I used to follow all of the foreclosures in Wake County. It was a daily (or at least twice a week) trip to the courthouse. The homeowners association foreclosures are filed with all of the other foreclosures, in the special proceedings office of the county courthouse.
I suppose if you didn’t want to have the daily hassle, and were only interested in HOAs, you could find out the attorneys that handle the foreclosures for the large complexes… I would guess that 90% of the HOA filings are handled by only 3 attorneys here in Wake County.
Need advice on escrow refund checks received - Posted by Sue (NC)
Posted by Sue (NC) on February 27, 2005 at 09:54:47:
I recently sold 2 houses that I had purchased at foreclosure sale (one homeowner’s association lien, one 2nd mortgage). When I purchased the homes, I just took over paying the 1st mortgages, leaving them in the names of the original owners.
I used online services to change all of the contact addresses for both loans, and I’m glad that I did. I’ve now got 3 escrow balance refund checks in hand, made out to the previous owners. If they had received them, they would surely have cashed them (and I’m the one who paid all of the escrow overages). If they were for only a few bucks I would forget it, but they total over 2K.
I’m not on the best of terms with one past owner (I tried to sell his house back to him at a steep discount, but gave up after 6 months of no progress, and he sees it as my fault). The other would possibly sign the check over to me, but he never removed his wife from the mortgage after thier divorce, and she’s nowhere to be found - and her name is on the check as well.
Any suggestions for:
Getting testy ex-owners to sign over a check when they think I cheated them out of their home? I’m willing to give them $100 or so, but suspect they’ll get nasty anyway.
Getting a mortgage company to reissue an escrow refund check to a third party? (I’ve tried what I could think of, including a letter to legal department saying that I had made all of the payments, included evidence of that claim, and said that the original owners would be unjustly enriched if they got the funds - no use)
3)Avoiding this trap in the future? I tried to get the closing attorneys to ask the mortgage companies to pay the property taxes before the closings, but one refused, and the other claimed not to have ample funds (although they had about $200 over).
With all of the people doing subject-to and foreclosures, certainly there’s a way around this…
Re: Need advice on escrow refund checks received - Posted by JohnBoy
Posted by JohnBoy on February 27, 2005 at 12:47:01:
How did you purchase these at a foreclosure sale and then leave the loans in place by just taking them over? If you purchase at the sale you have to pay off the first in the amount of the accepted bid. Do you mean you purchased these while in the preforeclosure stage before they went to sale by reinstating the first and leaving the loan in place?
Re: Need advice on escrow refund checks received - Posted by Sue (NC)
Posted by Sue (NC) on February 27, 2005 at 14:34:22:
In NC, the bid at the foreclosure sale is made only on the amount outstanding on that loan or indebtedness, not all of the senior liens. So when you buy on a homeowner’s association sale, you might only need to pay $500-2000. The homeowner’s association or second mortgage lenders don’t really care if you pay off the first mortgages. Sometimess the first mortgage lenders do care. But I’ve been lucky so far (and I do have funds to pay the loans off if necessary).
It’s a great way to control ownership with only a little bit down, but this is a hurdle I haven’t yet figured out.
Incidentally, if I had paid off at the sale, I would likely be in the same position. First mortgage lenders often give payoff info that covers the escrows as well, and they often overestimate the escrow needed. Since the homeowners in default aren’t paying their mortgages, their not paying escrows, either. And the lender’s payoff usually includes some amount of overage, which they’ll later refund. Problem is that they refund it to the name on the loan.
Need advice on escrow refund checks received - Posted by Bill H
Posted by Bill H on February 28, 2005 at 20:28:04:
Sue:
If the deal is that good…what are you crying about…just let the checks go uncashed and forget it.
By the way…NC is NOT unique…every state that I have ever bought foreclosure in you only have to pay the amount for the foreclosing lien…NEVER any senior liens…AND…the juniors with the exception of Federal Liens…get wiped off title.
I am no expert on this but,
When I buy a property sub-2 I always get seller to sign a POA just for this reason. It has worked in the past for me and hopefully will continue to do so. In your situation I can’t offer any advise.
I know, I know. I should be happy with what I’ve made (one was exceptionally good, even after letting the ex-owner have a couple of months free).
But it never hurts to try to increase your bottom line by a few thousand…if there’s an easy way to do it.
I’ve been buying foreclosures for about 16 years - first tinkering with one or two a year,
then about 10 years buying 7-10 a year,
then only buying real ‘steals’ for a couple of years
and now…my kids are at a great age (when they’re old enough to play games mom likes, yet young enough that they still want mom around), so the foreclosures are less interesting now. Nice to have the cash from REI to be able to slow down for a bit.