New Member with questions

[dianissima]

I have been reading this forum for few weeks and so grateful that I found it! You are all great. I'm still confused, but ready to ask my questions. Short story: I lost my job last February, My husband lost his job this Jan. We have 2 kids and mortgages ( both First and second) and they are with the same lender (BAC) which is about 10 % up side down, or who knows? Per Zillow we still have some breathing point. We already retained BK attorney and he said that we are simple chapter 7 case, However we made about 110K last year, and 145 K on 2008 and 2007. He said that once we fill fill out the papers he will figure out when to file, perhaps March or April. We are just waiting to see if we will have any Tax Refund. My questions are:
How accurate his prediction may be that we are Chapter 7 case ?
What to do with the mortgage ? He mentioned that we will have a chance to walk away if we want.
Can we keep the house but discharge the 2-nd which is about 27K. We are also trying to modify the Mortgage, we are not behind yet, and expecting some modification papers by Mid March. HE said that we must first clarify with the mortgage, so if BAC is not willing to deal with us we will just file as is. I have been trying to modify since last year but we"maid too much money for them", despite our huge debts 85K). We stopped paying credit cards (just cannot do it and all creditors are calling us 25 times a day and we are ignoring those calls.

What happen if my husband will find a job which will pay less than previous job but more than unemployment?
And the last questions is how possible it is to find a job after chapter 7?
We are not in finance, but software and services. I know it is too much to ask...
Will appreciate any input.
Thank you,

[whipster1]

The only problem you may have is if you accumulated a lot of assets during the good years...do you have a lot of cars, boats, four-wheelers, etc? Extra property at the beach? You will invite extra scrutiny from the UST looking for any assets, other than that your attorney is correct to let the time pass since losing the jobs to let that income fall off the six-months lookback period.

Good luck!

[SMinGA]

As to the 2nd mortgage... If your house is worth less than what you owe in the 1st mortgage, you may be able to 'strip' the 2nd and have it discharged as unsecured debt. But that is only in a ch. 13 repayment plan.

Whether you 'qualify' for ch. 7 depends on what your disposable income (not counting credit card payments and such) is. Also, if you are above the median income for your state & family size, a ch. 7 can be a little more complicated. That looks at income for the 6 months prior to filing.

[momofthree]

I don't think you can qualify for a chapter 13 using unemployment as income, so that would put you into a 7. As previously mentioned, you cannot have a 2nd mortgage lien stripped in a chapter 7 bankruptcy.

I could be wrong about not being able to go the 13 route, but it is called a "wage earners plan" and you do have to have a consistent source of income for 3-5 years, and I don't see how unemployment would qualify you for that.

I think you can rest easy that you'll be a chapter 7, you just need to wait a few months (as your attny has already advised you) for your 6-month lookback to reflect the lower income.

GL!

[dianissima]

Thanks

All ! Thanks for the answers. We don't have any assest, just 2 modest cars. We used all 401 K last year when I lost my main job to pay for the mortage and other life expences. I will keep you posted opnce we will talk to Attny and he run our numbers again. We may have clear picture in couple weeks or so.
As far as Job search goes do you think that BK can really affect your ability to fin a job ? This is the scarriest thing that can happen... But we really don't have other choice than filing BK.