step 1 of moving on

Besides all the emotional aspects of "moving on", there are definite physical things we need to deal with in order to get the ball rolling. Unfortunately, they are things we need to do together since our finances are still tied. I spoke (in length) to the realtor today and he's coming out Thursday afternoon. After a few minutes, we realized we actually know each other from years back.. from a different line of work.. and he's someone I fully trust. Just another one of those things that happens for a reason I guess.

I explained our situation briefly.. not wanting to snowball him with the situation when he sees us in person (he remembers us as a couple). He is in agreement with listing the house as a "short sale" from the very beginning.. in hopes of getting rid of it quickly. We'll have a minor dent in our credit, but nothing like a foreclosure would be. Basically we won't make anything, but we won't owe anything. Not a bad exchange in today's market if you ask me. Actually... he even insisted that we stop making our monthly $3300 mortgage payment since the lawyer they use would have to go after this as a "hardship case", which they can't really prove if you're making your payments. So ironic. We've struggled terribly to make these payments.. borrowing money from my mother-in-law monthly.. thinking we're doing the right thing, and it's gotten us absolutely NO where. So... the money we were using to put towards our mortgage can now be allocated to paying down shared credit cards until we split finances. I may even sneak aside a bit here and there for my down payment (first and last month's rent) on the condo I'm looking at. That thought made today seem a bit (just a bit) brighter.