Nice fella, has over 2100 bk filings under his belt, sure of himself but not cocky, wife and I were very comfortable with him.
Our situation in a nutshell; I own a restaurant but only the busines, I lease the building and allmost all the equipment. My lease is practically a handshake agreement and non-transferable so there is not really any value in it. BTW, I'm a sole proprietor (as is he), he said he wished all small business were sole prop instead of incorporated because it makes things easier in bk.
My sales are down due to the recession and after years of getting by we just can't make the payments on our debt load anymore. I'm not behind on anything at the store, vendors are paid weekly all taxes are currant (sales, withholding etc.). We have mucho cc debt (72k, still have @30k available so we aren't maxed) but I just can't live like this anymore thus the decision to bk. The kicker is 22k we owe the IRS for income taxes.
He did a quick means test and decided we passed but just barely. For a chap 7 he says there is a (very) slight risk to the store, but just real enough to mention. Chap 13 he feels would pose the least risk to my store and his estimated plan payment would cover the taxes and the other creditors would essentailly get nothing.
I'm allready in an installment plan with the IRS for last years taxes (350 a month payment) but owe 12k more for 07, so I'll be renegotiating my installment plan. If they will accept a reasonable monthly payment I think we'll attempt the 7. If they want more than I'm willing to do I guess we'll have to go 13 to keep the payments reasonable, though to me I'd rather go 7 and be done with the bk. So it looks like it will be up to the IRS which way we go.
A couple of interesting (to me) tidbits from the meeting: there is (at least in NC) never any, none what so ever reason to reaffirm a mortgage. When he asked who my truck loan was with (Ford Motor Credit) he kinda grimaced and said that they were one of the few creditors that will repo unless reaffirmed (even if current on payments), so looks like I'm reaffirming that one. One that suprised me was that we can keep our boat (if we decide to) in either a 7 or 13, really thought they would make us surrender that and its debt.
Sorry to be so long winded with this post. Allready growing a new list of questions if we decide to use him. My head is about ready to bust wide open from all the stuff to think about for our situation.
Our situation in a nutshell; I own a restaurant but only the busines, I lease the building and allmost all the equipment. My lease is practically a handshake agreement and non-transferable so there is not really any value in it. BTW, I'm a sole proprietor (as is he), he said he wished all small business were sole prop instead of incorporated because it makes things easier in bk.
My sales are down due to the recession and after years of getting by we just can't make the payments on our debt load anymore. I'm not behind on anything at the store, vendors are paid weekly all taxes are currant (sales, withholding etc.). We have mucho cc debt (72k, still have @30k available so we aren't maxed) but I just can't live like this anymore thus the decision to bk. The kicker is 22k we owe the IRS for income taxes.
He did a quick means test and decided we passed but just barely. For a chap 7 he says there is a (very) slight risk to the store, but just real enough to mention. Chap 13 he feels would pose the least risk to my store and his estimated plan payment would cover the taxes and the other creditors would essentailly get nothing.
I'm allready in an installment plan with the IRS for last years taxes (350 a month payment) but owe 12k more for 07, so I'll be renegotiating my installment plan. If they will accept a reasonable monthly payment I think we'll attempt the 7. If they want more than I'm willing to do I guess we'll have to go 13 to keep the payments reasonable, though to me I'd rather go 7 and be done with the bk. So it looks like it will be up to the IRS which way we go.
A couple of interesting (to me) tidbits from the meeting: there is (at least in NC) never any, none what so ever reason to reaffirm a mortgage. When he asked who my truck loan was with (Ford Motor Credit) he kinda grimaced and said that they were one of the few creditors that will repo unless reaffirmed (even if current on payments), so looks like I'm reaffirming that one. One that suprised me was that we can keep our boat (if we decide to) in either a 7 or 13, really thought they would make us surrender that and its debt.
Sorry to be so long winded with this post. Allready growing a new list of questions if we decide to use him. My head is about ready to bust wide open from all the stuff to think about for our situation.
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