I found a townhouse in the paper that was going to auction. To make a long story short, I went to her house and the girl agreed to sell me this townhouse for 130K but we both knew it was worth 200k. But she was in desperate shape and I was there to help her out, supposedly. Anyway the next day she filed bankruptcy and I guess that leaves me SOL as far as any rights to this property. I do have a valid sales contract and technically I have first rights to this property. But how do I proceed from here? HELP!!!
Yvonne
Unfortunately having a contract is not worth a whole lot. I saw a lady sign 12 to 15 contracts prior to foreclosure and collected several earnest money checks. She did not even own the house as she had deeded it to her lawyer as payment for her divorce.
The BK makes the situation even worse for you. You can petition the court and get them to sell you the house if the trustee and creditors do not object to the deal. You can also wait until the BK gets dismissed or discharged. Also under a Chapter 13 BK plan she will not be forced to sell the property.
Yvonne, Frankly, I’m glad she filed bk. You were flat-out ripping her off: $130K for a $200K house? What right do you have to her equity of $70K? Don’t even pretend you were there to help her out. What if the shoe was on the other foot and you had hit hard times and desperately needed some of your equity to get by? “Supposedly” helping her out – give me a break – and now YOU are asking for help. It’s called karma. Here is how to REALLY help someone out who is facing foreclosure:
Considering the house was going to forclosure and she wouldn’t have been making a dime, not to mention her credit being ruined and probably would have been legally kicked out of her house I look at it differently. She was making 30 grand and being given a second chance. I did put the shoe on the other foot and thats what I came up with. Thanks for your reply but I was looking for a more legalistic opinion.
Oh and let me ad I read your link about how nice you were to help that lady in need but I see you made some money in the process. Not all of us sit on the financial high horse you do. I would have loved to help the lady in forclosure if I had the means to do so. But I am also a single mom and just trying to buy a nice house that I can afford. I wasn’t trying to take advantage of her situation. She was losing her house the next day and yeah so I was making 60-70k in equity but she was also gaining 30k as opposed to 0.
I didn’t mean to be harsh, but I just get frustrated at the vulture mentality of many so called foreclosure consultants. Your initial post failed to say that your client was getting anything. Good luck to you.
My suggestion is to get a litigator on your side who knows bankruptcy and real estate. Depending on what the contract says, you may have some remedies despite of the bankruptcy.
i guess i could say that i’m torn on this issue of morals over money.
i am a very moralistic person. but i read the first post, as i normally do and scrolled to read the rest. not knowing that the seller was getting anything - i still thought, naturally, that this was a good deal for the seller - because they avoid foreclosure and ruining of their credit.
the seller f’d over the buyer as far as i’m concerned and that is not right.
but more to the point - as a real estate investor - the bottom line is you are capitalizing on another’s misfortune, about 50% of the time? 40%? 80%?
If someone’s house has gone into foreclosure - you have to look at their efforts to sell their house, work with the lender to manage payments, or seek financial assistance or educate themselves about financing.
If they haven’t done any of the above, at the very least - I’d say that SLOTH is evil - and gets what it deserves - NOTHING.
I will have no problem purchasing homes from people that do not have the pride to care for their home, manage their money appropriately, etc. I was recently looking at a home that was ridiculously overpriced and a complete sh*t hole. The people were shall we say - filthy homeowners - and I am still negotiating to realize at least 125K in equity - after repairs - that the home owners could do themselves but are TOO LAZY to do.
It really depends on the seller situation. Looking at it and knowing what their situation is will create the win/win for everyone. I believe in that - but sometimes, the seller won’t have a win situation because of the way they live, think and behave.