Keep house or not

[Inthestorm]

Brief synopsis: Self-employed, doing well. Put down payment on land "investment" early 2006. Put house for sale, had new house plans made. Approx. 3 months later, 15 year brisk business all but died. Not seeing the future, kept trying to survive by taking home equity line (credit was GREAT), then business loan and credit cards to keep it on life support until things turned around. All this time, Dh aggressively looked for new ways to make income. Got foot in the door of commercial market and is now going out of town frequently for work. But it doesn't pay near enough to dig out. Saw two attorneys 8 months ago, passed means test for Ch. 7 and was told we could keep house, although it's our biggest expense. After trying our best (I also got a second job, lousy pay) we have realized we are just prolonging the torment. He finally called our CPA (should have done it long ago) for an "unbiased" opinion. CPA says it doesn't look good. Construction probably won't improve for at least another three years and our hole is far too deep. We have called the attorney and are awaiting a call back.

We can't agree on whether or not to keep the house. He wants to retain the equity we think we have for when things get better (as an "investment") but it will significantly impair our ability to recover because of the two mortgages. I have horrible fear of cleaning out and moving because it's pretty big and the junk accumulation is unspeakable. I also have fear of not finding a BK friendly rental with land (we NEED our animals.) Rentals like that seem scarce.

Is there really an advantage to keeping ownership? Payments are current at the moment. I can't even say what the value of home is, so I don't know how much "equity" we might really have. If things never turn around, how are we going to use this for retirement (which he is arguing), since we really have -0- money to maintain it and won't actually have that much left even without the loan, credit card and land payments. Again, on the flip side, we're terrified we won't find a place to go with our unique needs. We're fighting over this.

Have other questions, but will post separate threads.

[JRScott]

This is the hardest decision for anyone going through bankruptcy.

The question is a deeply personal one. First I'd do a little research and see what rentals are available in your area, most places have papers or such for that. Not knowing what type of animals you have hard to know the exact hardness.

You'll need an appraisal on the property. That can tell you what your equity is in the home, and then based on that you might be able to make a better decision. Each state handles it slightly different so it is possible you might not be able to exempt the home equity meaning you'll have to let it go.

Another consideration is that in some districts the exemptions for animals is very low, this isn't a problem for like mongrel cats and dogs, but if you have expensive animals like thoroughbred horses etc it could be an issue.

I would not see just 1 lawyer you should see 3-5. Also be sure to lay it all down before each so they can give you the best estimates of how to proceed.