Want to file chapter 7 and keep home. Advice?

[Manolo]

OK, I am meeting an attorney tomorrow.

First, I must say why would anyone want to ever file a chapter 13? No thanks. I want and needa 7.

Here are my concerns from my research. I put about 25K down on my home which I bought in 2002. I am sure the value of it has went down but I put about 20% as a down payment. I am concerned the creditors which are all credit card companies (about 28K total) will say "sell the house and pay us that way". Now, I have no idea what it would be worth now and from my understanding, it is what they could auction it off for which in this climate prob. hopefully wouldn't be alot more than I owe. I am current on my mortgage but behind on my property taxes.

I owe about 28K in credit card debt. Here is what I am hoping saves me. I only make 25 to 30K a year and am below the "means" in my state (Indiana) so if they say I can't do a 7 but could do a 13, I simply do not make enough money to do that. Not by a long shot. Currently, my mom is helping me out with my expenses.

Is there anything in this that you guys from your experience will keep me from filing and getting a chapter 7 done?

Again, make 25K a year. Getting help from family to pay basic bills. Have some equity in the home, but not sure what house value would be and how they will come up with the value and when they would come up with value. Current on home. Behind on prop. taxes. 28K in debt would be in BK. Could not afford to pay $300 or whatever it would be on a Chapter 13.

I just need it all wiped out while keeping my house.

Can anyone here give any input or what they think I could do? I appreciate it. I feel like my post is all over the place. have a million things running through my mind. I have been scammed pretty good and that is 1 reason I am in this mess. Thanks

[JRScott]

The first thing would be to get an appraisal on the home. This can usually be done by a real estate agent or home appraiser. Then compare this to what you owe to determine equity. (You might even mention it is for a potential bankruptcy filing and be sure to point out repairs needed but not completed).

Property taxes cannot be discharged so you need to get those paid, stop paying VISA and MC and pay the county.

Once you get the home value you can determine better your situation. So long as you can exempt any equity you have in the home then you should easily be able to file a Chapter 7 from what you say. Why some folks do a Chapter 13 is having more equity in their home than they can exempt or having large amounts of non dischargeable debts like taxes that they need rolled into the plan.

[Billssuck]

I'm in a similiar situation and I have just requested a CMA (Comparable Market Analysis) from an experienced, local real estate agent for our home. Someone on this site suggested that I request that the CMA be for a "quick sale" value and the comps of houses sold need to be less than 90 days old. That is what I am working on now.

During my initial consultation with our lawyer, he is swaying towards a 13 and as I am researching more online, I think we may qualify for a 7. We have an appointment next week to do our paperwork and we shall see were it falls out. However, he thinks our payment would be minimal (like $150/month) for 3 years since we'll also be under the median for our state (MO) and we will keep our house and 4 cars (don't get excited...they are very old with very high mileage). Plus we can wrap our attorney fees, trustee fees into it, and our $107,000 in unsecured debt will have very little paid out to the creditors. So...it isn't all bad if we must go through a 13 instead of a 7. If we go ch7, we will most likely have to surrender one of the vehicles since all 4 are paid off and we won't have enough exemptions for them to cover their value.

The main thing I hate about a 13 for us is the 3 years we will be in limbo before the case is discharged. Those 4 older vehicles I mentioned won't make it that long (over 125,000 miles on each of them) and I don't know how we will afford a vehicle while under the 13 payment plan. I am still going to try for the 7 and may surrender a vehicle if necessary because in the long run, it will benefit us more.