Keeping Home in a 7

[cc8225]

Our home is underwater by 30,000. Is it possible to file a chapter 7 and keep the house?

Thanks.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Yes it is. Are you a homestead state? What state are you in? Read all the stickies on the front of each forum you are interested in. Many questions a a bit of education will be there. Also the search feature will help you.

You can reaffirm your mortgage which is not recommended in case your financial system gets worse as you will be stuck with it, or, you can "pay through" and that means keep the payments current, they won't take the house from you, and it has negative value so the Trustee won't want it, it is not an asset. The good thing on paying through, is, if you need to after your discharge, you can walk away from it without being sued. 'Hub

Welcome to the BKForum

[thereshope]

Yes, I filed ch 7 and I'm keeping mine, I also owe more than it's worth because it's lost it's value.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Yes, I filed ch 7 and I'm keeping mine, I also owe more than it's worth because it's lost it's value.

What I don't understand, is, a house is NOT an investment egg. The value of a house is what you consider it as you have to live there or someplace. So if you purchased it at X dollars, it was worth that at the time. Now it is <X but it should not matter (as long as you have the money to pay it) as it has not changed as a house. It is the same as it was before. Only numbers have changed. The day of the old folks selling their Norther home for profit and buying cheap in FL are over. I never considered my house/s as a 401K. Only an observation about what people think of devaluation of real estate. 'Hub

[cc8225]

Thank you all for the advise. i am in the state of Maryland.

[liz417]

Hi CC and welcome to this forum

As the others have stated, yes, you can keep your house. I kept my house although it is underwater (not as much as others here), BUT I did not reaffirm just in case I decide to "walk away" at a later time if the housing market doesn't turn around.

Good Luck!

[readytofile]

Thank you all for the advise. i am in the state of Maryland.

I too am in maryland. Yes you can keep your house. We are keeping ours without reaffirming UNLESS they are willing to sweeten the deal by adjusting our terms.

[want2save]

Along this line. I am now discharged. I have a little equity in my home. In OR where I live, real estate is not reaffirmed. I stated that I planned to keep the home and on my credit reports it does not show IIB, but shows the balances, current, and never late. Is this considered a "pay through" so that if I walked away the HELOC holder could not come after me for any shortage?

I plan to pay off the HELOC with my IRA and do a reverse mortgage, but would like to know the answer to this in case my reverse mortgage comes in $100 low or some horrible thing.....(That would be on TOP of the $75k drop the tax assossor shows from last year, real market value which I expected.)