What can you do with properties with no equity

Lots of people asking if I can help with properties with no equity, they owe at or less than what it’s worth. They want out for one reason or another and renting it out is not an option for them. They need to money now.

Are their techniques I can learn to help them?

If they are current, short sale will not work. So basically, do they get past due with bank, then try short sale.

They can’t sell it for less than it’s worth, bank will lose money and wont even let them do that right?

They can list it with realtor and wait and see, but then they are stuck with an over priced listing and owners dont want to lose out on the commision. Hard to sell it with realtor when they still owe at or more than it’s worth.

What can these people do?

Jon,

What these people can do is honor their contracts and pay their bills. The fact that the property is worth less than their mortgage has absolutely nothing to do with their obligation to pay their bills.

What can you do to help? Suggest to them that they pay their bills. If you really want to help them, give them a bunch of money to pay down their mortgage. Then they’ll have some equity.

If you’re trying to make some money helping them - forget it! It would be much better for you to find a property with a lot of equity that you can buy.

Good Luck,

Mike

I love that answer! Once again Mike speaks the truth.

I have heard of investors telling homeowners to miss a few mortgage payments so they can work a short sale, but in my mind that’s just BS.

I don’t get it, almost everyone who buys a new car owes more than it’s current value the day the buy it, whats the difference? They bought the car to drive, and the house to live in. If they can’t afford the payments, they are idiots and deserve to lose the home.

All makes sense, pretty much what I was thinking, but wanted to double check I wasn’t missing some way to help them and make something from it.

Thanks again guys.

Jon,

It is a fact of life that some people can not afford to stay in the home they are in right now. Job transfer, job loss, health issues, divorce, and death are just some of the reasons I can think of why ordinary folks who were able to afford their home last month and are current on their mortgage payments, still need to sell the house they are in today.

These foiks are not idiots who deserve to lose their home. They just don’t have the luxury of “riding out the economy” and waiting for the market to improve. Even though the house is worth less than the mortgage balance, a loss of income may force homeowners to sell or suffer foreclosure. Perhaps the homeowner can afford one house payment but not two, so, a relocation may force the homeowner to sell when the market is not the greatest.

I understand that a short sale is still possible even if the homeowner is current on their payments as long as the necessity for a short sale can be justified by impending events. I am not an expert here, so, maybe a short sale pro will weigh in.

If the homeowners are trying to stay in their home, the lenders are working with borrowers who have the means to pay but maybe can’t pay quite so much. Loan modifications that reduce the interest rate, extend the term of the loan, reduce the principal balance, or some combination of all three may be possible if the borrower just asks the lender.

There are both private and public grant programs to help income challenged homeowners stay in their homes.

Don’t let the short sighted responses you received discourage you. Learn what is possible and apply that knowledge to help. If you can also profit from your assistance, so much the better.