<prompt> Human: Asking for a relative. Heres the basic info.He took out 15,000 in federal student loans between 2007-2009. He ignored them, never made a payment. Currently about 25k is owed 15k principal, 5k interest, 5k fees and costs.He is doing better financially now and has a good opportunity to buy a house from a relative at a very good price. Hes looking to get a FHA mortgage to buy the house. Hes been trying to fix his credit over the last few months - paid off all credit cards, has no other debts other than a 0.9 car loan.He finally responded to the debt servicer that holds his defaulted student loan debt and entered into a rehabilitation agreement with them where if he pays for 9 months his debt will come out of default. However, that time frame is a quite a bit longer than the owner of the house wants to wait to sell to him. Weve been told that if he pays the debt off, hed be able to qualify for a mortgage much sooner. So Id like to help him negotiate a full payoff of the debt. His parents are willing to loan him 10k to help, and he can scrounge up 3-4k more if needed. My question is, how much can we expect to be able to negotiate down to? I figure they might accept a much lower number since they havent seen a dime from him in 10 years, and would rather take money now than trust him to keep paying over time. So whats the best way to approach negotiating a payoff amount? Ill check regularly, if theres any additional info needed Ill do my best to respond. Thanks for any insight you can provide!  <response>: Federal student loans rarely offer a settlement amount, because they can pursue you for the debt for your entire life including garnishing your tax refunds and Social Security checks, if they need to. 