Which to do 1st?

[sofarsogood2]

Last payment on FL home Jan. 09
Filed March 09- indicated "surrender" in filing
Bank filed for Relief of Stay in June.
Then nothing for a while.
Got a Summary Judgement about a month ago.
As you can see, it takes a long time in FL.

We filed early on because I couldn't live with the possibility of a deficiency hanging over my head for 5 years. Had to relieve the stress. I'll rebuild our credit, but needed to keep my sanity intact.

Best Wishes

[DeadManCrawling]

Are you current on the 1st mortgage?

Your plan of attack could work, I believe. One factor is this: If you file CH 7, you will be asked if you intend to keep the home or surrender. You may want to indicate "Keep the home" but not sign a reaffirmation. Here is my thinking: If you indicate that you want to abandon the home, then try to draw out the foreclosure process, a wily attorney may find a way to use this against you. I cannot say if this has been a concern in the past, but I think it may become one soon, since there are so many bk's and foreclosures.

Another factor comes into play though. In FL you can claim the wildcard exemption, but only if surrendering the home. That may be an issue depending on how many nonexempt assets you have and their value.

In my own case, filing seems to have had no effect at all on the foreclosure process. Like you, I operate a business that utilizes only my talent and continues to be my sole source of income. Trustee did as you suggest in your post, and had zero interest in it.

Generally, the foreclosure process will proceed at its own pace and is not connected to the BK case, except that a lender has to file for relief before proceeding. Even if they DO file for relief, that doesn't always mean they are going to move ahead with the foreclosure.

Florida seems incredibly slow right now, for BoA, in terms of foreclosures.

In your shoes, I would file 7 now. If you don't need the wildcard, I would indicate you want to keep the home, then not sign reaff papers. You probably wouldn't be allowed to anyway, but the intent is what may be important later.

When the NOD does arrive, from the 1st, I would answer it and fight it. You may have more time than you think, anyway. We haven't paid the mortgage in over a year, in the Tampa area.

The NOD was filed in Nov. However, they didn't ask for relief from the automatic stay in our CH 7. We hope they move fast, but it looks like BoA is stalling.

[HakunaMatata]

Filing BK won't likely speed up a foreclosure process. In fact, filing can delay foreclosure. Once you've filed, you're protected by the Automatic Stay. A secured creditor can file a motion for Relief from the Automatic Stay; although, this doesn't always occur.

We have many posters who have not attempted to fight foreclosure and have managed to remain in their homes for 1+ year. There are plenty of factors contributing to the length of time the foreclosure process will take including State foreclosure laws, local housing market conditions, lender, etc.

Are you dealing with real estate attorneys or BK attorneys? Neither should encourage you to "hide" funds if your ultimate intention is to file BK. Do you have significant debt (aside from your mortgages)? Deficiency judgments aren't always pursued. Depending on your circumstances and level of comfort, strict foreclosure may be an option for you.

If you're truly heading down the BK path, you have to decide when to best initiate your "fresh start". If delaying filing will impede income/savings growth, you may wish to file sooner. Familiarizing yourself with your State exemptions and Means Test should be helpful tools in assessing your potential BK timeline. You want to ensure your a C7 candidate and any assets you possess are protected.

[ediev]

I'm new here - this is my first post. I will try to be brief and am hoping for some opinions on the matter. Thanks so much in advance for even reading this, and especially for all the very valuable guidance I've already recieved!

So here it goes. My husband and I are both self-employed, own an S-Corp whic has been our only source of income for 8+ years.

Our house in SoFL is extremely underwater and our business took somewhat of a hit during the last year or so. Still hanging in there, but have pretty much used up all our resources to keep the biz going. We need a fresh start, and hanging on to our house is not in the picture. At this point it will be a relief to get rid of the burden.

In FL they can come after us for the deficiency. We don't want that haunting us - so we will allow the house to foreclose and file BK 7 on the def and include all our CC debt - all personal. Our biz does not have any debt or owe anyone. Our biz does not have any assets (other than ourselves) and we are a COD biz - so no outstanding receivables. The BK lawyer we spoke with agreed that a trustee will most likely NOT try to take our biz, simply because without us, there is no biz or reason for someone to pay up.

OK, so here's the deal. Where we stand right now, based upon our last year sales/income we can qualify for a Chapter 7.

However, our business IS picking up (not enought to make a difference yet, but the tides are turning), we don't want to hold back sales because of the impending BK.

Not to mention, we want to save as much money as we can while going thru the foreclosure & not paying the mortgages or CC's. If however, we wait to file BK as we've been advised to do, a year or two down the road when the bank gets sale date, the trustee will take all those savings. So herein lies the problem.

We've been advised by our 2 lawyers: 1)fight the foreclosure, then when they get a sale date - 2)file BK - affording us a minimum of 18 months to 2 years, rent free. In the meantime, unless we "hide" money, we cannot grow our business & cannot save money if we plan do a BK7 down the road.

So my question is, if we go ahead and do a chapter 7 right now, without reaffirming mortgages (we have 2) would that speed up the Banks to finalize the foreclosure? If so, how fast can a bank speed up the process, when there actually IS a lawyer attempting to "fight" it?

Does filing BK 7 take all the fight out of us?

Anyone do a chapter 7 FIRST and then try to prolong the foreclosure, with the intentions of saving money for things like 1st, last, security in a rental and a general emergency fund?

We are really hoping to use the time going thru this mess to allow us the time to save up some money...it would take the sting away a little, not to mention be a necesity for us to get on with our lives.

12-18 months would be ideal. I'm just afraid that if we go ahead with the BK 7 now, without reaffirming the mortgages, the banks will become aggressive with getting the foreclosure finalized, knowing we have no intentions of working with them.

I should note, my 2nd has already served us.

Thanks again for reading my post - i really do appreciate any feedback.