Hans Furer The Furer family with Peter's fiancé.
Erik Furer started at Seattle University School of Law in 2004 with no debt. He graduated in 2007 with $200,000 in student loans.
After graduation, he got a job as an assistant city attorney in the Seattle area. He eventually married and had two daughters.
Erik's father, Hans Furer, says his son wasn't really thinking about the debt he would graduate with — and how he would pay it off — when he started law school.
"The problem that people at his age have is, they're really not exactly comprehending and realizing what will happen four or five years down the road," Hans says. "They're single, they can handle their finances. So it's basically the typical story of somebody who got married, had kids, bought the little townhouse, and started to realize that he was really financially in trouble."
Seven years after graduation, Erik was still struggling to make his $1,700-$1,800 loan payments every month — he could only manage to pay about $1,500 at a time.
That's when his parents decided to help.
Hans and his wife owned a house in Los Angeles, which was valued around $1.3 million. They bought the house in 1979 at a 12% mortgage rate.
"Over the period of time that we owned the house, we refinanced three times, and the last time we refinanced, we turned the mortgage into a 10-year period," Hans says. "And we probably paid it off five or six years ago."
Erik's younger brother, Peter, had stumbled across a company online called Lenda, which allows people to refinance their homes online, as opposed to going through a bank. He suggested that his parents look into it.
After discussing options with two local banks he and his wife had used before, Hans says he decided to go through Lenda, which eliminates the need for a loan officer, for better interest rates and lower fees — nowhere near the $10,000 in refinancing fees one bank had quoted him.
The decision to refinance wasn't an easy one."The hardest thing was probably making the decision to do it," Hans says.
The Furers had not paid for either of their children's undergraduate educations. Instead, Erik and Peter had received scholarships and grants and some help from their grandparents. But Hans and his wife felt it was their responsibility as parents to step in and help Erik, even though he had not asked.
Erik Furer Erik Furer with his wife and two daughters.
"He was not pushing," Hans recalls. "He didn't bring up the idea, but we just felt he's a dad with two kids working hard. He's doing the best he can, and as parents that's what we could do for him, and it was obviously very much appreciated."