@Nicole Almond If numbers are correct, then it looks like it would be a good deal.

You can do it buy your self, but with an attorney most of these are on contingent basis.They only get paid if they get your taxes lower, which means you can use them to the fullest and there is not pre payment of any sort.Also they will challenge last two year which will get you a fat refund check if they win you the case.

Plus the 4 months to foreclose in CA means the soonest you could recover your collateral, the collateral with a big fat (most likely foreclosing) senior lien, is 8 months.  

We are now writing a fat check to the IRS for our capital gains. 

A BIG FAT COMMISSION CHECK.

But now, I really have no desire to get on my fat belly and crawl under a house or to walk on a roof where I might slip and fall and hurt myself.

They got offended and bought the house down the street.Moral of the story: Pigs get fat... hogs get slaughtered.

Most likely it does, to an extent, it makes most people fat, can promote unhealthy conditions or habits!

In the DMV you show up with your fat deposit and then if you are the winning bidder you have X days to close with X ranging from 15 to whenever the court ratifies the sale, depending on where the property is located.

And, don't forget the new people they hire will start with a much lower total compensation package and when the time comes, they will let go those people that started with a fat Bay Area salary.I don't disagree with you that a lot people will move out of Bay Area, but at end of day, people like SF Bay Area/New York, they will always be the hubs of the world at least in next 50 years.