I have another question about my vehicles.

[adviceplease]

I am going to retain in a couple weeks and I was wondering if the lawyer is going to figure out the value of my vehicles or if I have to do it? I have a car that is not running (I told the lawyer this because I have several cars and this one is paid off but stopped running) and they asked how much it was worth if parted out.

Well I told them but I then talked to my hubby and he says it would be only a couple hundred dollars to fix so this brings the car from junker to good at private value (I having no ideas about cars thought is was worse than it is).

Also my hubby has done a lot of modifications to it over the 10 years he has owned it like a bigger engine etc than the original car came with. There is no option to put this stuff in KBB.com so do I just base the car on what it came with out of the factory or do I need to find out how much the new engine is worth? I just do not want to go in front of the trustee and make the car worth less than it is.

We had looked into selling it privately at one point when it worked better and no one wanted it because it is a gas guzzler.

[backtoschool]

Just put the private sale kbb.com price down. That is a good indication of what the trustee would expect to get for the car.

[want2save]

Why would the trustee expect to get the private party price? My attorney tells me the trustee does not run a used car lot and will wholesale the vehicles to get rid of them and get the case closed.

[backtoschool]

Why would the trustee expect to get the private party price? My attorney tells me the trustee does not run a used car lot and will wholesale the vehicles to get rid of them and get the case closed.

My lawyer told me that the trustee expects to see the private party price for any car being claimed as an exemption or an asset on the petition or for any asset transfers that occurred within two years of filing. For example, the trustee does not want you to value your car at scrap metal value to keep it within exemption limits, and does not want you to value your car at scrap metal value and sell it to your mother at that price. Both of those scenarios would be red flags.

[want2save]

This is correct for setting the exemption value. I did this for my van which I wanted to buy back. The value is $8,000. I have an exemption of $2150. This leaves a balance of $5,850. My attorney suggested I offer $4,500. This was accepted with 10 payments of $450, no interest. A family member will pay this off for me so as not to keep the case open for the 10 months. I pay for the car in Sept. If someone were to bid 10% OVER what I offered plus my exemption than I would lose the car. The chance of this happening is remote since only folks reading court cases would know about it, and that price would not be a great bargain anyway.

[backtoschool]

This is correct for setting the exemption value. I did this for my van which I wanted to buy back. The value is $8,000. I have an exemption of $2150. This leaves a balance of $5,850. My attorney suggested I offer $4,500. This was accepted with 10 payments of $450, no interest. A family member will pay this off for me so as not to keep the case open for the 10 months. I pay for the car in Sept. If someone were to bid 10% OVER what I offered plus my exemption than I would lose the car. The chance of this happening is remote since only folks reading court cases would know about it, and that price would not be a great bargain anyway.

Yes I agree with you. You can often bargain with the trustee to buy back your assets that are over the exemptions. The trustee would rather make a deal with you than deal with trying to sell the car in an auction, etc.

[pcn]

This is correct for setting the exemption value. I did this for my van which I wanted to buy back. The value is $8,000. I have an exemption of $2150. This leaves a balance of $5,850. My attorney suggested I offer $4,500. This was accepted with 10 payments of $450, no interest. A family member will pay this off for me so as not to keep the case open for the 10 months. I pay for the car in Sept. If someone were to bid 10% OVER what I offered plus my exemption than I would lose the car. The chance of this happening is remote since only folks reading court cases would know about it, and that price would not be a great bargain anyway.

So even if you work a deal, the trustee will go to the trouble and expense of trying to auction it? And if its not running, who is responsible to get it to the place of sale? I'm interested becasue I have a non running vehicle I would like to keep, maybe valued at $800 as is. If I have to load it up and cart it off to a sale, just to buy it back, I might as well say "come and get it, you can have it".

[Chowder]

I am going to retain in a couple weeks and I was wondering if the lawyer is going to figure out the value of my vehicles or if I have to do it? I have a car that is not running (I told the lawyer this because I have several cars and this one is paid off but stopped running) and they asked how much it was worth if parted out.

Well I told them but I then talked to my hubby and he says it would be only a couple hundred dollars to fix so this brings the car from junker to good at private value (I having no ideas about cars thought is was worse than it is).

