UGH!! I'm so confused and think I may want to move NOW!

[ssmdem]

Okay - it's pretty much a foregone conclusion we're going to be surrendering our house. A modification doesn't change the fact that we are seriously upside down on this loan. Just returned from the attorney meeting this afternoon, and she, as most have here, said to stay where we are and just live rent free for as long as we can. I get that - I really honestly do!! And I have talked to a real estate agent who said that MOST homeowners are not going to be too concerned with a bankruptcy on our record as long as we have additional security deposit, etc. when we need to start looking for a rental.

HOWEVER - right now, we are only two months behind on our mortgage and credit cards - chances are our credit report still looks good - FICO was 738 two months ago. AND I have just run across the PERFECT rental home. Great neighborhood - BIGGER than the house we are currently in - pool (which I thought we were going to have to give up) with maintenance and cleaning included (husband likes this part). It's available now, and a big part of me really wants to make this jump!! Our pool is one of the main reasons we wanted to ride this out as long as possible so that we could still enjoy it this summer. This way - we won't have to give it up. The rent amount is EXACTLY what we are looking for.

AND, when I asked the attorney today about what to put for the rent amount on the schedule J if we aren't renting a home yet, she said she would just go with IRS standards. If we have already rented a home at that point and signed a contract, we could go with that amount. If we go with IRS standards, it's about $500 less than what houses in this area really rent for which could potentially mess up our income/expense ratio. If we have this contract signed and we're there, then we don't have that concern.

Opinions?? I don't know what to do. Now that I'm resigned to the fact that we aren't going to be able to stay here - my investor friend that I've mentioned previously is not going to be able to bail us out - this house is history - I'm almost ready to just get out now.

On the emotional level, I sold our dining room set this morning. I've always wanted the formal dining room and finally got it - but figured I may as well start selling stuff now since we'll have to downsize anyway. Just walking back into that empty front room when we walked in the house made me burst into tears. I'm just ready to leave and shut this door behind me.

[bkstuff]

I feel your pain! So sorry for what you are going through.

I am not positive about this, but if this rental is quite a bit more than the IRS standards for your area - you will need to cut in other areas of your budget to make up for this. Hopefully, it its the same as your IRS standards

If so, i think it is really up to you - I understand not wanting to wait it out. i know I would be nervous too.

Right now our credit stinks and has many "lates" since we hae not been paying for several months. I don't understand why people say landlords won't care??? I would imagine the accounts on FICO would not state "CH13" until confirmed, right? Anyone have experience with renting and horrible credit and still getting a decent place?

[AbbeyA]

I would stay put and save the money!!!! If you are in a judgment state, you could be in there for a full year or more from now. Even if this place you want to go for is perfect, think of how much money you will save up between now and then. This shouldn't be an emotional decision, it should be a business decision. Right now you need to focus on getting through your bk and turning your finances around. Throwing money out to pay for a rental when you have a perfectly good home to live in without paying doesn't make good financial sense to me. We live in a judgment state and we stopped paying last July. We are still here and are anticipating at least another 3 months or so before we have to move.

[ssmdem]

We've talked it out tonight, and we're gonna stay put for now. There's just absolutely no way for us to file before November without getting scrutinized because we're over the median. In November we'll be fine and under the median income. We'll file December 7th or later so that a payment I made to my parents will be past the year look back for that. The earliest, if they moved along at a normal pace that the auction could be would be February or March. That doesn't give us much time after filing to save up alot of money, but we'll just use up what would be rent money now on groceries and other items. I really don't anticipate being here much beyond then and hate the thought of living in this big ol' empty house as we have started selling some things off - but it's free for now.

Still trying to decide whether to try for a modification or not. The attorney said today that she's seen some good ones - had one just last week that was a permanent modification that knocked $1000 off a house payment. If we could get that, that would be great -- but we're still looking at the fact that we owe more than the house is worth.

[ssmdem]

I am not positive about this, but if this rental is quite a bit more than the IRS standards for your area - you will need to cut in other areas of your budget to make up for this. Hopefully, it its the same as your IRS standards

There's the part that I don't get. The IRS standards for my county is showing $1487 for housing AND utilities. Subtracting out utilities only leaves about $1000 a month. You just can't find a rental for that amount around here. The absolute best I could do would be MAYBE $1300, but that's pushing it. Most are between $1400 and $1600. What happens in those situations????

[epiphany]

I'm a little confused (and put off) by your insane desire to have a pool this summer in the midst of such financial difficulty. I'm finding it hard to sympathize with you.

You are still thinking like a clueless debtor. And you don't sound like you have made a decision to file now or later.

You are going to have to eventually make sacrifices, you know. The longer you wait to make your decisons, the more painful they will be, no matter which way you go. You're not staving off anything, you're just letting it fester and multiply.

