Love's Real Stories

“I admit it. I’m a strategic defaulter,” said James Logan. That is, Mr. Logan lost his home through foreclosure- on purpose. He quit making payments to the bank, and walked away when the bank took the house.

“Yeah, I walked away, but it took a while,” said Logan.

Two years. Logan lived in his house, rent-free, and saved the money, for two years.

“Hey, I tried hard to keep my house. I fought the good fight for years. But my take-home pay kept shrinking and my bills kept growing. I cut expenses down to zilch and worked a second part-time job to stay on my feet. I was like a clown juggling twenty balls in the air, hopping on one foot.”

The last straw for Logan was when his next-door neighbor, Pete, who Logan considers lazy, was approved for a loan modification.

”Lazy? Try irresponsible. The guy used his house like an ATM machine. He put in a pool, added a game room, bought cars, you name it. Then as soon as he loses maybe an hour a week of work he defaults on his home loan. What happens? He gets a loan modification, cuts his payments in half. He’s still there.”

Pete’s largesse hit home for Logan one particular night when Logan stood outside and observed their two houses. Pete’s house “was lit up like a pinball machine. Giant flat screen TVs glowed and flashed in every window upstairs and down. My house looked like the Little House on the Prairie-maybe a wisp of smoke rising from the chimney; maybe a mule in the yard.”

Logan was denied a loan modification. “I was treading water and going down. But as long as I wasn’t completely under, had one nostril above the surface, I didn’t qualify.”

Next, he tried a short sale. “My bank told me as long as I was still making payments, no short sale. So I defaulted and ruined my credit. The bank denied my short sale anyway.”

Logan decided he would never give the bank another dime.

“I don’t know why it took two years for the bank to foreclose,” he said, “but if that makes me a strategic defaulter, I’m proud of it.”