Hi there, new to the forums, I've been reading, but just registered today.
DH and I met with a rep from an attorney's office today. She seemed to see no issues with our case. I'm slightly worried - after all, she's not even a lawyer! If we sign with them, we won't see a lawyer until the 341 hearing - is that normal?
She did advise that we check on our cars, particularly DHs truck as she thought it would be right around the mark that we can exempt ($3,025) and it'll be paid off this month, so both are now owned outright. So, I checked - she told me to find the private party and the trade in value and the trustee would use a number in between. She also said we could use our wild card ($1075) if need be to cover any extra. Well, I checked and the amount in between is actually $5330. For the record, I don't think it's accurate - and I don't think we could personally sell it for more than $3k. But, if that's the number that they told us that would be used, I guess that is it. Does that mean that the trustee will take the vehicle? The wild card and the amount allowed still leave it with $1030 of equity.
We are surrendering a house (rental), but keeping our current house. DH is currently unemployed (and I work very PT). She advised a chapter 7. I wonder if it wouldn't be worth waiting until DH is working again to do a chapter 13 - then, as I'm understanding (correct me if I'm wrong!) we could do a loan modification on the primary (we owe just under $100k, but I don't think it's worth more than about $75k - TOPS, and I think we'd be lucky to get that) and we have a $28k second on it - that could be stripped as well in a Chapter 13, right?
She didn't seem to think there was any issues with the fact that we took our tax return and can't really account for all of the money - we've lived on it for bills the last few months, but DH has a judgement right now and we took it out so that they wouldn't swipe it (as they've tried swiping it before). We didn't really account for it all with receipts as we honestly did not think we'd be in this position, we thought DH would be working and we'd be back to trying to get out of debt. Will this be a problem? We only decided that bankruptcy would be a good option within the last few weeks.
We've not charged in a long time. Once or twice last year, but we were really trying to get our stuff together and pay stuff off. If DH hadn't have been laid off, I think we would have made a lot more progress. Unfortunately, we're at the spot now where the creditors call and harass every single day, multiple times per day and some are just down right rude.
Finally, DH owns a business with his parents. It isn't profitable - but it pays the CC bill that his father has for the business. The woman from the firm asked if he could sell the business and we honestly do not believe it to be worth anything, especially not when you look at the fact that he's only a 1/3 owner!
Oh, DH does have some stocks in an investment club. Maybe valued at $1500-1600. I asked if it would be okay to take this out to pay for the lawyer fees and to use to repair a vehicle. She said this would be acceptable. Does this sound right?
DH would like to get the ball rolling, but I think we should try to meet with an actual lawyer, thoughts?
TIA for any thoughts.
DH and I met with a rep from an attorney's office today. She seemed to see no issues with our case. I'm slightly worried - after all, she's not even a lawyer! If we sign with them, we won't see a lawyer until the 341 hearing - is that normal?
She did advise that we check on our cars, particularly DHs truck as she thought it would be right around the mark that we can exempt ($3,025) and it'll be paid off this month, so both are now owned outright. So, I checked - she told me to find the private party and the trade in value and the trustee would use a number in between. She also said we could use our wild card ($1075) if need be to cover any extra. Well, I checked and the amount in between is actually $5330. For the record, I don't think it's accurate - and I don't think we could personally sell it for more than $3k. But, if that's the number that they told us that would be used, I guess that is it. Does that mean that the trustee will take the vehicle? The wild card and the amount allowed still leave it with $1030 of equity.
We are surrendering a house (rental), but keeping our current house. DH is currently unemployed (and I work very PT). She advised a chapter 7. I wonder if it wouldn't be worth waiting until DH is working again to do a chapter 13 - then, as I'm understanding (correct me if I'm wrong!) we could do a loan modification on the primary (we owe just under $100k, but I don't think it's worth more than about $75k - TOPS, and I think we'd be lucky to get that) and we have a $28k second on it - that could be stripped as well in a Chapter 13, right?
She didn't seem to think there was any issues with the fact that we took our tax return and can't really account for all of the money - we've lived on it for bills the last few months, but DH has a judgement right now and we took it out so that they wouldn't swipe it (as they've tried swiping it before). We didn't really account for it all with receipts as we honestly did not think we'd be in this position, we thought DH would be working and we'd be back to trying to get out of debt. Will this be a problem? We only decided that bankruptcy would be a good option within the last few weeks.
We've not charged in a long time. Once or twice last year, but we were really trying to get our stuff together and pay stuff off. If DH hadn't have been laid off, I think we would have made a lot more progress. Unfortunately, we're at the spot now where the creditors call and harass every single day, multiple times per day and some are just down right rude.
Finally, DH owns a business with his parents. It isn't profitable - but it pays the CC bill that his father has for the business. The woman from the firm asked if he could sell the business and we honestly do not believe it to be worth anything, especially not when you look at the fact that he's only a 1/3 owner!
Oh, DH does have some stocks in an investment club. Maybe valued at $1500-1600. I asked if it would be okay to take this out to pay for the lawyer fees and to use to repair a vehicle. She said this would be acceptable. Does this sound right?
DH would like to get the ball rolling, but I think we should try to meet with an actual lawyer, thoughts?
TIA for any thoughts.
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