That being said, I do wish you luck. I just think that maybe your priorities are out of whack.

If I'm off base, tell me so. And if not, tell me that too.

ep

[ssmdem]

I'm a little confused (and put off) by your insane desire to have a pool this summer in the midst of such financial difficulty. I'm finding it hard to sympathize with you.

You are still thinking like a clueless debtor. And you don't sound like you have made a decision to file now or later.

You are going to have to eventually make sacrifices, you know. The longer you wait to make your decisons, the more painful they will be, no matter which way you go. You're not staving off anything, you're just letting it fester and multiply.

That being said, I do wish you luck. I just think that maybe your priorities are out of whack.

If I'm off base, tell me so. And if not, tell me that too.

ep

Yeh, you're way off base!! We have decided to file -- just ON THE ADVICE OF OUR ATTORNEY - who also happens to be a trustee, now is not the time. I would LOVE to file now and be done with this, but we can't at the moment because we don't qualify for a chapter 7. In another 5 months, we will. This "clueless debtor" thinks it would be quite stupid to file now and be forced into a chapter 13 when we can simply ride it out for a few more months and be much better off financially after discharge.

As I said - the pool was the one of the reasons we hoped to ride this foreclosure out this summer. I never said we were not prepared to do without it. However, if I can rent a home with one in our price range, which this particular house was -- why would I not??

We have been doing without for quite some time now trying to find any other way other than bankruptcy out of this mess. This "clueless debtor" has managed to keep our family fed and clothed on next to nothing for years. My kids have been clothed off hand-me downs and consignment shops. They've been fed by me spending hours clipping coupons and searching sales. I've worked 3 jobs for the past two years (yes, I said THREE) while my husband worked 60+ hours a week to try to get our bills paid down. We tried to do it "society's way" but see no reason to continue throwing our lives away at work as my children are rapidly growing up. We discussed all of our options in depth with our attorney before making the decision to file, which is when we quit paying the mortgage and started preparing for foreclosure.

This pool that you are so concerned about - I have not set my toe into more than 3-4 times in the 3 1/2 years that we have lived here because of working my tail off. Forgive me that I have looked forward to finally being able to enjoy it for a change our last summer here. My daughter's words when discussing that we would need to move were, "Mommy, it's okay if we don't have a pool anymore because we never get to play in it as a family anyway. I'd much rather be able to do other things together than us just play in the pool by ourselves." They've watched their mom and dad do nothing but make sacrifices for the past few years and are obviously mature enough to do the same.

So, quite frankly, I'm a little "put off" by your judgmental statement when you have no clue what our family has been going through. All we've done is "make sacrifices" for the past few years. Not one frivolous $$ has been spent as we just simply didn't have it. Vacations have consisted of camping in our tent a couple of times a year because we simply just didn't have the extra income.

My priorities are EXACTLY where they need to be. I'm doing what's best for my family -- MY FAMILY - and quite frankly am not the least bit concerned that you seem to disagree.

[ssmdem]

I feel your pain! So sorry for what you are going through.

I am not positive about this, but if this rental is quite a bit more than the IRS standards for your area - you will need to cut in other areas of your budget to make up for this. Hopefully, it its the same as your IRS standards

If so, i think it is really up to you - I understand not wanting to wait it out. i know I would be nervous too.

Right now our credit stinks and has many "lates" since we hae not been paying for several months. I don't understand why people say landlords won't care??? I would imagine the accounts on FICO would not state "CH13" until confirmed, right? Anyone have experience with renting and horrible credit and still getting a decent place?

The real estate agents we spoke with said that SOME property owners would be okay with it as long as you're able to put more up front -- first AND last month's rent, along with possibly a higher deposit.

Our rental property - the very first family we rented it to was fresh out of bankruptcy and a foreclosure. Just ran across bad times. I verified his job income, references, etc - and took a chance on him, even though his credit report was awful. By far, the best tenant we ever had. They stayed until they were able to purchase a home again.

I would just be prepared to be honest with the landlords if they mention a credit check. But, you're likely to have better luck going through a private rental instead of going through one managed through a property manager. Alot of the private owners don't know how to run a credit check and just simply look at income and references.

Of course, some think I'm just a "clueless debtor" - so what do I know? I wish you the best. Your credit history may knock you out of the running for some places, but I think you'll still be able to find something.

We've just got so many issues to deal with in finding a rental that I wanted to at least get rid of one "hurdle" by finding something now. Keeping the kids in the same school district is vital, but it really narrows down our choices. And we've got a large dog which I know some landlords aren't going to be comfortable with.

It's a gamble either way. But for now, we'll just stay put and hope for a long, drawn-out foreclosure process.