I disagree. The longer you hold out, the bigger your legal fees will be. It doesn't automatically translate that you will get a better settlement.
What YOU feel you need or are entitled to is one thing; but what a JUDGE will likely award you is something entirely different. If your attorney is any good at all, they will be trying to give you a realistic idea of whether this is a reasonable settlement.
You are very focused on keeping the house, but bear in mind that sometimes this is a mistake that women make - trying to keep things "the same" for their kids, and ending up house-poor and at risk of losing it all through foreclosure if they can't keep up.
Ask yourself, does the settlement include the following? - child support for the kids based on the formula of your income and his - a fair split of retirement assets (401k, pensions, IRAs) - splitting the equity in the house (I know you feel you're entitled to the appreciation since he left, but legally that may not be the case - unfair, maybe, but realistic. What does your lawyer say about this?) - alimony (usually based on some formula of the difference between his earnings and yours, and for half the duration of the marriage - these rules are softer and more variable from state to state, but would be the average I believe). - split the non-mortgage debt 50:50
If you have all of these items in the settlement - then it is probably a good one. Maybe not all you feel you deserve, but probably as much as a judge would give you. This is a business transaction and you need to take the emotion out of it.
