand the desire to find a magic answer to make everything work but unless you have sufficient money to meet your contractual obligations then something is going to give. You can’t turn three quarts of water into a gallon.
You really need to sit down and decide what kind of life you want to live. Here are your options.
- If you want to hold on to the rental homes and improve your credit then look at refinancing the rental property loans to a lower interest rate and increase your income to reduce the financial pressure you are under.
- You can always continue on the path you are on now. It is stressful, not conducive to a happy life or a healthy relationship, and you already know how difficult it is.
- Or you can come to a realization that your current path is not sustainable, it is unlikely you are going to be able to increase income to reduce the pressure and that something has to give. If that is the case you could look at a debt management program to place the credit cards in. The creditors may reduce the interest they are charging you but your payment won’t go down all that much. You could also approach the rental home mortgage companies and see what loan modification options are available, probably none. Both of those actions will negatively impact your credit.
- But if you are going to ding your credit then you need to consider bankruptcy as an option. Rather than it taking seven years to get out of debt in a debt management program you could hand the rental homes back to the bank, discharge your credit card debt and have a fresh start in less than a few months. Even if you are not considering bankruptcy right now you still need to meet with a bankruptcy attorney and get a free bankruptcy consultation so you can learn more about bankruptcy to rule it out.
Alternatively, if none of those suggestions above sound good to you then I’d suggest smoking a whole lot of weed and stay in a delusional fog as long as possible so you can avoid reality that way.
You are not alone. I'm here to help. There is no need to suffer in silence. We can get through this. Tomorrow can be better than today. Don't give up.
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