Timeline question

[tay666]

We live in Ohio, and I understand that the timeline for a foreclosure is around 150-180 days.
What I am curious about though, what is the timeline for surendering a house to the BK trustee?
The reason I ask is because if we file a CH7 we will probably loose the house because of too much equity.
If that happens, anyone know how long we would have before we would have to be out of the house?

[SinkingFast]

BassBoy filed BK in October, 2005. They surrendered their house in BK and moved out right away. The right rental opportunity came along for them.

BassBoy's house was sold, at Foreclosure Auction, in January of this year. Well over a year passed.

Timeline could really depend on the Lender. How many Foreclosed properties the Lender is carrying on their balance sheet. Too many Foreclosed properties looks bad to prospective investors. And, the rate of Foreclosures is increasing.

Ohio is bad on the Homestead Exemption. Only a paltry $5K. $10K max if both spouses file Joint.

BUT,.......... If you surrender your home in BK and the Trustee sells your house,............. THE first person to get paid is YOU!! That's right!! You get paid your Homestead Exemption right off the top.

After the Trustee pays the Lender what's owed against the mortgage and reasonable costs to sell, you get paid your Homestead Exemption out of the proceeds. So if you have significant equity, you can walk away from BK with something in your pocket.

Trying to look at the silver lining in a very dark cloud.

[tay666]

Ohio is bad on the Homestead Exemption. Only a paltry $5K. $10K max if both spouses file Joint.

BUT,.......... If you surrender your home in BK and the Trustee sells your house,............. THE first person to get paid is YOU!! That's right!! You get paid your Homestead Exemption right off the top.

Oh, I know.
One of the few brights spots in this whole thing.
And one of the reasons I don't look at paying my house payment as throwing money away.
I resigned myself to the fact that we will lose the house quite a while ago. And am actually ok with it. We tried to sell it a few years ago (when things were still good) so we could get out of here and get a better place. But we couldn't find a buyer.

But what I am trying to figure out.
Is, when we file, and tell the trustee that we want to surender the house. I assume we stop making the house payment.
Trying to get an idea how long we can stay here while not making any payments.
It would be a great way to build up some cash. Not a ton of money, but the house payment is more than one weeks pay, so a few months without that bill could really make a difference.
With a foreclosure, I know we would have 4-6 months to work with.
But I don't know if surendering the house would be different.
If the trustee could require us to be out sooner so he could get the house on the market or anything like that.

[helpless]

For the most part I think it depends on the area in Ohio. Have a friend who stopped making mortgage payments well over a year ago, served foreclosure notice in April, still hasn't been listed the three weeks like it is suppose to be and still hasn't gone to auction. So it has been 15 months since his last payment. Had someone else give their property up to trustee in October, it just sold last weekend, but it was a much nicer house in a nicer area of town. I think that it is safe to say that you have a while. Good luck.

[helpless]

If I were you and you are going to file soon, I would stop making the house payment now and save the money.

[Minnymouth]

Okay, Trustee seized my home in my Chapter 7 and sold it at auction. I lived in the home clear up to the auction day....... which was almost 18 months - payment free..... all I had to pay was utilities to keep them home.

The day of the auction I would have been given 10-30 days to get out...... but I bought my house back on auction day....

Each state is different probably..... check with your attorney.

Right now the housing market is on overload with foreclosures and sales....... trying to sell one will take them a long time unless it is auctioned (and this is what a lot of them are doing if their surrendered.

Now your mortgage company can shorten your time by immediately filing foreclosure/default paperwork and sending you notice of when to move out....

Each state is different....

[tay666]

Thanks.
Sounds like it will play out like I am hoping.
No attourny to ask yet.
Still waiting.
My wife is still off work with a medical condition and I have no idea when she will be back to work. Holding off on BK until I know we won't be racking up anymore hospital bills.
Income is so low they can't garnish anything right now, so not really worried about judgments.
Just clarrifying my options and my game plan for when I do put things into motion.

And we are in NE Ohio.
Market is really bad hear. Think the last I heard our county was 16th in the state for foreclosures compaired to population.