Here's a little background first. We are doing a chapter 7. We are over the median but unemployed at time of filing (got a job after 341) and we have pretty low expenses even with the mortgage. We are pretty sure at this point we are getting through on a 7 but my point is that the UST already has his eyes on us.
We have come to the conclusion that we do not want to keep our house. We have missed 4 payments so far. We marked retain and pay on our statement of intent because we really didn't know what we were going to do at the time. My lawyer says that if we don't want the house and don't want to be liable for a deficiency judgment that we have to amend our filing and change our statement of intent and do a new means test. I'm supposed to get them our latest paystubs and they will do the numbers and let me know if this will be a problem with our chapter 7 possibly getting converted. I did some quick math myself and we would show positive DMI, like $1000 worth. She did say that they really hardly ever go for deficiency judgments and they've only seen 2 in their office.
I guess I'm confused because everything I read here says that as long as you did not sign an affirmation agreement you are not liable for deficiency no matter what your statement of intent says. What I can't figure out is why my lawyer won't tell me this. Does it have to do with our state? Are they just trying to cover their butts? Is she right?
We are in small town, Nevada. We owe $170,000. I'm not sure what fair market value is but I wouldn't guess much lower than that. There is no PMI on it because it was an FHA loan until it was kicked back to B of A because they screwed something up. I don't think we have much to worry about if we foreclose but I don't know if I have it in me to worry about it for another year (no NOD yet so we're looking at a minimum of 4 months to sale plus they have 6 months to get a judgment). We have an opportunity to rent a place for $600 and our mortgage payment is $1300 so that's quite a bit of money in our pocket.
Any advice is welcome!
We have come to the conclusion that we do not want to keep our house. We have missed 4 payments so far. We marked retain and pay on our statement of intent because we really didn't know what we were going to do at the time. My lawyer says that if we don't want the house and don't want to be liable for a deficiency judgment that we have to amend our filing and change our statement of intent and do a new means test. I'm supposed to get them our latest paystubs and they will do the numbers and let me know if this will be a problem with our chapter 7 possibly getting converted. I did some quick math myself and we would show positive DMI, like $1000 worth. She did say that they really hardly ever go for deficiency judgments and they've only seen 2 in their office.
I guess I'm confused because everything I read here says that as long as you did not sign an affirmation agreement you are not liable for deficiency no matter what your statement of intent says. What I can't figure out is why my lawyer won't tell me this. Does it have to do with our state? Are they just trying to cover their butts? Is she right?
We are in small town, Nevada. We owe $170,000. I'm not sure what fair market value is but I wouldn't guess much lower than that. There is no PMI on it because it was an FHA loan until it was kicked back to B of A because they screwed something up. I don't think we have much to worry about if we foreclose but I don't know if I have it in me to worry about it for another year (no NOD yet so we're looking at a minimum of 4 months to sale plus they have 6 months to get a judgment). We have an opportunity to rent a place for $600 and our mortgage payment is $1300 so that's quite a bit of money in our pocket.
Any advice is welcome!
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