How to get rid of a house??

[Help!]

This is good information. So, it should depend on how much breathing room we have, which means budget.



Is there anything that says you can't save up cash when you've started the ch 13 payment plan, or are you just saying it will be designed so that you won't be able to?

Why do I keep reading that most people who file bankruptcy don't loose their homes? From what you all are saying, it seems like the cards are going to be stacked against you to loose your home.

Read truckerswife's post above... this is exactly the situation you don't want to be in. To answer your first question, in a Ch. 13 plan you are obligated to allow the trustee's to take as much of your disposable income as possible for the benefit of your creditors. The specifics of what is and is not allowed depends on the trustee (this is what scares me the most about Ch. 13).

I'm not sure about the second question. It seems that the majority of those who are filing BK are doing so because of their home, directly or indirectly. Most of us that bought or refinanced a home in the past 5 years are upside down so giving it back to the bank is the best thing we can do. It doesn't make sense to pull those loans through a bankruptcy only to find that our homes are worth even less a year from now. As diviaruba said, if that debt is reaffirmed you're stuck with it and it can't be discharged through BK later.

[Help!]

ok. so if we filed 13 and included past due mortgage payments but decide we want them to take the house, what can we do? we did not reaffirm and are behind on the mortgage for the past 7 months since the bankruptcy. we were in foreclosure when we filed 13. but with repairs and rising prices (and a mortgage increase of $200 a month) we can not afford it. We have heard nothing from the mortgage companies. we had a 80/20 mortgage and are very upside down on the loan to the tune of about $15,000. We paid $5000 to the mortgage companies through our plan and are scheduled to pay another $6500 to them through the plan. We are supposed to be done with the plan in about a year and a half.

truckerswife has reposted this question as a thread in the Ch. 13 area if others are looking for answers to her question...

[keepmine]

I'd suggest the OP take a look at the big picture which is, you want to leave bk in far better shape than when you filed. It's hard to do that when you are trying to keep something you can't afford or, it has negative equity.
An afterthough to the question about why some keep homes-in many instances the petitioner will have equity in the home that is below the level that is exempt in there state but is still a reasonable amount of money. States like Fl. and Tx. all equity is exempt in other states, it can be 6 figures. If you live in one of these states and have $20 or $30K equity or more it does make sense to keep the house.

[sisterfunkhaus]

Can you sell it? We sold ours before it went back. We staged it really well and it sold in a week in a bad market. I wouldn't want a bk and a repo on my credit if I could help it.

[sisterfunkhaus]

We can pay it, but with great difficulty. We cannot sell it, it is morgaged at 100%, likely more since the drop in the market.

If we decide to reaffirm, it will help us to continue to make the payments. But, I am questioning whether we want to. We will still be paying more than we should based on our income. I'm thinking it might be smarter, finacially, to let it go and start over saving for a downpayment with an eye for something more reasonable in the future.

I am concerned that if we reaffirm and then continue to have financial difficulties, then what?

A good portion of DH's income is commision. This makes me nervous.

You could ask about doing a short sell. You sell the house for less than it's worth and the bank forgives the rest. You have to pay taxes on the difference, but it would be better than a repo.

[goingout]

Well I had to stop reading because the thread was making me physically ill. DH doesn't even want to consider it, wouldn't even look at all my calculations.

I think we can do it if we get rid of the other debt. I'm concerned though that something will happen to one of our jobs or an expense will go up or something.