Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Georgia

No one can help you via a web post (in fact no one would be able to contact a random person in zip 30030 to find you). You have to go find a lawyer. You are responsible for what you signed. Based on what you say, you owe a lot of money. You may have no way out and have to pay. You may be able to settle. Or you may be able to bankrupt. But regardless, the deadlines are very short. That means hire your lawyer first thing in the morning. 30 days after service you lose the case.

It sounds like they are coming after you for a deficiency. However, there si something weird here - why did the home only bring in $18,000 when it was mortgaged for far more? To get that kind of a mortgage the home had to be valued higher. And a deed in lieu of foreclosure generally is done to avoid any kind of deficiency, so that does not make sense.

And you cannot claim you were "misled" into signing a loan. You cannot be that naive. And you would not just be on t he loan. In order to a deed in lieu of foreclosure you had to be on the deed to the home and have sole ownership. I suspect you and your friend had something else going on. This was right before the economy tanked so there is probably mortgage fraud somewhere in the story by one or both of you as well as possibly the lender. I am not here to pass judgment but there is much more going on here. I am afraid you are going to have to file bankruptcy as nobody has that kind of money sitting around if they are asking questions on law guru. You might want to talk to a real estate litigation lawyer, particularly one who has successfully defended some of the foreclosures brought by lenders - maybe you can see if this was some kind of predatory loan. Although its not going to look good with you helping your friend commit mortgage fraud.