Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, recommends those with negative equity take one of three approaches, including following in Nick Scott's footsteps.
While Jackie, 43, titivates her fleet of irritable lapdogs, David, 74, lumbers around like an elderly labrador in beige utility shorts, barking about third parties and negative equity into his mobile headset, one ear forever scanning the distance for the elusive squawk of an incremental loan agreement.
Dady, a local councillor, is now one of millions across the country sitting on negative equity, as his house was last year revalued at £135,000.
One surprise on the seriously negative equity list: Maryland, which contains some of the wealthiest counties in the country, has an 18% negative rate.
Sometimes a customer traded in the car with negative equity, with more owed on the car than it's worth.
In real terms they would slowly fall to affordable levels, and the heat would be taken out of speculation, but no one would be put into negative equity.
No one is talking about it, but negative equity will be a part of many of these people's lives for many years to come.
Moderate inflation would help all the people in negative equity; rising asset prices would certainly help, and are one of the stated purposes of quantitative easing.
The result is that in the north west and Yorkshire and Humberside more than one in ten homeowners are in negative equity, while economists predict they will benefit from the rise in house prices far more slowly.
With more than one in three households now having negative equity in their homes, there is the very real danger that the foreclosure rate will continue to increase.
