have a 3 year lease option, Bank is foreclosing, Owner missing in action

General Real Estate Investing
1

So I poosted a few months back about my lease option deal :

Topic: Lease Option Price of property set and owner out of state equity is 40-60K (Read 3063 times)

 I have secured the price and buttoned up all the little issues. WELL.... 3 months have gone by and the Bank ( Wells Fargo) has stopped taking my payments and have initiated foreclosure.  I am at a loss as to what I can do here. The State of Georgia does not file lease options and the county wont acknowledge it the bank wont talk to me anymore and the owner  cant be found. I went to every Attorney I could find and got no where so I did something maybe rash,  but I have my entire life saving in this house. I filed chapter 13 and showed the trustee my equity in the home which is substantial, more than 80K and Debt is less than 30K.   is there a way that I can also filem a mechanics lien for that earnest monies and repairs and supplies or do I need to sue the owner and file that way. 
The other question I have is do I have a way to get the bank to sell it to me ?  
and if I could having this BK is going to put my financing options almost if not nil right?

any and all advice would be much appreciated…

FYI The house is just about done and she is shining for a 100 year old girl.

2

I’m not an attorney, but you have an equitable interest in the property, and if you present your case to a judge, and show that you have acted in good faith with the seller, who has disappeared and unwilling/unable to perform, the judge might award you title under a ‘specific performance’ judgment. This might be a time to get an ex parte hearing with a judge to stop the foreclosure.

Meantime, I have talked with many banks, and represented myself as the primary borrower. I had to give them the last four of the borrower’s social, the property address, and a customer “pin” number, before the bank was willing to talk with me. My name has been Jan Johnson, Juan Garcia, and all sorts of different sexes and nationalities. All the bank drones want to know is the ‘numbers.’ So, give them the numbers.

Of course, that’s before I am the “property manager.”

Also, you should ask the judge for power of attorney over the property, until the seller is located.

Frankly, this is not going to be a no-cost solution. But I think you have an uncontested case for specific performance.

Putting a lien against the property is a good idea, except you need be sure to become the winning bidder. Otherwise, the bank has to bid more than your bid, in order to capture any equity above their loan balance. Once you’ve won the bid, you have to pay the bank off in full.

This is where a hard money lender can come in handy. However, you cannot live in the house as the borrower. In this case the loan is based on equity position, not your credit rating.

If you win the bid and own the house, you can fix and sell it, or refinance the “low” first, and move back into it (or stay in it, depending on how slick you’ve been).

***The bank has to accept payments. It’s just they don’t have to accept anything less than all the arrears, late fees, and collection costs. In your case, there’s lots of equity, and the bank feels quite likely to recover all it’s losses, so they’re playing hardball.

Is the insurance in place, or is there a forced insurance policy in place? Forced insurance policies are default items for many lenders.

Good luck.