bk 7 and giving up house

[doglover1970]

I (wife and I) are about to retain an attorney and file a chapter 7 bk (next few days with tax refund). We are 3 to 4 months behind on our mortage (we plan to let the house go, as we can no longer afford it). My question(s) are how long do we have in the home? What is the best idea(s) about moving out before the ch 7. We are planning on moving into a condo or townhome. Would it be better to get approved before we lose the house, or do we still have several months to try and put a little money away?

[goblue]

Here in IL -- I stopped payment my mortgage in Sept 09. 1st mortgage started foreclosure process when I was 90 days late. The officially served me on January 26, 2010 - -the same day I was meeting with my attorney to finalize our paperwork. At that point, he said I probably had almost a year before we would be evicted. We did find a rental property and are moving this month because we have 3 dogs and worried about finding someone willing to work with us if we waited too long.

I was surprised at how long the process takes here in Illinois, at least.

Good luck.

[BananaCabana]

goblue-how hard was it for you to find a place to rent with three dogs? We have five children, two dogs and 5 cats and are extremely worried about losing the house and trying to find someone to rent to us. We already found homes for one cat and one dog as we used to have 6 cats and three dogs. Add that onto a bankruptcy and

[JJ888]

I think it really depends on the lender.. Similar to your situation, we stopped paying July 2009 for our 1st and 2nd mortgage. Until now, we haven't received any Notice of Default in the mail, they just call 3 times a day, until we filed for BK. Right now, we're saving up money just in case the time comes that we have to move. GL!

[goblue]

goblue-how hard was it for you to find a place to rent with three dogs? We have five children, two dogs and 5 cats and are extremely worried about losing the house and trying to find someone to rent to us. We already found homes for one cat and one dog as we used to have 6 cats and three dogs. Add that onto a bankruptcy and

Honestly - it wasn't as hard as we expected. We are paying extra monthly rent (instead of larger security deposit) for the dogs though. We were specifically looking for owners willing to work with pets and had our realtor ask ahead of us going to look at the houses. Regarding the credit....the majority of other applicants looking at the houses had credit issues too...in fact, our realtor said we must have less "fleas" than others because we were at the top of some lists.

Just be honest and find a way to give the owners some comfort in that your pets won't damage their property.

[SPalin]

I (wife and I) are about to retain an attorney and file a chapter 7 bk (next few days with tax refund). We are 3 to 4 months behind on our mortage (we plan to let the house go, as we can no longer afford it). My question(s) are how long do we have in the home? What is the best idea(s) about moving out before the ch 7. We are planning on moving into a condo or townhome. Would it be better to get approved before we lose the house, or do we still have several months to try and put a little money away?

It all depends upon where you live... I have a coworker that has not paid her mortgage in over 1.5 years and have been discharged Chp7 for over 4 months and the foreclosure process has not started. Once it does start, at least in Cali you have 90 days... I have been putting my mortgage payment away for several months for the move. I only have a dog and cat, so that will be a separate deposit for them, oh well.

[JJ888]

Got discharged 3/31/2010. Yesterday afternoon they posted NOD at my door. Let the foreclosure begin.