# Settlement lawyers: what is an acceptable $ I should ask for? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 28, 2013, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/settlement-lawyers-what-is-an-acceptable-i-should-ask-for/648599 "2013-01-28T08:09:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/settlement-lawyers-what-is-an-acceptable-i-should-ask-for/648599/21 "2013-01-29T11:44:34Z")
You can’t know whether $20k is a reasonable amount if you have no idea at what price the house will likely sell. Ask for a real estate agent that specializes in the area to appraise the house given the current housing market and recent comparable sales. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/settlement-lawyers-what-is-an-acceptable-i-should-ask-for/648599/22 "2013-01-29T12:54:44Z")
It’s kind of already been covered, but in the UK in 2009, having 20% to put down as a deposit on a house would get you a much lower mortgage interest rate than if you only had 10% to put down. And if the OP had no principal whatsoever (I know this was not necessarily the case), she presumably wouldn’t have been able to buy a house at all. So although she has paid more in monetary terms over the last 3 years, once the above has been factored in I think asking for more than 50% of the proceeds would perhaps be a little presumptuous. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/settlement-lawyers-what-is-an-acceptable-i-should-ask-for/648599/23 "2013-01-29T14:15:24Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > … > > The principal was $120k. I made $42k worth of payments over nearly four years. The principal is now $113k. You do understand how mortgage interest works, yes? :D… LOL. And yeah, those first few years you pay virtually no principal. To illustrate, I plugged 120,000 and 6% into a calculator at [bankrate.com](http://bankrate.com). In 3.5 years the principal would have been reduced just to 114,000 (on a monthly payment of 720.00). Adding in taxes and insurance and other such things, that 720,000 could easily be 1,000 a month, which adds up to 42,000. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/settlement-lawyers-what-is-an-acceptable-i-should-ask-for/648599.md?page=1)