Strategy and Speed - Default and Bankrupcty - Will you be left behind?

Last week I wrote a post on why strategically defaulting on your home loan may be an economically sound choice, not just for the homeowner but for the overall economy.  Homeowners can deleverage underwater properties through a strategic default and nonjudicial foreclosure and in some cases erase second mortgage debt through a bankruptcy.  Sometimes, the default is enough to create hardship so that an otherwise errant short sale can be pushed through which may also eliminate debt from the second mortgage.

In today's Seattle Times, and really, it was kyped from the AP, a story discussed Borders filing chapter 11 bankruptcy because it couldn't keep up with its market.  One of the quotes really caught my eye, "Less nimble than rival Barnes & Noble, Borders now begins what analysts expect will be a quickly resolved struggle for the survival of its remaining stores."

The lead up to that quote came in the form of Borders missing the fact that its customer base was moving on to other providers for its goods.  Internet retailers, downloads, other big box stores that have driven down prices, and the such.  Really, customers that had evaluated the opportunity costs of staying with a financially bad model or moving onto a better model.   It made me think about some of my clients and really, my potential clients.  Are you going to let the wave of foreclosures wash over you, drive your house value farther into the floor, and leave you struggling to float for the survival of your remaining financial stores?

Many of us don't want to have this conversation, we bury our heads in the sand, hope Obama will wave a magic wand and our housing problems will go away.  If you are among those that are thinking that way I want to shatter that pair of rosy glasses on the bridge of your nose.  Obama can't fix it, it wasn't his fault, and it is unlikely that we will see the necessary tools provided by congress in the near term.  So, as a pragmatist, I suggest we look at the tools we have and strategically plan for the deleveraging of these toxic assets.

Strategic Default gives you as an individual leverage.  Bet you never thought that a deadbeat would have leverage, but many times we don't see the relationship between the layman and the bank in the context of the bank being without money.  The truth is, that if everyone would go to the bank tomorrow, withdraw every penny they have, and then not pay a cent on their loans, the banking industry would be gone in a month.  The banks would all file bankruptcy and disappear.  I am not advocating that, but from one of my favorite childhood movies, remember "It's A Wonderful Life" with Jimmy Stewart, that it was set against the backdrop of Jimmy running a bank in which the customers made a run on the bank and if it weren't for his honeymoon savings, the bank would have been sunk.  The moral of the cautionary tale of the runs on the banks from times past is that the customers have the power because they actually have the money.

The more people that go into default, the more likely that congress is going to finally come together and make decisions that will help stem the tide.  The problem is that many times the corporate donations mean that the legislators fall on the side of favors rather than the consumer and the rules are not likely to fall in the defaulter's favor.  So in the vein of our Borders example above, failure to adapt early to the changing economy is to risk the possibility that the market will pass you by and leave you struggling to float for the survival of your remaining financial stores.

The moral of this is not so profound as the common man holding power over the mighty banks.  It is simply don't procrastinate.  You need to make all speed in understanding this changing housing market and deleverage that toxic, underwater asset before it sinks you in the wave.