Second thoughts on giving up house

[Donna123]

Good evening,

My hubby & I saw the attorney & now completing the paperwork to convert to ch 7.
At first my husband wanted to surrender the house, then after looking at apartments,
my husband not so sure he wants to move to an apartment. We are all set to file next week, however we have not made July's house payment. If we stayed we were gonna
pay in August. What I want to know is, can you file ch 7 & make arrangements with the lender to catch up 1 month of payments? Has anyone else had this situation? The lender is Bank of America.
Donna 123

[sh9730]

Dont know for sure....but my guess is if you can make it up before discharge you are probably ok....that is if you want to sign a reaffirmation agreement (Im not recommending this by they way). With my car I was behind and I was able to sign a reaff for it as long as I was current before discharge.

Now, even if you DONT do a reaff, I think that you still must fall further behind than one month before they will foreclose on you.....

[tobee43]

donna, i know this is an extremely difficult decision. one we were also faced with after living in our home for 33 years. we were actually in loan modification when we got served our foreclosure papers...nice! the right thing for us was to surrender the house, that may NOT be the case for everyone.

you and your husband need to do what is right for you, and if you feel keeping your home is the right thing to do, i would do so. it could be that bank of american may work with you as you are only 1 month behind. ask you atty ...but do not reaffirm the mortgage because if you do and your situation changes after your bk discharge you are stuck between a rock and a hard place forever and a day.

this is a good thread to read about why not to reaffirm: http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.ph...461#post532461

if you really want to keep the house, see what you can work out with the bank. best of luck!

[HomeNow2]

Read, read, read, read and READ. Along with the others, I would HIGHLY suggest that you do a ride thru. That is where you DO NOT reaffirm the mortgage but instead keep paying. So, catch up, pay on time and then whenever you decide you are done with the house you can simply walk away.....it was already discharged in the BK.

If you decide you want to keep the house, the mortgage has already been released in the BK but you keep paying, keep paying, keep paying and once it is paid off you are still on the title and then you own it free and clear.

Once you read up on a Ride Thru for your home I am sure you will have a crystal clear picture. Check it out!!!

Best of luck to you both :-)

[sunshinepa]

The big question would be......are you both sure you can afford to keep the house? If so and you really want to keep it, you should be able to make arrangements with the bank before discharge. You have some time and frankly, the banks really don't want any more houses, they are flooded with them. I have seen others post on being behind a month so I don't really think it's that big a deal.......what does your attorney say????

Just remember, do not reaffirm that mortgage so that in the future if you want to walk away, you can.

Best of luck.

[Donna123]

Thank you for all your input, we are just getting in. I know that we will not be reaffirming anything. In thinking with our head, downsizing would be the best move for us. I think my husband was more in shock at the limited space in some of the apartments we have looked at. Tobee33 thank you for the link, & sunshinepa , I think the answer is no, when you put in the cost of upkeep. Hopefully tomorrow we will
have time to talk & go over our situation realistically. I will let you all know how it goes.
Donna123

[tobee43]

Thank you for all your input, we are just getting in. I know that we will not be reaffirming anything. In thinking with our head, downsizing would be the best move for us. I think my husband was more in shock at the limited space in some of the apartments we have looked at. Tobee33 thank you for the link, & sunshinepa , I think the answer is no, when you put in the cost of upkeep. Hopefully tomorrow we will
have time to talk & go over our situation realistically. I will let you all know how it goes.
Donna123

please do donna! keep in touch and let us know how things are moving alone. most all of us here on this forum have experienced the emotional roller coaster of a bk. and know it's a difficult time for even the strongest! best of luck in what ever you decide.

[daylate]

The last thing BofA needs is another foreclosure to deal with. My guess is do the ride through-even at one month behind they are not going to foreclose in my opinion. They have so many problems a perpetually late one month mortgage will probably rank 511,329th on their list. Good luck.

[discouraged]

I decided to give up the house and should have received a sheriff's notice of sale last December. I still have heard nothing and have not paid since June 2010. Even after the Sheriff's sale, I will get to stay another six months. Hoping I don't hear until September or so as I don't look forward to moving in the winter but...just waiting to hear.

When I look back, I actually had more room in my old apartment! Had tons of closet space there. Now, even though I have a full basement, I've found that I can't keep a lot down there because all the rain we've had has caused some mold problems. So I am going to have to throw out those things that were ruined.

There is also the upkeep on a house that can financially ruin a person. Keep looking into the rentals would be my suggestion.

[Donna123]

I appreciate all your input & experiences. We know in our hearts, that giving up the house will be the only way for us to get a fresh start & live within our means, since we no longer have the extra income
from hubby's partime job. My husband is retirement age, so we are living off social security & my income,
as I still work, I am about 10 years from retirement. We are completing the schedule j, paperwork today.
I want to make sure everthing is accurate, some expenses less & others more so............have our work
cut out for us.
Donna123

[ValleYum]

I appreciate all your input & experiences. We know in our hearts, that giving up the house will be the only way for us to get a fresh start & live within our means, since we no longer have the extra income
from hubby's partime job. My husband is retirement age, so we are living off social security & my income,
as I still work, I am about 10 years from retirement. We are completing the schedule j, paperwork today.
I want to make sure everthing is accurate, some expenses less & others more so............have our work
cut out for us.
Donna123

{{{Hugs}}} Getting older isn't for wimps, is it? LOL Hang in there!!!

You can post your numbers in a new post later and let folks guide/critique you if you want.

[StartinOver]

Donna, I am surrendering a 3 bedroom lakefront home, with an attached garage and full basement. We have moved (prematurely, against recommendations to ride out the free rent til we're shoved out) into a 2 bedroom rental house with a yucky unusable dirt basement and a couple dirty little storage rooms in the attic. Although this is entirely against my will to release the house, I am finding it somewhat freeing to be rid of so much stuff to take care of and maintain. You might further consider how much too small the rentals seem to you. I'll be free of dusting a huge houseful of knickknacks (what a yardsale we just had!) and LIVING in a sweet little nest instead.

[sunshinepa]

I have found in my area, I can't rent anything for what I pay on my mortgage. I didn't reaffirm so the walk away option remains for me but I really want to stay. My neighbors are all like family and I do love my area.

LOl on the knickknacks StartinOver........I already reduced them in my house. Keep it all to a minimum and you would be surprised at how little dust shows on light oak furniture. Older I get, less hassle is the way I like it.

[tobee43]

StartinOver..we did the exact same thing and we are FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! freedom freedom freedom...no more maintenance of the place, no more huge electric and gas and oil bills..no more dusting!!!!!!!! 33 years and it was a ball and chain, no longer a home.

we have downsized and are so much more happy. it was the best decision we ever did...we left the bank with the black mold, the overflowing septic and leech fields...the cracked fountain. OH..that was nice in the spring we had our own waterfall...shooting water straight up out of the foundation. a real sight to be seen. sub prime...well it was better than sub pumping!!!

[Donna123]

We looked at a few more apartments & townhouses. Our experience with the leasing management. A couple of the management companies, one which was very nice said bk needed to beat least 6 years old. The second place the manager did not have a clue as to whether or not bankruptcy would be a deal breaker.
The third place the leasing manager stated just because you are bankrupt doesn't mean you don't need a place to live. We completed an application & received a call that we were was approved with a full months rent deposit.
My husband liked the place we were approved for. So we will be putting a deposit down & they are allowing us to pay toward the deposit. The only fly in the ointment, is that the place is available 10/11, a little soon. But will see how things go.
Donna123