How to help seller

[Eric Olsen]

Beware***  Newbie Alert***

Through networking a seller called me wanting to more or less get rid of her home.  It is much further from my area that I intend to begin investing in yet I did tell her that I would look into what options are available to her.  Here is all the info I have.

Seller is on disability and can no long afford her mortgage.  She just did a refi to lower her payments but still too much for her to handle on her current income.  Seller claims to be current with mortgage yet she was given my contact info by a "housing counselor" who stated that she is in pre forclosure.  Forclosure set to start next month.  Obviously getting some misinformation here.

Property is in Lake County Il north west of Chicago

2/1 - 880 Sq Ft without garage - I have not seen the property other than the photo on google maps.

Seller purchased property for $124K back in 2006

Seller believes the property is work $98k

Seller believes she owes $72k

Current mortgage payments set to $588

Comps are proving somewhat difficult but in my newbie opinion (take it for what its worth) property is worth $65k  (again, I have NOT seen the property)

Also, rents in this area look like 1200-1500 for 3/1 house with a garage.  Not much in the realm of 2/1 without a garage so again, in my newbie opinion I would think that 800-1000 for this house with no garage.

Seller needs some "walking" money (stated 8K) and just wants to be free of the house payments.

Being as though I believe the comps to be lower than what she owes, this puts her "under water" on her property.

I am sure I missed something but any help from the forums would be great.  

If there is any investor around Lake County Illinois that has more accurate info please chime in.

This is beyond my knowledge level yet here are my thoughts. At first I thought that a Subject to transaction would be worth looking into for this seller.  However when the comps had shown she was under water it threw a red flag.  Personally, I am not interested in holding a property that is an hour away from me nor to I feel that these numbers would be but I'm the rookie with minimal knowledge.

The reason for my attention to this is that it is a learning opportunity for me and if I could possibly help her out then that creates the WIN WIN that investors are trying to accomplish.

Bigger Pockets community, lets see what can be done if anything...

Eric

[JD Martin]

Seller needs walking money? She probably needs to save a little, then, since she doesn't have any equity. 

Also, without trying to sound like too much of an ******* here, I am never looking for the "win" for the seller. When it comes to REI I am not a philanthropist. All I'm looking for is what number I can buy the property for myself, as I care not why they are selling it nor how much they hope to walk with. In fact, I rarely even bother asking why they are selling because a) I don't care, b) often they won't be honest with you anyway, and c) sometimes you just don't want to know (as was the case on an ex-hoarder's house I once bought, because the details would make your skin crawl). I "usually" can get into their head a little bit and make an offer that I think they'll accept based on circumstances, but only the seller really knows if the deal is a win for them. For some sellers, there's only different degrees of losing.