Buying a note?

General Real Estate Investing
1

I have a buddy who, a couple years ago, paid 500K for a house, hoping to do a fix-n-flip and make a fortune in real estate. Unfortunately he went about it the wrong way and now is the proud owner of a house that’s worth about 400K. The house is 100% financed, and its value is dropping by the day.

I’m trying to think of creative ways to save him from having to walk from the property, or having to show up to closing with 100K (ouch!). One thing that I’m considering is talking to the mortgage company and offering to buy the mortgage (at a discount of course), since the guy really can’t keep up the payments. (He’s renting it out but for much less than the monthly payment).

Is it stupid to even go down this road? Any other suggestions? Should he just walk? He doesn’t really have any of his own money into it.

Thanks!

2

If he paid 500K for it then it should have been worth about 750K otherwise he made a huge mistake or he got cash back from the deal and should be able to show up at closing with the 100K. Either way the lender is not going to do a short sale until he is a couple of months behind on the payment. If the value is dropping by the day then you would be wise to get as far away from this deal as you can. Why on earth would you want to buy and asset that is losing value??