He just didn’t know how to play the system

To the editor:

I was amazed to read in a recent Review-Journal editorial about cash incentives to encourage short sales.

You see, my wife and I are idiots who own our house and would like to sell it at this time. There are about 10 short sales in our subdivision, all priced around $190,000. We bought our house for $224,000 in 2002. I’m trying to sell my house for $249,000, which is a break-even point considering Realtor commissions and other fees and taxes. What are the odds of selling my house for that much? None. The Realtor says I’m lucky to get $220,000.

My wife and I saved for years to put $100,000 down on our house. The rest was financed with a 15-year mortgage that we paid off in about seven years. I drove around in a Toyota pickup truck for 23 years to help raise the money. How stupid is that?

I spent 20 years in the Air Force as an enlisted man. I was trained to avoid debt, manage your money and pay your bills on time. How silly and petty the Air Force was when it disciplined airmen for bouncing checks.

If my wife and I were smarter, we would have put the money we wasted on the house in the bank. Then we could have financed the house for 30 years in 2002 and refinanced during the bubble for $425,000. Then today I could have gone into foreclosure or short sale and kept around $200,000 from the refinance. That, plus the $225,000 in the bank makes for a $425,000 nest egg.

Bad credit? No problem with that amount of money banked.

And people who did this during the bubble are the victims?

My stupidity is going to cost me a lot of money. The moral of this story is, if your mortgage is underwater, do a foreclosure or arrange a short sale and you, too, can receive a cash incentive. And don’t forget the tax break you get from the federal government at this time. Any debt you walk away from is not taxed as income.

Do it now, because that exemption ends in another 10 months. Please walk away from your underwater mortgage now, and avoid the mistakes I’ve made.

JOHN T. KEIBLER

LAS VEGAS