Renting short sale property during negotiation

Renting short sale property during negotiation

Homeowner · St. Paul, MN · Member since 2010 · 1 post · 0 votes

Whoa boy I'm getting prepared for a lot of information that I don't want to hear...
We have an accepted offer on a short sale as of April 28, 2010. Wells Fargo has both the first and the second on the property and has confirmed to the seller's attorney that they have all of the documentation to make a decision on our offer. We are scheduled to close on June 24th(which now seems unlikely). The sellers are willing to lease the property to us month-to-month until close, though the concern is whether we will close at all if WF doesn't accept. Since the property is scheduled for auction on August 3, 2010, we realize that the deal is dead if it comes to that. However, the opening bid is so high (+$100,000 over market value) that I doubt it will go at that sale. As I understand, MN has a 6 month redemption period so the bank may not come to the door to evict until February of 2011. Our lease would be with the sellers (owners - A) and would be per the terms that we all agree upon. My question is whether our lease will be bona fide and what kind of can of worms we would be opening up if we were to lease while the bank makes their decision. If the bank drags their feet toward the auction date we will aggressively seek another house so we should be out before the redemption period is up. The agents and seller's attorney have been gung-ho on us leasing but I suspect they're saying anything to keep us on the hook since this is their best bet to get paid.

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  • Flipper/Rehabber · Bakersfield, CA · Member since 2008 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    16y

    Good to meet you..

    When I put a Short under contract I specify within my agreement that I have irrevocable and exclusive occupancy on a day specific... And I don't rent the property to anyone. In California there are laws specific to that sort of thing...

    With that said the new federal law seems clouded on the matter of the actual lease. Some lenders don't seem to have an answer to this dilemma. The issue is that the lease may have had to have been created prior to the borrower receiving notice of the property began the foreclosure process

    Assuming that when sold at TS it isn't sold to an end occupant, which you would know by being a tenant during the TS period.

    I have attached a notice from Chase and one from B of A that may help, it may not...

    Good luck

    Michael



  • Rental Property Investor · Mercer Island, WA · Member since 2008 · 22k+ posts · 14k+ votes
    16y

    You say you have an accepted offer, but that Wells hasn't yet approved the short. You don't have squat. A contract with a short sale seller is a binding contract. But without the lender's approval, its really meaningless. When the lender approves, you'll have something that has value. Hopefully you have NOT given these sellers any earnest money. If you have, demand it be returned pending lender approval (i.e., SSA or Short Sale Approval). Don't fall into the trap I got caught in of having earnest money on a property that went to foreclosure. Former owners just have no incentive to sign an earnest money release, and without their signature, you're money's tied up.

    There was another recent sale on this topic:

    http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/103/topics/50743-home-tendering-agreements

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