My husband and I are looking at filing Chapter 13, we have a few cc total of about 3000.00, signature loans of about 5000.00, medical debit and house.

I think you may be confused about the differences between chapter 13 bankruptcy and chapter 7 bankruptcy. The only reason you would put your home under a chapter 13 bankruptcy would be if you were behind payments and wanted to attempt to use chapter 13 bankruptcy to catch up on payments. But if you put the mortgage on your house and file chapter 13 bankruptcy, this will not lower your payments and it will not shorten the duration of the loan or take any amount off the mortgage; as the mortgage is secured by the collateral of your house. Bankruptcy court does not have the ability to discharge a mortgage and allow you to keep the collateral at the same time. If you wish to discharge the mortgage on your home your only option would be chapter 7 bankruptcy and of course you would lose the home.   I have responded to your inquiry according to the laws of Massachusetts, where I practice. Laws can vary significantly from state to state and cases tend to be rather fact-specific, so you are best served by consulting with a knowledgeable attorney in weighing your options. Email messages/Online Correspondence are akin to conversations and do not reflect the level of analysis applied to formal legal opinions. Email/Online responses do not form an attorney-client relationship.        Joseph F. Botelho, Esq. BOTELHO & ASSOCIATES, LLC Attorneys At Law   www.massachusettslawyeronline.com 126 Shove Street Unit 202 Fall River, MA 02724 Office:  888-269-0688 Cell:     508-801-6747 FAX:    877-475-8147     Twitter Facebook Manta