After serious consideration it looks like we may have no choice but to stop making our mortgage payments. Here is our situation in a nutshell:
1st mortgage (IBM LBPS): 155k
2nd morgage (GMAC): 33k - non-purchase money loan
Home's value: ~$154k.
We've decided we do not want to keep the home but we'd like to stay in it as long as possible in order to pay down medical and consumer debt. I have a few questions about our situation.
1) Will the 2nd automatically become unsecured debt after the auction? If so, and they pursue a deficiency judgement, does this mean we owe them the full amount or that they 1099 us for the full amount? What is a "charge off" and how does it fit into all this? I'm a little unclear on this part of the process.
2) Would it be best NOT to pay down consumer debt so that we can still qualify for Ch 7 in the event that we are liable for the full amount? The downside of that is that we would have built up a savings which could be lost in a BK. Not to mention that after the F/C we probably would no longer qualify for a Ch 7. Looks like quite a pickle. Are there any options I'm not considering?
1st mortgage (IBM LBPS): 155k
2nd morgage (GMAC): 33k - non-purchase money loan
Home's value: ~$154k.
We've decided we do not want to keep the home but we'd like to stay in it as long as possible in order to pay down medical and consumer debt. I have a few questions about our situation.
1) Will the 2nd automatically become unsecured debt after the auction? If so, and they pursue a deficiency judgement, does this mean we owe them the full amount or that they 1099 us for the full amount? What is a "charge off" and how does it fit into all this? I'm a little unclear on this part of the process.
2) Would it be best NOT to pay down consumer debt so that we can still qualify for Ch 7 in the event that we are liable for the full amount? The downside of that is that we would have built up a savings which could be lost in a BK. Not to mention that after the F/C we probably would no longer qualify for a Ch 7. Looks like quite a pickle. Are there any options I'm not considering?