House & Car Values

[coolmom04]

I've been searching and reading trying to find an answer, and it's probably there and I just can't see it...

I am now freaking out b/c I just found out the NC exemption for home equity is only $18,500. I don't know what we currently owe on our home, but we bought it for $216K in March of this year. It was a 100% finance. According to zillow, our house is worth $235,000. Figures.. $4K over the allowed exemption! So, how accurate is zillow? We certainly need to keep our home!

Also, we have a 2001 mazda protege that is, in my opinion, pretty beat up. The roof liner is falling down.. our dog ripped the rubber stuff off from around the back windows and chewed up one of the seatbelts. The paint is dull. It has about 110K miles. It's way behind on the oil changes and it obviously needs mechanical work - there is a very loud clicking noise that it makes when braking. I can't figure out which value from KBB or edmunds I am supposed to go by for the vehicle b/c it ranges from 2,500-5,000 and our exemption is only for up to $3,500 for one vehicle.

So, what does that mean about my van that we are paying on? We owe $16K and it's value is about $15K according to edmunds at retail dealer estimate. But, we pay $427/month with only 5% interest, so what we owe is going to drop by the time March 2010 rolls around. What if there is even 1K of equity in our van? Then what?

Will we just have to go ahead with the ch13 b/c we cant lose those things!

[JEM]

Zillow is NOT very accurate IMO.

[coolmom04]

Here's to hoping it's on the high side! I just realized it said that my value range is 213K - 250K! good grief.

What I do know is that when the county came out to do the assessment for tax purposes, they valued the house at 250K, which surprised the heck out of me.. doesn't make sense how it could possibly be worth that much! They didn't even come inside. She just measured, looked outside, and asked some questions.

[justbroke]

Zillow is about as accurate as a scud missile. You should probably get a Comparative Market Analysis from a Realtor so that you know what it would sell for. You're likely to have no equity anyway, because the cost to sell would eat up the measly $20K.

I don't think you have equity issues. Trust me... $1,000 on a car isn't anything for a Trustee to get excited over, because they'd have to actually sell the car to get the $1,000. The likelihood of them getting book value at auction is... low.

[coolmom04]

Zillow is about as accurate as a scud missile. You should probably get a Comparative Market Analysis from a Realtor so that you know what it would sell for. You're likely to have no equity anyway, because the cost to sell would eat up the measly $20K.

I don't think you have equity issues. Trust me... $1,000 on a car isn't anything for a Trustee to get excited over, because they'd have to actually sell the car to get the $1,000. The likelihood of them getting book value at auction is... low.

Thank you for your post. You eased my stress a bit! The Realtor we used to buy the house is actually my friend, so I will see if she can do the analysis. I just emailed her to ask.

That's definitely good to know about the vehicles, too!! I don't mind filing ch13 if we have to, but dang it.. if I can file ch7, then obviously I am going to

[coolmom04]

If we end up filing ch13 and we own one car outright, will the trustee make us sell that car? We can't do that

[coolmom04]

My friend just ran the CMA for our home and it looks like we are definitely good to go with the equity!! Depending on two different reports - we have apx $1K in equity or about 2K negative equity! Hopefully that doesn't change by February/March.

[justbroke]

If we end up filing ch13 and we own one car outright, will the trustee make us sell that car? We can't do that

Well, that depends on your available exemptions. You could possibly "buy" the equity (non-exempt) from the Trustee for less than the equity itself... because it saves the Trustee time/effort.

My friend just ran the CMA for our home and it looks like we are definitely good to go with the equity!! Depending on two different reports - we have apx $1K in equity or about 2K negative equity! Hopefully that doesn't change by February/March.

Excellent. I wouldn't really think it would change too drastically! Nice friend you have there!

[BobMango]

... now freaking out b/c I just found out the NC exemption for home equity is only $18,500. ...

The homestead exemption in NC was raised to $35K starting Dec 1st, so I think you are ok based on your valuation.

As to the car valuation, I took the low dealer trade-in value from KBB. The trustee did ask where we came up with the valuation but didn't quibble over it. I'd go with what you think the fair value is and be prepared to explain how you came up with it. If the trustee takes the vehicle he has to give you the exemption value and then try to sell it for more than that. Probably not going to be interested.

Sounds like you can use your exemption on the Mazda because I don't think you have any equity in the van. I don't recall but I think you can use some of your unused homestead exemption to protect other property.

[coolmom04]

The homestead exemption in NC was raised to $35K starting Dec 1st, so I think you are ok based on your valuation.

As to the car valuation, I took the low dealer trade-in value from KBB. The trustee did ask where we came up with the valuation but didn't quibble over it. I'd go with what you think the fair value is and be prepared to explain how you came up with it. If the trustee takes the vehicle he has to give you the exemption value and then try to sell it for more than that. Probably not going to be interested.

Sounds like you can use your exemption on the Mazda because I don't think you have any equity in the van. I don't recall but I think you can use some of your unused homestead exemption to protect other property.

Okay.. seriously... if I could hug you through the screen, I would!!! Now I remember reading somewhere about the increase to 35K, but didn't pay attention b/c it was before I realized we might even have any equity in our home!

As for the car stuff, thank you thank you thank you for that, too! I thought that the trustee would make me hire someone to come out and actually appraise my vehicles and their conditions!! I am definitely prepared to tell them how I come up with the numbers and will take pictures and list every single issue with each vehicle to CMA

[coolmom04]

I just read that "up to $5,000 of unused portion of homestead may be applied to any property" for NC! WE ARE SAFE!!!!!