Is my lawyer full of it?

[eddiep]

It seems like sooo many people here are walking away with nothing from Ch 7? My lawyer says we should be able to keep everything. Is he full of it? During our meeting he asked questions like how much could you get for all your furniture if you had to sell it quickly. I just quickly answered I don't know maybe $3000. He wrote it down. I didn't put much thought into the question, will there be a point when we have to come up with an exact number or is it just always a rough estimate?

[TJR70]

well you will have to come to an exact price, but you will estimate it at a garage sale value. Not retail sale or the price you paid for it..

[AngelinaCatHub]

Got to say, from experience, MOST lawyers are full if it and themselves. But, he is probably correct. You in your or any state have certain things you can keep. If you have more than what is allowed, is can be sold but is usually offered back to you in a buy back at a generous amount and time limit. You have nothing to worry about. Listen to your lawyer. ‘Hub

[Tbornetun]

A lot of people end up keeping most if not all their "stuff". The reason you probably read about it more on here is that when things are being taken away people are going to post about it and ask advice. I find a lot of times that the reason people come to the boards in the first place is for help in a difficult situation. The majority of the Ch. 7s I file the client keeps ALL of their assets. Not everyone, but it all depends upon what state you are in and the exemptions for that state. Not everyone's situation is the same.

[TEW]

I kept everything i wanted to keep. I did not keep anything i had to make payments on.

[Tromploi]

I am planning on keeping everything, including things we are making payments on (2 cars, a tractor and our home). Atty says no problem.

[Help!]

Mine sure was (full of it). We were told everything was just fine, not to worry... and then it became pretty obvious at our 341 hearing at everything was NOT fine. We didn't lose furniture, appliances, etc. but we did end up giving up two cars we owned outright and parting with a lot of cash because of the bad advice we were given. Question everything, and make sure you understand what's going on because if questions come up you will be the one held accountable - not your lawyer.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Mine sure was (full of it). We were told everything was just fine, not to worry... and then it became pretty obvious at our 341 hearing at everything was NOT fine. We didn't lose furniture, appliances, etc. but we did end up giving up two cars we owned outright and parting with a lot of cash because of the bad advice we were given. Question everything, and make sure you understand what's going on because if questions come up you will be the one held accountable - not your lawyer.

Yeppers, you got that right. As I said, we could not have done worse in our ignorance. True, the 341 did not bother us as we had no idea what it was about. Just that we bring our SS. and ID, (marraige license as we use two different names). That was all. All in all, it cost us a big 10K to dig our way out of errors of ommission. Not of commission. That being said, I have learned a lot and this is why Mrs. C now a Moderator, and I shall standbye to help others. BTW, Mrs. just said, I am her pet project and she has to "super moderate" me above anyone. Oh, well. 'Hub

[TJR70]

Mine sure was (full of it). We were told everything was just fine, not to worry... and then it became pretty obvious at our 341 hearing at everything was NOT fine. We didn't lose furniture, appliances, etc. but we did end up giving up two cars we owned outright and parting with a lot of cash because of the bad advice we were given. Question everything, and make sure you understand what's going on because if questions come up you will be the one held accountable - not your lawyer.

WoW, I am sorry to hear that you lost a lot. I was wondering what state did you file your BK from.

[eddiep]

I wasn't sure if he was getting a rough idea, ball park figure, because we are going to wait a couple months before we file. We want to get a mortgage modification done before we file and we want to capture the most recent 6 month period, my husband wass out of work from Sept to Dec and is making $400 less per week at his new job. We dont want to include old wages as that is not our current situation.

I will make sure we get more accurate with our numbers before we file. Thanks for the advice!

[freshstartfl]

Hi Eddie! Since you were so nice in my thread I thought I'd come to yours and see what your story is. I'm just wondering... is it really worth it to you to keep the house, financially? I would hate to see you go thru all this and still be completely strapped, and it sounds like that could end up happening.

I wrestled with this with my vehicle, and as much as I like my SUV and HATE driving a tiny car, I realized after some serious soul searching that if I was going to go thru this, I should do it all the way, and rid myself of things that were bad investments, things I was underwater with, etc. If I had kept my SUV, I wouldn't have had as much of a "fresh start."

[eddiep]

Yes I am positive I want the house. we have lived here for 13 years, it isn't just a house, it is our home. we live in a little hick town with no rentals, I have two teenagers who would DIE if they had to move now. Maybe in a couple years we will down size but for now we have to stay. We actually have about 30k equity right now so we are not in trouble that way. The problem we have is that we have three loans on the property. we decided to take short terms on the loans 20 years, 10, years and 25 years to get it paid off sooner, less interest paid back in the long run, so our payments are high. If I could extend all three to 30 years it would reduce my payment by $1500 a month! That is huge!

[eddiep]

I have plenty of wiggle room to extend them, the first two are almost paid off. If I can just get someone at BoA to listen!

[freshstartfl]

Yeah, that makes total sense. I'm a bit jaded in this regard because I do foreclosures all day at my job. I forget sometimes that there are many people that have been in their homes for a very long time that are in this situation. I spend the majority of my day foreclosing on loans that are underwater and were taken out in 2004 or 2005. In your situation, I completely understand.

[freshstartfl]

Getting someone at Bank of America to listen?! Good luck with that!