"I'm keeping my home."-SAYS WHO?

[tightrope]

As I research the BK process, I read about Ch7 filers who say that they're keeping their home, as they have no equity or just enough equity that it can be exempt.

WHO decides what the home is worth?

Does the trustee order an appraisal or is the filer allowed to get an appraisal, BPO or a CMA herself and do the trustees rely on that value?

Also, does anyone know how this is handled in the Eastern District of PA?

[BobMango]

Your attorney would best be able to answer what the trustee will look for. In my case, we were advised that the trustee would want to see a market assessment from a real estate agent. In addition we received our county tax assessment the day before our 341 and it matched the market assessment within about $5K, so the trustee had no issue. We were pretty close to break even but we claimed $10K in exemption just to make sure there was no interest on the trustee's behalf.

[LittleB72]

Our lawyer used the tax assesment value. We did happen to re-finance in early 09 and had the home appraised. Tax value is less than what we owe by about 4K. Appraisal value is about 13K more than we owe. However, it didn't matter which number was used as our exemption covered any equity.

[lalap123]

You would think there would be some standard for this sort of thing, wouldn't you? In my district, apparently they will take Zillow values and/or an estimate based on comparable home sales (which I guess is what Zillow does). This is what my attorney based my value on, and she didn't seem to think it would be a problem. I am on the border of having excess equity, so I hope to God she's right. The thing that worries me is that one other attorney that I met with prior to her told me that some trustees can and will use tax assessed value. There is a HUGE difference b/t my home value on Zillow and the tax assessed value, and the tax value is definitely NOT in my favor.

I'm trying to get a CMA done and sent to me before I go to my 341 next week. I figure that if it's close to the Zillow value then it will go further to show that we based our estimate on something solid. I'll post here to let you know what happens, but to be honest I think there are so many different ways trustees have to look at this that you'd be better off going to attorneys in your area and just backing up your valuation with as much paperwork as you can.

[blessed]

Our attorney just asked for comparable homes sales. We gave an estimate, based on the neighbor's sale a couple years ago, some work we've done, the shitty housing market. We should be safe for another 20k in equity above what the number we used so I'm not worried.

[sadbutinneed]

We were able to use Zillow I think. that's that the attorney asked when we first met with her, we are signing final papers tomorrow and she hasn't asked for any other information regarding home value.

[tightrope]

Yes, it seems that this valuation process is all over the place and largely depended on the location and trustee.

Can those who have kept their homes in Ch7 chime in?

Also, specifically, has anyone gone through Ch7 in Easter District of PA, how was your home value determined?

[anime-chicka]

I was lucky enough to get a copy of our tax assessment from the tax collector and show the trustee what the house had been assessed for. We're also good friends with the real estate agent who sold us our house, and she was able to get the listings for the houses in our area that had sold recently. It wasn't too hard to figure out just how much our house was worth (roughly about 15k less than what we bought it for).

We've kept our house and don't plan on getting rid of it anytime soon, although the temptation is there sometimes.

[lalap123]

Tightrope-
You might want to do a search of the forums. I posted a message along the same lines several months ago (something like "who was able to keep home with excess equity in chapter 7?"). I don't remember how many responses there were...

I'll let you know what happens with me after my 341 on Monday. We owe around $199,000 on our house, I can exempt $10,000, and the Zillow/comp values come in at $219,000. That leaves $9,000 in equity, but since my husband owns half of the house he would be entitled to half of any equity that was made in a sale. Also, since selling costs/fees would have to be considered, my attorney doesn't see the trustee finding any benefit in trying to force a sale. My tax assessment, on the other hand, is around $260,000, but I know it's not an accurate reflection of the current sales in my area. I'm in Georgia, by the way.

Why don't you go ahead and get a market analysis (free) done to see where you stand?

[BROKEDED]

You may also want to go on Realtytrac and use the home values tool in the search bar on the home page. If the value looks waaay out of line you may want to punch in some different addresses to compare. For some reason, several addresses in my neighborhood were all $144,837.

[tightrope]

Thanks to all for good input.

lalap123,
So are you're taking the Zillow value to your 341 meeting like the sadbutinneed? Would be interesting to know your trustee's comments on this.

BROKEDED,
Thanks for the Realtytrack suggestion.

Zillow shows the price that is below even our 1st, so no problem there as far as having equity.

And I will definitely get a CMA or an appraisal before filing.

Tax assessments work differently in different states/counties, so can't really be used here. They're used only as a relative valuation.
In other words, they look nothing like the market price (house assessed at $200,000 may be selling for $500,000 or $430,000)

I wonder where are all the PA filers? Chime in!