Did You Get To Keep Your House?

[livingonaprayer]

Who has kept their house in a Ch 7 with equity? Details please.
Were you really close to the exemption? Were you behind at all?

[lrprn]

To keep your home when you file Ch 7, you need to meet two requirements:

1. The current equity in your home must be protected by the bankruptcy homestead exemptions in your state (or by the federal homestead exemption if your state allows use of either state or federal exemptions). Equity = home's current market value minus what you owe on the loans against it.

2. You MUST be current on your all your home loan payments with no arrears when you file.

How do you stand on #1 and 2?

[Never_Again]

We are still in the midst, with our 341 on Monday (I guess that is tomorrow now), but our state has a $105K exemption on homestead if children are in the household. We have about 86K in equity according to the tax value. Our lawyer says that we will be fine.

Yes, we are current as well, and that is a must with a 7.

[livingonaprayer]

We owe 136,500 on our house. The values have dropped drastically so it's hard to determine the value. Looks like the most recent sales were in the mid 160's. There is a foreclosure sitting on our street for 149,000 right now. Our state exemption is $20,000. We're in Georgia.

We owe for September still - my husband finally got back to work last month after being out of work since January. We sent in last months payment this month. We also have a matter of 1,200 that needs to be paid from getting behind last year due to my surgery (It was part of what needed to be paid back a little each month - something our attorney handled for us, we almost lost our house then). We couldn't keep up with those extra payments while hubby was out of work. Also, there is a balance of almost $2,000 that wasn't paid to the mortgage company from when we filed Ch 13 3/12 years ago. Our payments are $939.00/month.

The attorneys office said we didn't have to be current to convert, just get caught up as soon as possible. He is aware of the $2,000 from when we filed and doesn't think that will be a problem. I forgot to mention the $1,200 - I was extremely nervous. We can make this months payment next month. So, we're trying to get caught up. The mortgage company couldn't really tell us anything about working out arrangements because we are in a Ch 13 right now. It's being dismissed and we're told our only option is to convert to a 7.

I am still trying to find a job, that would certainly get us caught up - but no interviews are scheduled. We can pay our monthly mortgage payment now and we don't want to lose our home.

Anybody have a success story? Or advice?