Hello Everyone, i'm new here.
My husband and I live in MD and we filed chapter 13 on july 1st. We began considering bankruptcy in December of 2008 so we had a consultation with a lawyer and had our house appraised. It appraised for $1000 over the amount of the first mortgage. I originally wanted to file chapter 7 and give up the car and the house (we were behind on both the mortgage and the car). My husband was adamant about keeping both the house and the car, so 13 was our only option. We procrastinated for months and our car was repossessed in may. My husband had to get a pay advance from work to get it back. So the car was no longer an issue, but he still didn't want to give up the house. We filed 6 days before our house was set to be sold at auction. We only found out because we recently had a baby and at the hospital we filled out a form to have the birth announced in the paper. I received a letter from a lady who was congratulating us and I googled our address to see if it had been posted in the paper. That is how I found out about the auction. The mortgage company filed proof of service with the court, but they sure never served us anything.
Well we got an appraisal last week to strip the second mortgage since the one from Dec. is too old. The house appraised for $45k less than it did in December! That is a huge loss in 7 months! Also my husband has been offered a great job opportunity. The job pays $25k more than his current one. He is replacing someone who is leaving in October so he doesn't start until the end of September. After being confronted with the declining value of our house, the fact that with his pay increase we will now be able to afford to rent the size house we need and also the fact that even though he is getting a huge pay increase, we have to report it to the trustee, so we won't see a dime of it after taxes and the increase in our plan payments, he has now agreed to file chapter 7, give up the house and reaffirm the car. We plan to continue with our chapter 13 (if it's confirmed) and convert to a chapter 7 next April so we can give my husband at least 6 months at his new job before trying to rent.
Here is my question: Will we have a problem being approved for a chapter 7 given the fact that we will have made all plan payments on time (at least we plan to) and also have had a $25k increase in our income? Keep in mind that we will still be $23k under the median income. Also our chapter 13 plan is really tight. As a matter of fact we claimed a lot less expenses than we could have just to have disposable income to fund our plan.
Also, how likely are we to find someone that will rent to us with our bad credit and a bankruptcy? Our income will be a little over $94k and we need at least a four bedroom house which in our area will be in the $1700-$2300 range. We are also willing to put up 2x the rent for a security deposit and pay the first and last month's rent up front. Should we wait until after discharge to look for a rental or before we file to convert? I'm just worried that we will convert to chapter 7 and then find that no one will rent to us and be homeless.
Thanks.
My husband and I live in MD and we filed chapter 13 on july 1st. We began considering bankruptcy in December of 2008 so we had a consultation with a lawyer and had our house appraised. It appraised for $1000 over the amount of the first mortgage. I originally wanted to file chapter 7 and give up the car and the house (we were behind on both the mortgage and the car). My husband was adamant about keeping both the house and the car, so 13 was our only option. We procrastinated for months and our car was repossessed in may. My husband had to get a pay advance from work to get it back. So the car was no longer an issue, but he still didn't want to give up the house. We filed 6 days before our house was set to be sold at auction. We only found out because we recently had a baby and at the hospital we filled out a form to have the birth announced in the paper. I received a letter from a lady who was congratulating us and I googled our address to see if it had been posted in the paper. That is how I found out about the auction. The mortgage company filed proof of service with the court, but they sure never served us anything.
Well we got an appraisal last week to strip the second mortgage since the one from Dec. is too old. The house appraised for $45k less than it did in December! That is a huge loss in 7 months! Also my husband has been offered a great job opportunity. The job pays $25k more than his current one. He is replacing someone who is leaving in October so he doesn't start until the end of September. After being confronted with the declining value of our house, the fact that with his pay increase we will now be able to afford to rent the size house we need and also the fact that even though he is getting a huge pay increase, we have to report it to the trustee, so we won't see a dime of it after taxes and the increase in our plan payments, he has now agreed to file chapter 7, give up the house and reaffirm the car. We plan to continue with our chapter 13 (if it's confirmed) and convert to a chapter 7 next April so we can give my husband at least 6 months at his new job before trying to rent.
Here is my question: Will we have a problem being approved for a chapter 7 given the fact that we will have made all plan payments on time (at least we plan to) and also have had a $25k increase in our income? Keep in mind that we will still be $23k under the median income. Also our chapter 13 plan is really tight. As a matter of fact we claimed a lot less expenses than we could have just to have disposable income to fund our plan.
Also, how likely are we to find someone that will rent to us with our bad credit and a bankruptcy? Our income will be a little over $94k and we need at least a four bedroom house which in our area will be in the $1700-$2300 range. We are also willing to put up 2x the rent for a security deposit and pay the first and last month's rent up front. Should we wait until after discharge to look for a rental or before we file to convert? I'm just worried that we will convert to chapter 7 and then find that no one will rent to us and be homeless.
Thanks.
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