Will we ever be able to refinance our house?

[brtb]

I thought I'd pose my question here before contacting our attorney.

Background: Filed Ch. 13 in July 2011, confirmed November 2011. 1st mortgage and HELOC (interest only) are current and paying outside of bk.

Will be ever be able to refinance our mortgages while in Ch. 13? My plan would be to combine our 1st and HELOC so we only have one mortgage payment. We currently have 6% on our 1st and we're only paying the interest on our HELOC, which I don't like. I plan on increasing the payment as soon as I can afford to. I

Has anyone ever refinanced while in Ch. 13?

Thanks!

[Flamingo]

Yes, we did, and we did it because we had to have major work done on our house which could not wait until our Plan would have been over. We also were able to buy out of our Plan at that time since we filed way before the new bankruptcy law came into effect in 10/05 so we were able to buy out at our confirmed percentage (not 100% as is required now). What you need to do is go over all this with your attorney - it is not a process that happens overnight and will require you to try to find financing while in a 13 (your attorney may be able to recommend some brokers). If you are actually able to be in a position to refinance, trustee permission to do so will need to be obtained, all sorts of paperwork reviewed by the trustee for that permission, an appraisal done and survey done (large expenses on your part), just to name a few things that will need to be done. The best thing to do is to sit down with your attorney and fully discuss. It is not an easy process and can take several months.

Interest only second mortgages were popular before the big mortgage problems hit several years ago and were a bad tactic to allow people to afford low monthly payments; that is until the interest only period is over and payments skyrocket.