Transcript: Jeff Kelly: Hello, this is Jeff Kelly and in today’s episode I want to talk about how rising home prices cause bankruptcy problems. How in the world could rise any equity in real estate cause financial problems for a homeowner? I know that sounds super strange, but I’m going to go on to explain how it’s happening. Jeff Kelly: I have been practicing consumer bankruptcy for over 22 years, and I’ve never seen a real estate market like the one that is currently roaring. You would think that rising Home Equity would be good for all owners. But that is not the case for families who are in need of getting relief from credit card and medical debt that has accrued because of COVID related unemployment. How can rising home value stop people from filing bankruptcy? Jeff Kelly: In Georgia, the most equity that a married couple can protect is $43,000. A single person can protect only 21,500. So what happens if you need to file bankruptcy? But you have equity that is way over the limits? The answer to this question is the same as the answer to most legal questions. It depends, depends on what? it depends on the exact amount of equity. When a family has slightly more equity than the exempted limits, they usually won’t present a significant problem in bankruptcy. Because you have to factor in real estate transaction cost if the trustee were to move to sell the house in question. You know, in most cases, you can count on 10% of the purchase price is going to go to real estate ...
Transcript: Intro Speaker: It’s time for Kelly can help hosted by Jeff Kelly, Attorney along with the law office of Jeffrey B. Kelly. And now here’s Jeff Kelly. Jeff Kelly: All right, got David lovebirds our show today. David, what I’d like to do is introduce you to my clients and my listeners. And if you don’t mind, just tell us a little bit about yourself and your practice and your area of specialty. David Blevins: Well, it’s good to be here, Jeff, it’s good to be here. The I’ve been practicing for 35 years all here in Dalton, I got out of the University of Georgia law school. My practice now consists of really two areas of emphasis. I do car wrecks and personal injury, which is what I’ve traditionally done for 34 years. But in the last five or six years, in particular, I have done a lot of probate and estate work. And I’ve done probate litigation. And you know, I kind of backed into it, you know, I never plan to do this. But my wife, we practice all together. From the 80s. After I first child was born, she was practicing in Chattanooga, but she was the probate lawyer. And I had a large probate practice. And so in cases we go sour, I was doing litigation. So she would say I would just come into the office and and be a file on my desk. And pretty soon I realized that was a probate case and now needed litigation. So that’s kind of how I learned to do it. And I’ve been doing ...
Transcript: Hello, this is Georgia bankruptcy attorney Jeff Kelly, and the title of this podcast is Am I Going to Lose my Car if I File a Chapter 7? As of the recording date here, there are over 22 million unemployed people in this country due to no fault of their own. It is just a product of this Corona disaster. It’s expected by the end of April we might have over 40 million people unemployed. And a lot of people have questions about Chapter 7 and one of the most common ones I get as a bankruptcy attorney is am I going to lose my car? And the answer to that question is – almost all legal questions is, it depends. So let’s talk about why 99% of the people who file a Chapter 7, don’t lose their car. Well, let’s go through some hypotheticals. Let’s say you’ve got somebody, they have worked so hard, their car is paid for. Let’s say it’s worth about $5,000. They have tons of medical debt, tons of credit card debt. All that gets eliminated in a Chapter 7 and the car wouldn’t be a problem because in Georgia, there is a $5,000 exemption for cars. So that takes care of hypothetical number one. Let’s change it up a little bit. Hypothetical number two, let’s say the car is worth $10,000. You know what? It’s still not going to be a problem because we also have a $10,000 wildcard exemption. So actually you could bump the value up to $15,000, assuming we don’t ...