Also my hubby has done a lot of modifications to it over the 10 years he has owned it like a bigger engine etc than the original car came with. There is no option to put this stuff in KBB.com so do I just base the car on what it came with out of the factory or do I need to find out how much the new engine is worth? I just do not want to go in front of the trustee and make the car worth less than it is.

We had looked into selling it privately at one point when it worked better and no one wanted it because it is a gas guzzler.

Often they are worth more parted out.

I used "rough trade in" value on my 2004 Chrysler. It too had mechanical issues. Original estimates were close to $1000. to repair.
After the 341 and the trustee declared me a no asset. I had it repaired for $400.

[want2save]

The Trustee is not trying to auction my van. It states in the order filed in the court case that it could be sold to a bidder for 10% more than I am paying. Unless someone is trolling court cases and hoping to find a "steal" to buy a vehicle sight unseen (the vehicle is still in my position and our discharge is due in less than 3 weeks) I doubt that this ever happens.

[tinfoilhat]

I am going to retain in a couple weeks and I was wondering if the lawyer is going to figure out the value of my vehicles or if I have to do it? I have a car that is not running (I told the lawyer this because I have several cars and this one is paid off but stopped running) and they asked how much it was worth if parted out.

Well I told them but I then talked to my hubby and he says it would be only a couple hundred dollars to fix so this brings the car from junker to good at private value (I having no ideas about cars thought is was worse than it is).

Also my hubby has done a lot of modifications to it over the 10 years he has owned it like a bigger engine etc than the original car came with. There is no option to put this stuff in KBB.com so do I just base the car on what it came with out of the factory or do I need to find out how much the new engine is worth? I just do not want to go in front of the trustee and make the car worth less than it is.

We had looked into selling it privately at one point when it worked better and no one wanted it because it is a gas guzzler.

You need to list it as it was when it came out of the factory.
No one is going to ask if it's been modified so don't volunteer that info.
I am 100% certain that no one here can predict what your trustee is going to do.
I asked how to value a car and was given advice, looking at the advice I was given I noticed that every possible option was mentioned leaving me with no answer.
I said screw it. My trustee asked how I came to the value of a car I recently sold, and I told him from trying for 18 months to sell it at a higher price.
For my other two vehicles I used kbb trade in, year, make, model, no options, condition. He abandoned interest no questions asked.

I just do not want to go in front of the trustee and make the car worth less than it is.

Actually you don't want to make it worth more than what it is.

It also depends on what kind of car it is.
My lawyer said if worse comes to worse the trustee will have his wholesaler look at the car. Thats who sells it and many others. This person knows what he'll get out of it.
If you want to keep it, list it as stock, no options.

[adviceplease]

I want to keep it because it is paid off, what happens if they want to look at it and realize that it has a lot more to it than I said.

[tinfoilhat]

I want to keep it because it is paid off, what happens if they want to look at it and realize that it has a lot more to it than I said.

It would really help to know what it is.

A few years before I filed I had a 10 second, big block chevy powered 1975 nova. If I had it during my bk it would have been listed as original factory equipped with exempted mileage. I guarantee no one would be rushing out to look at that.

All three vehicles in my bk are modified, I listed them as kbb trade in with no options. My truck was valued at under $800, it has a completely rebuilt 454 with 17,000 miles, rebuilt 4L80E. Engine and trans could sell for $2000 easy and I'd be stupid to let it go for that cheap. It was listed as the odometer reads- 250,000 miles. The trustee didn't look twice at it.

[hereforinfo]

I wouldn't worry about valuing the modifications because they probably won't have value to anyone but you. In fact, in some cases they may devalue a car because most people prefer to have only factory-installed parts and equipment so they don't have to worry about anyone having done something sub-par or they aren't willing to pay extra for some feature they don't necessarily even want.

[adviceplease]

It is a mustang that my hubby put a 365 in years back. The original miles on it are over 150,000 but the new speedometer says only 14,000 or so.

[Chowder]

Those old speedos had no 6th digit. Make it 114,000 miles, or better yet, 214,000.