First want to say this site has provided an enormous amount of information and I am so glad I found it. Ive been doing searches but still cant find "exactly" what it is Im curious about.
Long story short. I live in the Raleigh area of North Carolina. Went out on my own and started a small clearing and grading business a little over 4 years ago. First year with the housing market in full boom things were great! Made good money and looked forward to the future. Second year wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. Been going down hill ever since. Finally decided around September of last year it wasn't worth even trying to keep it going. My only comfort is that Im not alone. All the other grading and construction companies have either gone under or are really hurting.
What it has done to me personally.. Being my new business had no credit, my personal credit was on the line for everything. I have luckily sold all but one piece of equipment and one truck I had financed. Those will be hard to sell for what i owe on them and Im running out of time as neither has had a payment made in almost 90 days. Not that anyone is buying trucks and construction equipment anyway!
My biggest hit is for credit cards. I pretty much financed a lot of the items needed for start up with plastic. I owe a total of around $37,000 on two cards. One card 17k and the other 20k. Neither of these have gotten a payment in mover 4 months.
What is safe "for now" is my house. My house is very modest and the mortgage is current, again "for now". The grading and construction industry is dead. So I cant even get a job working for someone else in the trade I am skilled for. Im now working for a family member making less than 1/3 of what I did 4-5 years ago even before I started my own business. So now my mortgage and basic living expenses such as food, gas, utilities take a huge chunk of my income.
With all the late payments, etc my credit is already destroyed. I don't care if they repo the truck and the tractor if that would be it. If I sold them it would only be to pay the bank off anyway. So filing bankruptcy wouldn't be to keep those. My worry is they will come after me when they repo a truck I owe 22k on. Auction it off in this horrible economy for something like 8k. Then coming after me for 14k and I dont even own the truck anymore. But this is a worry I would have even with filing for bankruptcy, right? In theory I don't own anything. My mortgage is current but the house isn't paid for. I guess Im just wondering if I am better off filing BK or letting the judgments just start stacking up until one day when I can hopefully pay or settle them. Sorry if this sounds like a crazy thought. I guess Im still in the denial stage. The denial stage has helped dig me get even deeper. I probably should have been considering BK a year ago...
So thats my story. Would love to hear some opinions on what Im possibly looking at (ch 7 or 13). I plan to make an appointment with a bankruptcy attorney next week.
Long story short. I live in the Raleigh area of North Carolina. Went out on my own and started a small clearing and grading business a little over 4 years ago. First year with the housing market in full boom things were great! Made good money and looked forward to the future. Second year wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. Been going down hill ever since. Finally decided around September of last year it wasn't worth even trying to keep it going. My only comfort is that Im not alone. All the other grading and construction companies have either gone under or are really hurting.
What it has done to me personally.. Being my new business had no credit, my personal credit was on the line for everything. I have luckily sold all but one piece of equipment and one truck I had financed. Those will be hard to sell for what i owe on them and Im running out of time as neither has had a payment made in almost 90 days. Not that anyone is buying trucks and construction equipment anyway!
My biggest hit is for credit cards. I pretty much financed a lot of the items needed for start up with plastic. I owe a total of around $37,000 on two cards. One card 17k and the other 20k. Neither of these have gotten a payment in mover 4 months.
What is safe "for now" is my house. My house is very modest and the mortgage is current, again "for now". The grading and construction industry is dead. So I cant even get a job working for someone else in the trade I am skilled for. Im now working for a family member making less than 1/3 of what I did 4-5 years ago even before I started my own business. So now my mortgage and basic living expenses such as food, gas, utilities take a huge chunk of my income.
With all the late payments, etc my credit is already destroyed. I don't care if they repo the truck and the tractor if that would be it. If I sold them it would only be to pay the bank off anyway. So filing bankruptcy wouldn't be to keep those. My worry is they will come after me when they repo a truck I owe 22k on. Auction it off in this horrible economy for something like 8k. Then coming after me for 14k and I dont even own the truck anymore. But this is a worry I would have even with filing for bankruptcy, right? In theory I don't own anything. My mortgage is current but the house isn't paid for. I guess Im just wondering if I am better off filing BK or letting the judgments just start stacking up until one day when I can hopefully pay or settle them. Sorry if this sounds like a crazy thought. I guess Im still in the denial stage. The denial stage has helped dig me get even deeper. I probably should have been considering BK a year ago...
So thats my story. Would love to hear some opinions on what Im possibly looking at (ch 7 or 13). I plan to make an appointment with a bankruptcy attorney next week.
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