I have been lurking for a couple weeks and researching and learning all about the BK process and trying to figure out what we should expect. After speaking with 3 different lawyers and finally choosing one, at his advice we will file Ch7 and stopped paying the CC's for the first time on May 20th to begin to save for the retainer. The creditors are already calling and it's making me nervous... we haven't had any late payments in over a year and even before then it was only 1 or 2...I didn't expect them to start calling so soon! Of course, we were robbing Peter to pay Paul to make sure we always had the CC payments in line and were constantly falling behind on utilities and other things that could slide. DH was put on work share in January and now with less than 40 hours we can't keep up...there's no where to rob from anymore, no more loans to get and no more home equity.
What is confusing is that we own a 2 family home that we rent out...we are upside down after the 2nd mortgage. It IS worth what we owe on the 1st mortgage. We bring in $290 after those mortgages are paid from rental income. We live (rent) a different house in a much nicer neighborhood with way better schools for the same amount that we pay for the 1st & 2nd mortgages. For the 1st time ever last month we were unable to make our mortgage payment. I am terrified of what will happen if we don't file asap...and I would love to keep the house, but with the 2nd mortgage we aren't making enough income to even perform basic maintenance. We have no savings and if something major were to happen now that we've stopped paying on the CC's, we would be totally screwed. Is there some way to keep the 1st mortgage and discharge the 2nd? We want to be able to buy another house within the next 5 years and the rental income from that house would help us immensely if somehow we could get rid of the 2nd mortgage...we have great tenants that have paid on time for the past 3 years, I feel awful having to tell them we would be losing the house. I can't imagine what I would think if my LL did that to me...
Thanks for any advice and for this forum, reading these posts have really made even thinking about filing so much less stressful knowing we are not alone.
What is confusing is that we own a 2 family home that we rent out...we are upside down after the 2nd mortgage. It IS worth what we owe on the 1st mortgage. We bring in $290 after those mortgages are paid from rental income. We live (rent) a different house in a much nicer neighborhood with way better schools for the same amount that we pay for the 1st & 2nd mortgages. For the 1st time ever last month we were unable to make our mortgage payment. I am terrified of what will happen if we don't file asap...and I would love to keep the house, but with the 2nd mortgage we aren't making enough income to even perform basic maintenance. We have no savings and if something major were to happen now that we've stopped paying on the CC's, we would be totally screwed. Is there some way to keep the 1st mortgage and discharge the 2nd? We want to be able to buy another house within the next 5 years and the rental income from that house would help us immensely if somehow we could get rid of the 2nd mortgage...we have great tenants that have paid on time for the past 3 years, I feel awful having to tell them we would be losing the house. I can't imagine what I would think if my LL did that to me...
Thanks for any advice and for this forum, reading these posts have really made even thinking about filing so much less stressful knowing we are not alone.
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