Facing Foreclusre...DH and I not on the same page

[dw2008]

I am facing foreclosure on two houses (an old one I moved out that never sold, and a new one more expensive that we can't really afford). The problem is, my husband would like to keep the new house, and I'd like to keep the old one. I prefer the old one because I know that I can afford the mortgage payments. He wants to keep the old one because that's his "dream" house even though we have not been able to afford it, even if we get rid of all our debts we still will not be able to afford it in our current situation. He thinks that he can make some quick money to get the house reinstated $20K (real estate agent) and get out of foreclosure, and maybe get a job to be able to afford the payments going forward. However, we have been in this house since Dec 2007 and he has not gotten a stable job (as he promised before we bought his "dream" house) and only made $30K last year in real estate, and just recently had his first closing this year $12K. What he does not get is that even thoug a sale may bring in a lot of money, but 2 per year is not going to cut it. Also, he has no control on what he will be receiving compared to a stable job/income.

Ok...sorry for venting...I am just so frustrated by being in this situation and may only way out at this point is to file a Chapter 7 and save one house (the old one). But how can I do that if we cannot come to an agreement. At this point, I am ready to just file by myself and get out of this situation, and let him face reality when they foreclose on his "dream" house on June 3rd.

Does foreclosure affect your credit the same as Bankruptcy, I was trying to avoid foreclosure and only do the bankruptcy?

I have been to one consultation with a lawyer, he says that I qualify for 7 and will be able to save my old home. We could do a 13, but I don't see the point of doing a 13 because the payments will continue to cause distress, but maybe we can keep both houses in that plan?

Any benefit to doing a 13? Would we be able to save both houses?

Would it make sense to do a 7 bimyself and discharged the new house as my obligations, and let him decide for himself what he wants to do and/or face foreclosure by himself on it? Does that make any senses to do individual Bk instead of joint?

Please help? Any advice? thoughts? word of encouragements would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[dw2008]

Just wanted to provide an update. DH and I are finally on the same page. I have met with a couple of attorneys and we will be filing jointly tomorrow. I am going to file for a 7 and reaffirm the house we can afford. We will let the new house go in the bk. I hope the process is not too bad and will go through it with no hiccups.
My only concerns right now:
(1) We need to get current on all our taxes 4 years for DH and 2 years for me?
What are the likelyhood of me being able to save those $ since I am doing these taxes after filing.
(2) We need to bring the house we are keeping current, we have the money to save it, but I am waiting to see what attorney says tomorrow before I pay it.
(3) Mortgage lender has said that I can just pay the balance $5K now to bring the loan current, and pay the forecloure fees later, I have been trying to get a reinstatement amount $7k from them since May 6th and finally just go it today, the house did not go into foreclosure until May 1st. Can put those foreclosure fees in the bk, or are they attached to the house?
(4) DH just got a check for 12K this past week, first income in 6 months, are these $ in jeopardy, I wanted to bring my mortgage current with it $7K, pay attorney $1.5K, save a little for other living expenses, GA has a cash exemption. Would that be ok. He has not cashed it yet, waiting to see what the attorney advise.
Well those are the more pointing questions? I guess I'll know a little more this time tomorrow. I'll give an update then.
Thank you so much for this forum to vent and get answers.

[CindyLou]

Hi. You are very smart for waiting to see an attorney before you make any financial moves. I didn't ever read your first post until but I wish I would have seen it when you posted it.

My husband also sees things in some different reality at times, and much like yours, I think just takes a little longer for reality to sink in.

I am so happy that he has realized that you were correct in what you wanted to do. You have taken the first big step in making a new start.

Congrats!!!

[JollyGG]

It sounds to me like you need to work very closely with the attorney you choose to time your filing right.

You didn't mention what state you are in. You may be able to save some of the "cash on hand" (husband's commision check, income tax refund, etc.) with certain exemptions for your state. The rest you will need to spend on necessities. As it sounds like some of the necessities you need to pay is the payment to bring your house current, I would be sure to do so on the advice of your lawyer so that you know you are timing things well to ensure your filing goes smoothly.

[dw2008]

Hi. You are very smart for waiting to see an attorney before you make any financial moves. I didn't ever read your first post until but I wish I would have seen it when you posted it.

My husband also sees things in some different reality at times, and much like yours, I think just takes a little longer for reality to sink in.

I am so happy that he has realized that you were correct in what you wanted to do. You have taken the first big step in making a new start.

Congrats!!!

Hi CindyLou,
You are right they do need a little longer to get the picture...I guess we have to be patient and continue to make our case the get them to see reality. Good luck, feel free to contact me if you need some encouragement along the way.
Thanks.

[dw2008]

It sounds to me like you need to work very closely with the attorney you choose to time your filing right.

You didn't mention what state you are in. You may be able to save some of the "cash on hand" (husband's commision check, income tax refund, etc.) with certain exemptions for your state. The rest you will need to spend on necessities. As it sounds like some of the necessities you need to pay is the payment to bring your house current, I would be sure to do so on the advice of your lawyer so that you know you are timing things well to ensure your filing goes smoothly.

Hi JollyGG,
I am in Georgia, I think their cash exemption is about $9K. We talked to the attorney and they told us to get the house current before filing. Since Chapter 7 does not protect assests. So yesterday we sent the mortgage company 8K to get the house current and off foreclosure...it takes about 2-3 days to process everything, I will call them again Tuesday, to verify that the account is current and we are back on track. Most of those funds were from DH's commission, the rest will spend on paying the car that we will keep and other basic living expenses, which the attorneys ok.
We did file today, see below for the story.

[dw2008]

Filed Chapter 7

Update: The good news is I officially filed Chapter 7 with assets (home/car) today.
I went to file yesterday, however the attorney I met with (the owner of the lawfirm, I met with one of the other attorneys last time) was a complete A...hole. The whole time I was there, he barely addressed me, did not make eyecontact with me, ask all the questions directly to my husband, answered my husband, and basically ignored me most of the time when I tried to ask questions or explain things. He was brupt and rude to say the least. He wanted to get me into a 13 eventhough we qualified for a 7. He basically said that he will not the filing if we are not current on the house, eventhough we told him that we just wanted attorney's advice before we file, the money is there ready to be sent, we just wanted to make sure that it was ok on their side. I had to bite my lips to not really go off on him, but I was truly pissed by the time I was done. At the end of of it he shook my husband's hand and had no address to me. Of course I was not going to use that lawfirm anymore after such interactions, I wanted to tell them to shred my file as I was leaving.
So after that, I called a friend who filed before and asked about the attorney she used. She gave me their info, and I made an appointment for the next day (today/Friday). I have to say the experience was much different, the staff and attorneys were friendly, courteous and answered all of our questions. Nobody tried to force us into a 13, they made sure we qualified for a 7 eventhough our case was a little bit complicated with my husband not having any income for the past 6 months and all of a sudden receiving such a large check a couple of weeks before filing. But thank God we still qualified. Well needless to say, we went ahead and filed right away. We did get the house paid and current the day before, which was fine for them. As far as the Tax refunds, she said since we are doing a 7 we will probably be ok with it if we use it on basic necessities, but check with them when we receive the check.
I am so happy and relieved to have filed, I will be reviewing the paperworks again over the weekend and make sure I have list all of my creditors, we have 5-7 days to make changes without incurring a fee, so I will be making sure everything is there.
So anyway, thanks again for all your support, I will keep you all updated of the progress or ask more questions
I have officially join the team!