Indiana Homestead Exemption Question

[heidinicole]

My husband and I are looking in to filing Ch.7. We have some consults scheduled but they aren't for 2 weeks and I wondered if someone here might know the answer to this.

My understanding is that Indiana offers a homestead exemption of 15,000 per person. Our house has approx. 20,000 in equity, but my name is not on it. Will I be allowed to use my exemption toward our house even though it is only in my husbands name?

This really has me stressed, I am terrified that we could lose our house over something that I never thought would be an issue.

[Chicken123]

Dh and I are looking into a Chapter 7/Leaning more toward a Chapter 13 - but due to our home being $5000.00 over the allowed limit, we haven't decided yet. (Also live in Indiana) - What I suggest you do if you can, is have him quit claim deed it from himself to the both of you. This is what my attorney suggested to us, since our home was in my name and not my husbands. It did cost me $100.00 for the attorney to do a deed for me, and then $20.00 bucks to have it noted and entered at our county courthouse, but it was worth the $120.00 since I know now I can keep my house.

Also, make sure you have a real estate appraisel on your property...bottom line dollar, not what "they" think you could get for it on the open market.
If you have any more questions, just let me know...since we are both in Indiana maybe we can help each other out., with questions!

[Kkole425]

Indiana here also. Just starting out the road to recovery. Don't have any answers to the questions but just wanted you to know you are not alone.

[heidinicole]

Dh and I are looking into a Chapter 7/Leaning more toward a Chapter 13 - but due to our home being $5000.00 over the allowed limit, we haven't decided yet. (Also live in Indiana) - What I suggest you do if you can, is have him quit claim deed it from himself to the both of you. This is what my attorney suggested to us, since our home was in my name and not my husbands. It did cost me $100.00 for the attorney to do a deed for me, and then $20.00 bucks to have it noted and entered at our county courthouse, but it was worth the $120.00 since I know now I can keep my house.

Also, make sure you have a real estate appraisel on your property...bottom line dollar, not what "they" think you could get for it on the open market.
If you have any more questions, just let me know...since we are both in Indiana maybe we can help each other out., with questions!

I was hoping that might be an option and I'm glad to hear that an atty suggested it.

I keep reading online that some mortgage companies may not allow it and the mortgage may come due if the title is changed...have you heard anything like that? My husband called Wells Fargo today and they said it wouldn't cause any problems to add me, but I'd really like to have that in writing before we do it.

I hate that others are dealing with this but it comforts me a little to know that someone is in a similar situation and it isn't a lost cause. As I said before I haven't had the consult yet, but Ch. 13 is completely pointless for us as we literally have pennies left over after paying all of the normal house/food/car stuff.

[Chicken123]

Heidi - I guess your best option is to just go in and talk to Wells Fargo, and make sure it is okay with them. I take it you are still planning on keeping your house? And I'm sure they will put it in writing for you, my situation is a little different since our house is paid for and we don't owe anyone any money on it. But after talking to our attorney, he assured me that either way dh and I decide to go, we can still keep the house..we will just have to pay the difference, ie: $5000.00. Are you planning on filing soon? If you are I'd get the ball rolling on the quit claim deed that way it doesn't look like it was an after thought....How are you doing with all of the receipts and paperwork? It can be pretty overwhelming, I'm about ready to pull my hair out, lol!

[heidinicole]

We will probably file around Nov. b/c DH has a commission based job and we need to file when the 6mo. period doesn't include only the good months...LOL. I have started on getting everything together and it's making me crazy too...I am so overwhelmed and I really hate that we have to put it off until the end of the year. We for sure want to keep the house, so we will do what we can to make that happen. Depending on how they determine equity we might be ok, b/c the 20000 in equity was based on the assessed value. It all makes my head spin LOL. Where in IN are you? We're in Evansville (southwestern IN). I have heard that this area is "bk friendly". Lets hope so!

[LuciluS]

We use to live in Southeastern Indiana. My husband was born in Batesville, but raised in Dillsboro, IN. I'm from AR and we vacationed in North Little Rock, AR and visited various other cities. On the way back to IN, hubby said he really like AR. Didn't take me but 2 mths. to find him a job on the internet and we moved in 10/04. The year 2003 where there was 13 inches of snow on the ground for 3 weeks was a tad bit too much for me LOL!

I wanted to chime in on the paperwork. It is a Nightmare and I've been working on it since late last Sept. We will be filing in 9/30 of this year so we also can let some income drop off. We are using the Federal exemptions as AR allows either one and Fed. is better for us.

As for using the assessed value of your home. It is always higher. As a poster has suggested, call a real estate company and ask for a free written CMA. It's where a real estate agent comes out to your home. Make sure you are there and point out all the bad (not try to be derogatory here) things with your home. Betcha will find it is a lot less.

I've been reading about Elkhart, IN with all the RV manufacturing plants shut down. I was so shocked when I moved to IN as Real Estate Tax & the prices of homes are like triple the amount in Arkansas. Of course, our Median Income is a lot let less too.

Wish all of you the Best of Luck in your BKs'

Luci

[Chicken123]

Good point Luci! This is so true, on the real estate assesment. By explaining and pointing out all the imperfections, ie: needs new roof badly, major kitchen remodel, it knocked about 20,000 off the "market value" on our home. Of course her in po-dunk ville, a home our size and with our land is only bringing anywhere from 30,000 to 45,000...our house isn't worth much, the land is the $'s., and it's not even farmable. The realtor had to go back almost a year for comps, and all of those were bank repo's. Real estate is very slow in this area, there are homes a couple of miles from here, that I know have been on the market for 1 to 2 years and they are still on the market. It just amazes me tho' what some of these realtors think people can get out of there homes, there is one in the county that the roof is falling in, maybe a 8' strip of grass for a yard, needs new siding, new paint, and I think it's been sitting empty for a couple of years now and they've got it listed at $80,000, whatever!