Giving Up House w/o Bankruptcy

[BKFOURAB]

I have filed CH7. My brother makes too much money to file BK but wants to give up one of his houses. Here's the scenario:

Owns a house in WA and one in UT. He lives in the WA house, his wife lives in UT house. (Their job locations are the reason for 2 houses). He wants to give the WA house back to the bank and move to UT. Combined incomes are probably $120K or more.
Questions: 1) Can he give up the WA house (foreclosure or whatever) without recourse - bank selling it and obtaining a judgement against him for the balance difference since he is working. He is upside down about $20K in the WA house. He just wants out of it and to be able to move back to his family in UT.
2) Other options (other than selling it) to get rid of the house?

[justbroke]

I have filed CH7. My brother makes too much money to file BK but wants to give up one of his houses.

You never make too much to file BK. There's always Chapter 13 (and even Chapter 11) reorganization plans.

Questions: 1) Can he give up the WA house (foreclosure or whatever) without recourse - bank selling it and obtaining a judgement against him for the balance difference since he is working. He is upside down about $20K in the WA house. He just wants out of it and to be able to move back to his family in UT.

Just because he's upside down by $20K doesn't mean that the house will actually sell for even less. Distressed properties, especially foreclosure properties, usually sell for less than their assessed value. This could mean more than a $20K judgment.

2) Other options (other than selling it) to get rid of the house?

No matter what he does, including but not limited to short sale and deed-in-lieu-of, may produce a deficiency and either a 1099-A/1099-C or other collection activities.

Having wrote all that, let's now consider foreclosures in Washington. If it's a non-judicial foreclosure (or power of sale), then there is no recourse by the lender. Your brother will get a black mark for a foreclosure (and the public lawsuit record on his credit for 10 years).

If the lender chooses a judicial (court) foreclosure, they can seek a judgment, but only if the place hasn't been abandoned for more than 180 days.

[BKFOURAB]

I will forward this information to him. He's tried selling the house, nobody even looked at it in 7 months of being listed and the realtor had 2 open houses. The realtor said the house is at least $20K too much and more like $30K too much, and brother John is only asking that somebody take over the balance.
Knowing that he is solvent, I have a strong sense that the lender will go after him.