Everything is crazy right now. Nothing is in order. My brain feels like this:
I’m exhausted from whatever flu bug I caught earlier this week, and haven’t been able to work out to clear my head. I showered at the gym yesterday just to shower since I hadn’t had one in…well, too long.
Bankruptcy Update
As I feared, nothing is going smoothly here. Because about 80K of the debt I would like to file in bankruptcy (if I could do it) is under the business, it isn’t that easy. Even though the debts are personally guaranteed by me, it looks like I may have to file a Chapter 11 for the company as well. This is just getting nuts. I have a meeting with a different lawyer (free consultation again) coming up soon to look at this angle of things. If I file a Chapter 13, my “personal” debts (excluding what I owe my mother of course) are only around 60K + Student loans (another 40K). Since my student loans are deferred at the moment (except my federal ones), those aren’t a big deal. The other 60K is in a debt management plan that I set up a few months ago (though I haven’t made this month’s payment yet).
So why file Chapter 13 if all it’s really going to do is by me a few more months? And then I have to start repaying that small amount again. In the meantime…
Business Debts
My biggest issues on the business ends of things are the two business loans at WAMU and Wellsfargo for 30K and 20K. I have another 30K or so in credit cards from citibusiness but those are all in a 0% hardship program at the moment. So the payments are only about $250 a month total for all of those and all that goes toward principle. So, good there.
OK, It’s time to call WAMU and Wells and see if they have anything new to say…
OK, two no anwers at WAMU, here’s what Wells said…
WellsFargo
Since It’s only been 2 months since my last payment (not the total amount due though), I’m in collections, but not “pre-chargeoff” according to the helpful lady at WellsFargo.
I played nice on this call, and it turned out well. Lots of good info. In her department they could offer a 85% settlement. Obviously that ain’t gonna work for me. But I think with two more departments (pre-chargeoff department, then the chargeoff department), that % might get much lower. I think its just a matter of time.
Short Sale Update
Got a call from my real estate agent today with an update on the short sale status. Good news is that we’ll get a final go-ahead from greenpoint (the 2nd mortgage) tomorrow on the amount we will be giving them (they want 15K, we can only offer around 7K). It they accept the 7K everything will be good to go.
Bad news is that I’ll have to come up with all the utility payoffs (around 2K right now…but no hot water usage lately! : ). He’s going to try and include $1200 for utilities in the numbers, we’ll see if that flies. If it does, I’ll have to come up with $800. I could do $800. No way I can do $2000.
We’re just so close on the house!
Moving
I spent Monday and Wed this week organizing all the stuff in my house into piles. Keep pile, Sell on craigslist pile, sell on ebay pile, and give to goodwill pile. I got alot done yesterday with my brothers help even though I felt like death.
I still have a few larger items to sell on craigslist, but once those are gone, all the hard stuff is taken care off. We took a ton of stuff to goodwill and that felt good. I think I’m going to like a much more spartan lifestyle (which I’ve already been living the last few months anyway…).
Assuming the house goes through (crossing fingers still…), I’ll start staying in the office within 2-3 weeks. I may have a week where I can stay at a place my brother is house sitting, so that will be nice.
New Projects
We will be start selling new advertising packages next week. If all goes well, it could add another 10-20 clients to our business within a few weeks. We are at 130 right now, and have been stuck at that number for several months now. Our new project could add 100 clients within a few months which would be awesome. We’ll see how it goes. No, its HAS to go well.
I’m good at selling. I’m good at managing my employees, I CAN get my business up to 250 clients a month..!!!!! (sorry, needed a little self talk there!)
Time to try WAMU again…
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
06/21/07 Although you are good at selling and managing employees, you need to also be good at managing the internal framework of a business. If you can’t do this, and can’t afford to hire someone who can, you might be better off going to work for someone until you get out of this fix. Bankruptcy has a lot of fees and you have a complicated situation so there will be lawyer costs. Keep this in mind.
Dude – all due respect – WAMU and others let you money. It’s not a large amount they are charging at the moment ($250 did you say? We haven’t seen a spreadsheet for awhile) – I’d service the loan fully – pay it off – maybe negotiate lower terms but respect them. Perhaps you need a business consolidation load – get all those business loans into one basket? That might reduce the overall interest. At present it sounds like you’re just trying to get out from paying them by negotiating down and down – which goes against the spirit of what you’re trying to do here? Anyways good luck as always.
I hate to say it (for me) but I really know what you’re going through.
We were told to liquidate the company. Didn’t think we could survive it. Would the clients move to the new venture? Could we cope going form 16 to 6 staff?
We did. Unthinkable though it was, we did it. It worked.
Not sure if the US has the equivalent, but we didn’t use a lawyer – do you have the equivalent of an insolvency practitioner?
Think they may give more rounded and practical advice on stuff like negotiating, things to say to creditors etc. Drop me a line by email if you want me to privately send through some negotiation emails.
It’s iandenny at multisolutions dot co dot uk