All Forum Posts by: William D.

If it's a MERS mortgage check the MIN # on the top of the mt/deed of trust. You can use it to determine the servicer.

My bet is that the mortgagee is not aware they were foreclosed out in the tax sale. I hope you have title insurance because they may attempt to invalidate the sale; notwithstanding the fact the redemption period is expired.

I don't negotiate short sales for a living but one of the key players in the deal that commonly gets forgotten is the mortgage insurer. From the lender's perspective they have already decided that it is worthwhile to take a loss on the note. However, who takes the loss -- investor/mi insurer, and what percentage, is a huge variable.

Just figured I would throw it out there since you came up with such an exhaustive list.

Further, if there are any experts in MI on this board I would love to hear your opinion on short sales and how you view them.

Just figured

Mark, it's not a dumb question at all. First, look to the deed in to you are your partner. Hopefully, you didn't take title in survivorship. If so, you need to get it changed. Most likely your attorney/title company requested you take title as co-tenants. This means that if you passed away your half interest in the property would have to be part of your estate and have to be probated in accordance with either your will (which you should absolutely have) or state law. If in your will you bequeath the property to your wife then she will basically step in to your shoes and be co-tenants with your partner.

Robert, I completely understand your concerns and feel they are appropriate given your assets. I will defer to Steve the Tax guy on the tax issues. As for the liability issues, I am amazed at the information on the this site regarding asset protection and the incredibly creative entity structures suggested. It's hard to disagree with any of it. It's analogous to someone asking how best to prevent a burglary on their primary residence and people building moats and fortifications. They all will decrease the probability of the risk wished to avoid but with a negatively increasing yield.

I'd say the cheapest and first thing you should do is speak to your local insurance agent and get a break down of what your limits are and what is covered on all your insurable assets, i.e. vehicle, properties, E+O if applicable etc. I would then inquire as to umbrellas and see what they recommend.

If you have a penchant for drinking and driving and intentional
torts then you will probably need to explore the entity route but with an increase in coverage and policies you can probably cover the risks wished to avoid in the most cost effective method.

Just my .02

Brady, here is the short answer. You are one keystroke away from a non-monetary default notice being sent by the lender to the borrower. You can attempt to play the trust shell game and blur the lines as much as you would like but you cant escape that clause.

The realistic scenario is that people transfer title into LLCs all the time and never get their note called due. The reason is because so long as the note is current THEY DO NOT CARE. Sure, they could call the note due but that would mean they would have to take a performing loan out of their pool and refer it to foreclosure.

From a practical perspective, you are being gifted equity in a property and taking it subject to a mortgage. Assuming you have documentable income and credit you can probably get a low LTV loan (possibly even through the lender!) and cure the default through a payoff with a new loan.

My biggest fear of taking title through a quit claim deed subject to a mortgage is that most likely the owners title policy is voided because of the transfer. Thus, if there were latent title problems that would have been insured up to the warranty deed the title company may not have an obligation to defend you because of the quit claim deed. I would say this is the more realistic danger than the lender calling the loan due and even this issue isn't likely to occur; but, be aware, if you do have title issues you may be 100% on your own.

Luiz, I could be wrong but I believe the BONY Mellon takes title as trustee for its beneficiaries, generally the certificate holders of a REMIC trust. Your best bet is to contact the asset manager and not BONY Mellon.

Zach, I am going through the identical situation. Ironically, I also have to wait until October. I reread the credit form a month ago and there is nothing that would prohibit us from marketing the property -- or even enter into a contract. It is the conveyance of title. One thing to be careful of is that you must still reside there.

Cheryl, very interesting topic. I haven't thought about that year in a while. One thing I vividly remember about that March is being out to dinner with my friend who worked as an IBanker at one of the large investment firms the weekend before the Bear Stearns collapsed. His blackberry didn't stop buzzing the entire night -literally, he was either getting a phone call or an email every single second for hours straight.
He was always one of those uber confident individuals and a huge proponent of what was going on in the economy. I remember him almost turning pale as he heard the rumors of what was going on. He explained to us that our economy was in big time trouble and that things were very very bad -- like soon to be apocalyptic bad. He went so far as to call his parents in upstate NY and tell them to be prepared for him to come up there and make sure they had supplies and their gun.

Looking back on it it was a bit of an overreaction from him, but it was scary to even think that we were that close to a liquidity freeze and a subsequent market collapse.

Most likely it was a pendente lite plaintiff substitution. Generally, courts are pretty liberal on allowing parties to be substituted in so long as there is no prejudice to any parties. The strange thing about it is that they chose to bring the action in their own name. That's a scary proposition to put yourself on the hook in your individual capacity. It may not have appeared on the docket yet which is why it still reflects the old plaintiff.

The strategy (subject to verification of more facts) was to buy the 2nd note and control the bidding at the auction. Based on your debt outstanding no one could afford to outbid you; however, your actual cost is only what you paid for it plus the payoff of the first mortgage.

The IRS lien is the typical red herring. If the IRS lien is subsequent in recording to the foreclosing second mortgage it will get wiped out just as any other creditor. The IRS is afford special redemption rights under the US Code. I believe it is 4-months and there is a process for them to disclaim if you can show there is no equity. Be careful on doing repairs during that period as I believe they will not reimburse you for those repairs.