Big financial problem. Need answers!

[GReek]

Hello everybody. I hope i'm posting at the right place, i have a lot of questions and concerns so i couldn't pick a specific topic to open my thread. I apologize.

I need some solid advice from someone who can understand my problem and has the experience or knowledge to help me out. I live in California with my parents (i'm 22, in college) and the bad economy has hit us hard. My parents and I, as a part time job, are working in the produce business. It's been a few months since business has been going from bad to worst. We owe money pretty much everywhere from PG&E, smud, car payments, credit cards, rent (we are supposed to pay first and last month in a few days and have no money right now, just moved to another place) and we also owe money to wholesellers where we get our produce from. The total amount my family and I owe is approximately 50k dollars. 30k of that is money we owe from the business and the rest is cars, credit cards etc.

We basically have 0 money right now, and that lead us to put on sell our house in greece (worth about 650k dollars) so we could buy a couple houses here (since houses have gone down) and use the rest to restart our business and pay off some dept.

Here is our problem/dilemma: We could sell the house within a month, but, we would only get 2/3 of the price that it's really worth. Meaning if we sell it now we would get 350k in euros, but if we wait until the summer we can sell it for 500k-550k euros. The reason for this is because we know someone who is interested in the house but only willing to pay 350k, in the summer demand goes up (the house is a mini villa by the ocean) and it will be easier to find more potential buyers who would like to use it as vacation home.

So what do we do? Should we sell the house now and loose approximately 200k dollars but have money to restart the business here and get off the "dept boat"? Or should we wait to sell it at its price during the summer, and suffer meanwhile?



Probably the best choice is to wait and sell it later, since 200k dollars is a lot of money, but the question is how would we survive until then? Should we file bankruptcy? Should we sell the trucks we use for work (worth 30k)? Should i commit suicide (just kidding, but maybe a good choice!)

If we do sell the trucks then there's no way we can work and no way we can buy down the road (bad credit, no money).

Or should we sell it now and start fresh?


I really need some help. Please
Thanks and sorry again if i posted at the wrong place

[maat55]

How many years have you had this business?
What is the likelyhood of this being a profitable business in the near future?

As a business owner myself, I have always wondered what I would do in your position. Which years ago prompted me to run my business debtfree with a sufficient working capital.

It's hard to give advice on this matter because I don't know your business history. But in general, I would not want to sink to far in debt before making the necessary changes to avoid BK. Like you, I would not want to loose 200k on your Greece home, but at the same time, there is no garantee it will sell then iether.

If the business is a loosing effort, I would sell and start fresh. I would not BK on 50k to make a possible 200k, saving your 200k is decisions and sacrifices that should have happened earlier. Doing the right thing is to sell, pay your debts and start fresh.

If the business is viable in time, I would pay the bills that need to be paid to stay afloat, sell the house in the summer, then catchup on debt. I would find a second job doing anything to save my business IF it is worth saving.

[Car Insurance Guy]

I don't know anything about real estate in Europe, but the math doesn't make sense to me. How is a house worth 350,000 euros today, but will be worth 550,000 euros in 6 months? Yes, in a rising market it's conceivable. But if their real estate market is anything like ours, that's doubtful.

If my assumptions are correct, then sell the house today. Build your business with cash - Maat knows what he's talking about. Yes you'll give up the potential what-ifs, including the 'what if the dollar tanks in 6 months?' But ultimately, it's the more responsible decision.

My assumptions is a big 'if'. Talk to a couple of real estate brokers in Greece to get some straight answers before you make any decisions. Oh, and Greek - put the gun down. This problem ain't that important

[jIM_Ohio]

fix the problem you have now and do not wait for a magic fix in 6 months.

Sell the house now and fix the problem now.

[GReek]

Basically what the business is about is that we buy wholesale fruits and vegetables and sell to different restaurants and at the flea markets. There is not much capital other than the trucks we use and a few people we have working for us. My family has been doing this job for over 25 years and i recently started a couple years ago. We haven't been able to work lately since the economy went bad the business went down and that lead us into dept. We owe a lot more than we can afford at the moment and we can't buy anymore produce until we pay off some of the dept.

The house is not worth 350k at the moment, it's just the price one guy wants to pay. And the price will not go up in the summer either but it can easily be sold then. It's value is 550-600k in euros.

But then again even if we were to sell it now, we wouldn't receive any of the money for a month (until all the papers are done, and things in greece take a while)

[maat55]

I might put the house up for sale at below market now, and find other work to get by for now. I would take care of my minimal living expenses, then pay what I could to debtors.

I would be aggressive about selling the house, lowering the price every two to three weeks until sold. Once sold, I would payoff my debts and deside what to do, about the business.