If you own a house and filed Chapter 7...

[keepinitreal]

...how did you come up with the value of your home on your bankruptcy forms?

Did you use a real estate appraiser, county auditor website, zillow.com?

Thanks!

[BobMango]

Our attorney had us contact a realtor for a market assessment.

[NoMoreCards]

My attorney used Zillow. You'd have to talk to your attorney to see what they want in your district.

[keepinitreal]

Thanks!

[Broke1]

I would like to add on to this question. In my state I get a 20k exemption on home equity. County auditor says my house is worth the mortgage balance. Zillow says I'm
23k over the mortgage balance and a realtor is in the middle. Are closing costs and realtor fees factored into the exemption or are they subtracted from the market value? I would hate to be told that I'm a few thousand over the exemption amount and would have to fork over the house. Can anyone explain how the valuation works?

[merlotwaytogo]

I live in Ct. I had to have a realtor come out and give me a fair market value appraisal. I didn't know her and told her I was thinking about selling.

[want2save]

I took my last year's tax bill (as I filed in May and the new one did not come out until late Oct) and deducted 20% for the market drop. The fair market value last year according to the assessor was $406. 80% was $324,800, so I used a value of $330. I was going to use $349 but my lawyer said the important thing was not to value it too high. In my state the exemption is $30,000 plus the trustee figues 9 to 10% for cost of sale.That became $330 for the real estate, plus $30 for the exemption + approx $30 for closing costs (real estae commission, etc.). I knew I was ok as that totalled $390.

Lots of folks criticize Zillow as being too high or too low, but they were RIGHT ON for my rural home on 6 acres. Zillow shows $383 right now. The FHA appraisal for my HECM Reverse Mortgage just came in at $385. Remarkable! My new tax bill arrived and the assessor says fair market value dropped to $331,130. As you can see there seems to be quite a range in opinion. This does not answer any questions, just gives you my experience.