Home Lease with option to buy

[michiganmom]

Anyone else go through a Chapter 7 and had a home lease agreement with the option to buy?
Back about 9 months ago we initially met with our attorney and he recommended that we sell our house and get into a lease/land contract agreement that would be in our budget amount as we were spending $2300 a month on our first and second mortgage. We got our home up for sale and in the meantime found a home that the owners were willing to do a lease with option to buy agreement so put $6000 down and entered into the agreement with $825 monthly payments. As of January, our old house foreclosed which went through the bankruptcy.
At our 341 yesterday the TT wanted the lease with option to buy agreement sent to him. (Which we did last night ) He wanted to know amt $ we put down and told him $6500 (which really was $6000) and when we could buy out the lease... told him 3 years.. which later read the agreement and we have up to 4 years. and wanted to know the buyout amount which I told him $65,000. (approx)
Is there something specific he is looking for? Is this going to hurt our chapter 7? What is going to happen? Will he treat this as a rental agreement? Any insight would be great as I am probably over reacting! I hope there wasnt anything wrong by us doing this as we thought we were doing the right thing to cut our expenses for housing costs.

We entered into this house agreement 8-09 and filed for chapter 7 on 2-4-10. 341 - 3-16-10

[SMinGA]

Perhaps he is trying to calculate your equity?

We did a lease to buy, and it worked out to be a great thing for us. Not BK related though. When we got our home mortgage, it was treated as a refi instead of new purchase. And since our seller was GREAT he kept our original terms. Even though it took us 4 yrs to be able to do it, instead of the originally agreed upon 2. The $225/mo lease credit added up, and he stuck to the price we agreed to in 2002 which was below what it appraised for then. So by the end of 2006, we were able to get a loan at 80% LTV, no PMI, and got a (little) cash at closing after fees.

Fast forward 3 more years, and I doubt we have that 20% equity any longer but we're better off than many are in the current housing market.

[michiganmom]

I dont think we have any equity in it since we technically dont own it yet. I am hoping this is is a win-win situation since the owners had to get out of it and we needed something like this to get into. We hopefully plan on refinacing when we are able to do so. We hope within a year. It will be just a matter of getting the financing and saving up the 20% down payment.

[SMinGA]

That may be why he wanted to see the contract - just brainstorming. I imagine how it was written could be important. Like if its an actual lease to purchase, or if it was written as private financing?

You may need at least 1 yr post filing before doing the loan - at least waiting til then will probably result in a better rate. And check your contract, the downpayment already made should count for something...

[michiganmom]

I am positive that it was written as lease to purchase.. and yes the $6000 down will be applied to balance owed when we decide to purchase from the owners. The $825 that we pay montly includes the taxes and interst paid to cover the mortgage that they currently have with their bank on the property. Thank you SMinGA