What assets did the trustee take in your Ch 7?

[bktmom28]

Our trustee changed our case from no asset to asset pending our 2009 tax return. I am pretty bummed about that because we were looking forward to starting our savings, but that's ok. We will hang in there and I am looking forward to the end of the 60 days! Woo Hoo!

[miozelous]

My trustee took my time share which was paid in full. He also got back money from my first lawyer who did nothing on my case and I had paid him 3,000. How long do you think the trustee will try and sell the time share? I am discharged and waiting to close.

[justbroke]

Don't worry about the closing. The Trustee will try to sell the timeshare. It can take a year to close when there are assets to be administered. If you're unlucky, the Trustee may decide to abandon the timeshare (long shot, but possible).

[momisery]

If they want your tax refund, and your discharge is to happen on 12/27 that would be the 60 days, would they discharge you, and just put in that they want the refund? And what if you get 400 back from the feds, but owe the state? Would they take the fed refund and leave you with the due State taxes??

[bktmom28]

Our attorney pretty much said that it has to be a pretty decent refund for them to keep it. We have gotten good refunds the past few years, but I just don't think we will this year. Took a hardship withdrawal from our 401K, only can write off a few months of interest from our house. I just don't think it will be that much.

[FloridaGuy]

in Most Cases...

I agree w/Justbroke & the others... however it MAY depend on where you file, and the appointed Trustee. Our Chapter 7 was turned into an asset case... our home, belongings, vehicles were all appriased by the court (trustee). She even found some stock that was left to my wife, about 18 years ago which we didn't even remember or know the value of. We found out she has a national reputation for being difficult. Yep... found that out.

Our personal property was appraised over $25K.... which we KNEW was way off base... of course we could have kept it and paid the trustee appraised value, but we decided to surrender it. At auction, they got about $5K for everything.

I checked out the trustee's cases for 12 months prior... 95% of chapter 7's she was assigned were changed to asset, every one had appraisals, etc.

It cost me $150 in pacer charges to look at them... but I knew then what to expect after my nightmare began!

So... not to scare you as this is NOT the normal outcome, but you may want to see if you can find someone in your area familiar with the trustee's and how most cases go.

[beachymama]

I have the guy Trustee in Ft. Myers. Is he any better than the woman? Sheesh. I am going to have the appraisal done soon (still have to schedule) and I am shaking in my Crocs reading your post Steve!

Did you think your stuff was valuable before the appraisal? Was it just regular ol' furniture and electronics or was it more?

[FloridaGuy]

Ok...

You should be fine. My attorney had a few cases with him, that all got finished & closed while we were still struggling.

I valued as you should... garage sale, craigs list, etc. prices. Our biggest hit was on our vehicles. They were valued at about $15,000 for both. I had correctly valued them at about $4K - When sold at the auction... they were purchased for $1800, plus a couple hunrded in storage fee's.

Talk about PO'd!!

If you take a look at a few of my older posts, I had put some examples of what I had estimated, and the actual appraisal. Many items were less than I had estimated.

[beachymama]

Regarding vehicles, is he using the KBB prices for when you file or the date of appraisal?

At the 341, the trustee asked me about my vehicle. I bought a Nissan van back when gas prices were $4.00 plus a gallon (Aug 08) and Nissan had a 40% off MSRP deal. So I paid $17,100 for a van stickered at $30,095 or so. I put 0 down, just paid taxes so financed $19000. My previous car was turned in at lease end so no sale occurred to result in any financial windfall.

The trustee asked me if I put any money down and I said no, cause I didn't. He asked me what I paid, I said $17100. Of course I did not go into detail about how I only paid that amount, but maybe it triggered it like I was hiding something?

I don't know. I am reaffirming the vehicle which I owe $15,500 or so on and it was worth $16500 or so when I filed according to KBB.

[FloridaGuy]

Kbb

For us she used KBB... not the apraisal. It was the highest price in the book... the price you would BUY the vehicle at a dealer, fully reconditioned.

Our vehicles were actually on the low end of the scale, very high milage, etc. She didn't take anything like that into consideration.

So pricing was based soley on KBB. Not sure about "when"... but there won't be that much of a change in a couple months.

Since you are re-affirming... I don't think that would be a problem. Unless they are concerned about the amount of the payment. (i.e. you have too much extra money)

[beachymama]

I mistakenly thought they were looking at KBB private seller price or dealer trade-in price, not full resale from dealer price. Yikes!

Did the appraiser look at the decorations or just the furniture?

My stuff looks good in pictures even though it is at least 4-5 years old.

Do you have a link to the website of the online auction stuff.

I am curious. I am scared. Even though I did value things low, maybe too low?

Did you have to give anything to the appraiser, like proof of when you bought it, how much and where it was purchased? Or nothing?

Also, what about stuff purchased after filing? I bought some paintings and prints. They were all in the $20-$100 range each.

Here is a picture I just took last week of my family room.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=130248

[jribe]

You will be shocked! We had some guns that we THOUGHT were valuable. We took them to a pawn shop and they gave us a price we would refuse. lol... We were led to believe the would have real value when we bought them.. but they are worthless if you need to get rid of them. Sort of makes you re-think future purchases and the REAL value..

DONT take stuff to a pawn shop if you need to sell something. They won't give you a fair price for anything; they are there to make a deal themselves.

For guns, find a site like "cal guns.net" (obviously it's in CA) but i am sure other states have good ones too. We sold a 1911 handgun in about 2 hours, for $1000. You have to find a place dedicated to the item you're selling to get value out of it.

Same thing for the keyboard- if you really want to sell it, find the appropriate place to list it to get reasonable money for it.

And IMHO- never sell something that you're going to want to purchase again. Why pay for it twice?

[FloridaGuy]

Beachymama...

The appraisal was actually pretty easy, the appraiser was friendly, and had actually been a customer of mine in my business, (Which closed just prior to the BK) so that was a little uncomfortable for me.

She basically walked all around the interior of the house, took pictures and wrote notes. She did look in closets, but not in dresser drawers. She did ask to see my wifes jewelry & wedding ring.

During the paperwork, remember you had to value your belongings. She had a copy of that, but looked at pretty much everything. (books, pictures on wall, furniture, decorations, computers, etc) She did ask approximate age of items, but not for any documentataion. She did look at all kitchen dishes, appliances, small appliances, etc.

As far as the new prints, etc. - Not to be critical.. but WHY would you buy stuff like that after filing? Those type of items are not necessary, and if you have extra money to be able to spend... that is bad in any trustee's eyes. I wouldn't be dishonest... but I also wouldn't say I just bought them to the appriaser. They have been doing it for a while... and will usually know approximate age of things, too. Just because they see property every day.

Sorry, no auction links. I did get paperwork they sent out about the auction where you could see photos taken by the appraiser. PLUS... (I forgot!) They actually called and ask ME to take a couple additional photo's for the stuff I was surrendering. Those were on the auction site as well.

But... don't get ahead of yourself... wait for the appraisal and see what happens. You may be fine.

[toomuchd]

I've never heard of the tt sending someone to your home to appraise your belongings, do they do that in all states, I live in Minnesota, and our attorney didn't say anything about someone coming to our home.
Only my husband is filing, so how do they figure out what is his and what is mine? (my assets are most of the stuff in the house and his is mostly the house itself.

[justbroke]

I've never heard of the tt sending someone to your home to appraise your belongings, do they do that in all states,

It is seldomly done. The only time that it's done is if the Trustee decides to do an audit. This is usually when the Trustee doesn't like the Debtor's assignment of value. Again it's not done often.