All Forum Posts by: Chris Carbone

@Lauren Bobloblaw

Sorry if I made that confusing. She refinanced in 2002 for the ARM. So her original mortgage from 1990 would have been paid, but then she acquired a new one.

She has undiagnosed bipolar as well as depression, anxiety, and ptsd which is why I'm having difficulty getting these answers from her.  She's not very trusting of anyone. 

I looked at the registry of deeds for her county and she has a lien of $7,000 from the electric company when the furnace died and she was heating the house by electric space heaters for two years and couldn't pay the bills.  It looks like there is nothing from the town, but im waiting on a definite answer if she had been paying taxes.

@Mr Davido

The nutter link you sent me says that if the bank knows the mortgage has not been satisfactory for five years in MA then it looks like the law is in her favor.  If any one else has advice on SOL I'd like to hear it.  

For now I have some hope and need to speak to a lawyer.  In the meantime I will look up the actual law from the ma.gov website and see if it says the same thing.

Worst comes to worse she can always come live with me and we will figure something out from there.  If she can continue staying there should I avoid the bank as she has been doing?  I'm thinking at this point a lawyer is definitely the best option.

So I took some advice from you and looked up the deed. She got an ARM in 2002 for 186,000. Now I know who owns the note as well. What are some questions I need answers from my mom on? Obviously how much she still owes. I'd also like to know how it's possible the bank ignored her for so long if what she says is true.

She's worried about not having a place to live and doesn't want to be a burden on her kids so she chose to ignore it and that's why it's becomee out of hand.  

Things may not really be the way she says, but she's never been open to me about finances so I'm sure there are a lot of details she's not giving up.

I do believe that she hasn't made payments because she's on disability and could not possibly be making the mortgage payments on her own.

If we were to figure out how much she owes the bank how could we learn it without alerting the bank yet?

Hello Bigger Pockets members,

I recently found out my mom hasn't paid the mortgage since 2009.  She said she was having problems, but never just how deep.  The house was bought in the early 90s for 175,000 and she owes something around 250,000 now, maybe more.  The house is probably worth 350,000, but she can't find the information from the bank.

She wants to get rid of the headache and it seems like a good investment if I were to flip it or sell it.  It needs a lot of work, but I'm a plumber and can do most of the work.

What are some recommended steps?  Can she sell the house to me?  Can she put the house in my name?  Should I just start paying the mortgage for her and if so how do I get my name on it?  She believes she won't make any money from the bank in a sale because of how much she owes, but this doesn't seem like it should be a total loss.

Best Regards, 

Chris Carbone