I have had an experience in GA where I wanted to buy the house from the buyer. I personally knew the buyer and she was going through a divorce, which was lucky for me.
I called the mortgage company with the seller’s permission to discuss the late payments and negoitated payments to keep it from going to the steps. I agreed on an amount and paid the attorney that was scheduled to put the house on the steps. I paid the seller a fee to quick claim the property to me. The seller moved within the month and I continued to pay her mortgage payments until the house sold.
I have tried to repeat that process but most people that I have dealt with in foreclosure don’t realize they still have options that close to foreclosing. Often times you need to spend time educating them on the process and what you are trying to accomplish and save them from foreclosure in the meantime.
I hope this didn’t confuse things even more. Keep in mind, in GA the property must be listed for 20 days prior to the foreclosure date, so if you find that paper in that county and you will have at least 20 days to play with. It may be different in various states.
Best of luck,
Bethanie
If you come across a property that is a week before the auction, you may be out of luck with the lender as far as suggesting a short sale. Usually in my experiences with short sales, most lenders will give you a time frame that they will even think of a short sale, usually 3-4 weeks B4 the sale. In this case if the auction is a week away, you can contact the lender and thell them you may be interested in purchasing the property.
It depends on their rules. You may be surprised though as this is an example. We had found a property that was in the last stages of the foreclosure, we contacted the owner…did the paperwork, submitted a package to the lender. Because this property was in a “prestine” neighborhood, the bank wouldn’t accept anything less than what they wanted so they turned our offer down and went ahead and let the house go to auction. The bank thought they would get full price, sadly to say, they didn’t and they ended up owning the property. Even though the bank foreclosed on the owner, they contacted us after the sale and took our offer anyway. Sometimes that happens.
One of the things you can do is contact the lender after you get the Information Release Authorization from the homeowner signed first. The bank WILL not discuss anything about the loan UNLESS they have the faxed/mailed I.R.A. form to them first.
When you do get the IRA to them, then you have to wait approx. about 24 hours before the loss mit. will speak to you. In my experience, most of the lenders take their time putting it on their notes that you have the permission to discuss the loan.
Once you find the direct contact (person in charge of the loan), then you can explain that you are trying to help the homeowner (don’t tell them you’re an investor) and you wanted to know if the lender will postpone the sale. Some will, some will tell you it’s too late. It’s all a numbers game.
As for who can postpone the sale, the lender can (it’s their choice) postpone if you contact them directly indicating that you’re interested in buying the property. It also depends on how motivated the lender is in getting rid of the property.
All lenders have their rules to go by. Just contact the lender and indicate your interest in the property. It wouldn’t hurt to contact them directly or have the homeowner contact them, explain the situation and have them tell the lender that they have a potential buyer and what would it take for them (lender) to postpone and if they are willing to postpone.
Hope this helps
The homeowners who face foreclosure, is just like any of us on here. It could be your mom, dad, sister, brother, best friend, or even yourself. Foreclosures can happen to anyone.
Most of the homeowners when you deal with them at the door, are in denial. I’ve come across some who swears they never got the certified letter from the attorney. I tell them all, it’s the attorney’s job to contact you by certified mail. These folks KNOW they’re in foreclosure. They get hounded by calls, letters from lenders. They know it’s public records because when they do get the certified letter, it tells in words that their newspaper will be advertising the notice in the paper for about 4 weeks before the sale. The homeowner panicks and some unfortunately intentionally wait til the very last minute to contact you. I even had one lady call me 3 days before the sale. That does happen.
I know this is way off our subejct here but I’m from NC originally and used to live in Salter Path back in 88. Emerald Isle is gorgeous and I wouldn’t mind moving back 
I’ve had 2 situations where the sale got postponed. The first situation, I had to have more time for funding (at that time I didn’t know anything about using OPM) but I backed out at the last minute because the numbers didn’t look good after I found some hidden costs in the property that the homeowner failed to mentioned.
The 2nd situation, I had the sale postponed but the bank ended up backing out at the very last minute. They came back telling me that they changed their mind and that they would rather the house go to the steps so they “can get more money”. The loss mit. girl that I had been corresponding for about 2 weeks, backed out and told me that they wanted full price and that they were going to decline my offer. That was up to the day b4 auction.