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Old 10-20-2004, 04:26 PM   #2 (permalink)
corktop1
Upright
 
Couple of thoughts. You could actually hire an appraiser but there is obviously a cost associated with that. Another possibility is to ask a local realtor for a market analysis to find out what he/she thinks the property could be listed for. There should not be a cost for this service but obviously the realtor is offering this service in hopes of getting a listing (something you don't appear to be interested in doing at this time). There should be no obligation, however, and who knows whether you may want to list for sale in the future.

Bankruptcy can be tricky so it would be wise to try to get a referral to a lawyer who has a bankruptcy practice (you'll probably find lots of ads in your local paper or yellow page directory - bankruptcy is an area of practice where there is heavy advertising by lawyers and the fees are very competitive. Often these lawyers have free information by phone (sometimes by way of recorded messages). There is something called reaffirmation which may allow you to reaffirm secured debts and keep your home/car, etc. so long as there is reason to believe that you have enough cash flow to make that happen. Generally lenders don't particularly want the home/vehicle back so there is a desire to see you stay with the program. Also consider the options available with a Chapter 13 (wage earner plan) where you would basically typically pay back a percentage of your unsecured debts over an extended period of time (to take the pressure off) and could probably reaffirm on the secured debts to keep that going. You can probably get a pretty good deal on the filing costs for this and some lawyers will accept installment payments for fees.

Good luck.
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