Anne:
Who is still in the house currently? Do the individuals who were purchasing it under the contract for deed still have occupancy? if so chances are good that they were NOT able to meet the maturity date balloon payment due on that contract for deed and the holders of the contract agreed to “roll” them over and continue to agree to accept monthly payments.
If that assumption is accuate, then It may be possible to approach the holders of the contract for deed and see if they would like to “Cash out” of their contract by selling it to you (or me, etc.) Often these types of individuals really would prefer to have CASH now and were ambivalent about having to extend or roll over the contract for the borrower when it matured.
I would much rather purchase the contract for deed instrument of indebtneness which is in all likelyhood is in a 1st lien positon than some smaller “mechanic’s liens” that would be considered subordinate to the other debt against the property. You would be in a position to then earn a “brokerage” fee ($$$) for the sale of the contract for deed.
Posted by Anne-ND on September 01, 2000 at 16:28:09:
Hi all,
Today I went to the county courthouse to look up info on a few sellers and properties, and while there I decided to check on mechanics liens. Joe Kaiser has some nifty suggestions for buying these liens in his Forclosure course, so I went looking for liens less than $1000.
I came up with a property that has 4 liens on it, ranging in price from $1100 to $7000, all from contrators who did work in 11/99. The liens were filed between Feb and May 2000.
The guy who contracted for the work lived in the house, but was buying it contract for deed. When I looked up the deed, it said he was to make a balloon payment of $85,000 on July 1, 2000. There is no evidence that he made the payment. The seller’s mortgage states that all liens must be paid promptly, as does the contract for deed. When I went to inspections they said the house was in their ‘hold file’, but they didn’t know why. There’s no certificate of occupancy. I’ll drive by tonight to see if it’s empty.
My plan is to offer the lien holders $100 for their notes, then contact the sellers (who did not authorize the work, but whose house title is now clouded) to see if they want to settle for some reasonable sum. They are paying on a $67K mortgage and sold the house on CfD for $92K.