How do they figure what your house is worth?

Folks,

How does the trustee figure what your house is worth, and where does it's "real" worth come into play? With Zillow, ours is worth about 106% of what we owe, technically not underwater. When we file, it might even appraise there -- but they might also see the deteriorating neighborhood and it's gang and drug activity. A real home inspection would find a myriad of issues -- mold, broken furnace, failing retaining wall on the property line, failing basement, failing electrical, un-permitted work, etc -- probably $50k or more in work that needs to be done.

We will not be keeping the house, we've stopped paying on it, already moved, and we'll have everything we want out of it by the time we file, most likely.

Hopefully we're going Ch7.

Do I even have to care about it's value?

thx
--randy

How does the trustee figure what your house is worth, and where does it's "real" worth come into play? The only way to get a true value of your home in the current market is to have a professional appraisal done.

However, it's possible to get a pretty good estimate by investigating what similar properties in your neighborhood (same size and condition) have sold for during the last six months.

Zillow.com is not a reliable source for estimating home values - their estimates are known to be on the high side.

Do I even have to care about it's value?The primary reason for knowing what your home is worth is to calcuate the equity to compare it against your state's homestead exemption. Since you are going to surrender your house when you file, there's nothing to protect. Don't worry about it.

We are filing chapter 7 as well. Our attorney sent an appraiser out to the house (we paid about $150 dollars for it). Our house had just been reassessed too for $132,000 (we are fighting that so this helps) it appraised for 107,000. The copy of the appraisal will be submitted with our paperwork.