All Forum Posts by: Phyllis E.

Mary B- I did look at your post and the resulting thread about the adverse possession issue! Very interesting. I had no idea that you could gain ownership of a house that way! I checked out the link you had posted and evidently in my state of Maryland, it would take 20 years of paying taxes!! I was surprised that in Calif. it only takes 5 years! 

I had heard about adverse possession before but thought that it mainly applied to vacant land or parts of land (such as a neighbor putting his driveway on part of your property.) My cousin once had a job as a forest ranger and part of her duties were to go around the perimeter of the park boundaries to make sure no one was "squatting" and trying to take possession through the adverse possession laws I guess!

Thanks again.

Thanks for the replies, Wayne and Mary B. Good point about it might not actually be illegal to go up and knock on the door-- if they seem "hostile", I could  just ask if they know the whereabouts of the former owners or something like that. The warnings on the listing gave the impression that the tenants might call the police, or "shoot trespassers on sight" or something like that !!!

 I was thinking that it might be possible that  the former owner may have just moved back in for "free rent", so to speak, knowing that no one else was there and the neighbors wouldn't think it odd for him to be there, etc.   I didn't think that banks could or would rent out their reo properties, unless they were previously rented out (this was an owner-occupied home,  though perhaps the former owners rented it out right before they got evicted??) This is not the type of area where you would expect squatters to move in (except maybe a former owner or a buddy of his?), but I guess you never know.

Is it legal for the listing agent to buy a foreclosed property that he has personally listed? Just wondering why the listing almost seems to be discouraging anyone from bidding on or buying this property--perhaps the agent himself would like to buy it! (It is listed on the MLS for $335K, though the listing says that it is now under auction, and the starting bid for the auction is $235K!)

I was looking at various foreclosed homes being sold at auction in my area and recognized a home that an acquaintance of mine had recently owned. I hadn't heard that they had lost the home or had moved, so I googled around and discovered that they lost the home to foreclosure and it was put up for the first auction in Sept. of 2013. The current MLS and new auction listing have very strict warnings about not going onto the property under any circumstances because it is occupied, and not to contact the occupants under penalty of law, etc. There are NO interior photos available and the listings state that no interior inspections will be available. How in the world will they ever sell this to anyone not otherwise familiar with the property then? Would a bank have rented out a foreclosed property to a tenant? Why couldn't they at least let a real estate agent in to at least photograph the inside of the property? (It was a very nice home when I saw it originally--and it is in a very nice neighborhood in a desirable part of the county.) Could these be hostile tenants or even the returning former owner illegally occupying the home? Would any potential new owner be dealing with difficulties in evicting these occupants?

  I asked a mutual friend if she  knew what had happened with our acquaintance and their home situation and was told that she had heard that they had moved out of state and that then the husband had moved back into the area with one of the sons (sounds like there may have been a possible separation or divorce?) I am wondering now if he might have illegally moved back into "his" house, under some sort of hostile situation, leaving the winner of the auction with the problem of evicting him.  Does this ever happen with former foreclosed owners--moving back into their homes as hostile "tenants"?

I have heard of people breaking into vacant homes and living there, and they can't be evicted without going through regular eviction proceedings. Just wondering.

This house would be a great deal if it could be gotten near at the starting bid--but just wondering what is going on with the "occupant" issue!

Wow--that was a very quick response! Thanks, Lance! I was going to add another question:

We also were thinking about possibly selling our home and downsizing and/or buying one with an income apt. If it was owner occupied would we have an easier time getting a loan? I forgot to add that we have great credit and no outstanding debt other than our mortgage.

Thanks.

Hello. This is my first post to any of this website's forums.  My husband and I are seriously considering buying a house to rehab and flip as a start to a real estate investment business. (Love the helpful podcasts here and J Scott's Flipping book!) I'd really appreciate it if anyone could tell me if we would be able to get any kind of financing in our unique financial situation ( mutual fund reserves, but little "earned" income), or if we would likely have to pay all cash for our first flip. Any ideas what kind of mortgage or loan we could get?  (Should this be posted under the creative financing forum?)

  Here is our financial situation:

--Our combined gross income last year was over $100k, (mainly from IRA and 401k disbursements) but.....

--Husband has been an unemployed aerospace engineer since two years ago; he is 60 and unlikely to get rehired, but can withdraw from the IRA's without penalty) He recently started doing math tutoring, but isn't making much yet.

  --I am a former architect, but then was a stay-at-home mom for the last 20 years (I've done a lot of small jobs on the side for myself and friends, but I only know how to hand-draft; now-a-days you need to be proficient in two or three CAD programs to get a job in an architecture firm!) I've been substitute teaching almost full-time the last few years, but this is more like a part-time job in earnings.

-- We have $330+ K in stock mutual fund IRA's --this is what we have been primarily living off of. Thank goodness that the stock market has been doing well! (And hubby does a good job of managing and analyzing the numbers, etc.)

-- We have $80-100K in equity on our own home, but the stipulation on our last refi-mortgage (5 years ago?) was that we freeze the home-equity line of credit!

My husband used to work as a painter to make money to put himself through college, and has lots of DIY experience, so he would plan to use those skills to put in some sweat equity in our first flips, and I of course, would design and draw the construction plans, if necessary, but I don't think lenders would take that into consideration, would they?

Thanks in advance for any advice!