Decision Time!!

[JTinSM]

First post, hence the title! From reading some of these threads, it's obvious this disaster of an economy has taken its toll, and that is why I decided to join bk forum! My situation is not all that different but still undecided on what to do...

Live in California and have a rental property. Haven't paid the mortgage since late last year and am trying to get the lender to modify the loan. Unfortunately it is through ASC so you can see my problem here. It doesn't appear they will modify but have been working on it since mortgage payments stopped.

Because of the rental and losing two jobs in three years, the credit cards are upwards of 50k.

One thing I'm pretty certain of is the rental has to go whether through short sale or foreclosure. This is the largest monthly expense by far! And to make matters worse, the renter lost her job (recently found a job) and is behind my three months!

Since my credit is already on the slide (was over 700) I'm thinking bk is the lesser of the two evils from foreclosure, since I will still have all the debt after a foreclosure.

For anyone struggling with these decisions, your input and advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Drazil65]

Welcome, every one of us on here are here because we struggled at some point with the same decision. Sit down and put it on paper, setup at least 2 or 3 (or more if you need to) free consults with attorneys (ask lots of questions), search and setup Google Voice (in case you file, its free). After talking it out and hearing your options with the attorneys, seeing it all laid out on paper and taking in the stress factor of all this everyday you should have your answer.

The one thing I heard over and over on this site when we were at the beginning of things and trying to make decisions was that everyone that went through with BK (mostly for Chp 7 filings) they wished they had done it sooner! I now am in that category and we were just discharged and closed this week and cannot for the life of me figure out why we waited so long! Good Luck!

[basketsbears]

Drazil I'm so happy for you! I cannot wait to file.

Congrats!

Lynn

[basketsbears]

JT. We will be filing this summer due to a rental property we have. Our mortgage is withBOA need I say more. It has been a year and a half since we paid mortgage we have no idea when they will foreclose. I don't have much advice, but this board is a wealth of information. Best wishes and welcome!

First post, hence the title! From reading some of these threads, it's obvious this disaster of an economy has taken its toll, and that is why I decided to join bk forum! My situation is not all that different but still undecided on what to do...

Live in California and have a rental property. Haven't paid the mortgage since late last year and am trying to get the lender to modify the loan. Unfortunately it is through ASC so you can see my problem here. It doesn't appear they will modify but have been working on it since mortgage payments stopped.

Because of the rental and losing two jobs in three years, the credit cards are upwards of 50k.

One thing I'm pretty certain of is the rental has to go whether through short sale or foreclosure. This is the largest monthly expense by far! And to make matters worse, the renter lost her job (recently found a job) and is behind my three months!

Since my credit is already on the slide (was over 700) I'm thinking bk is the lesser of the two evils from foreclosure, since I will still have all the debt after a foreclosure.

For anyone struggling with these decisions, your input and advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Drazil65]

Thank you Lynn, its a great feeling for sure!

[btbeme]

Lets start at the top. Are you fairly certain that you will be able to do a CH 7? Income and expenses and assets are OK? What can you tell us about those?

As far as the rental, since you haven't been paying on it for a while, it may be hard to claim as an expense; however, any personal liability will go away with a successful Ch 7. And, any action - foreclosure, short sale, or otherwise - will immediately stop once you file, so let's plan accordingly.

[JTinSM]

Thank you so much. This is good advise. I'm sure more questions will follow as we dive in!

[JTinSM]

Thank you Basketsbears!

[JTinSM]

Thank you BTBEME! We had one consult already and it appears we would qualify for Ch 7. If we walk away from the rental we may be able to bring our cc debt in line and eventually pay it off. But if I'm going to take such a large hit on my credit anyway due to fc the bk is a serious consideration to "start over."

We really have no assets other than our vehicles that are paid off and the material items we have in our home.