10:17 – We’re doing the usual Saturday stuff. As soon as I post this, I’ll start the laundry. This afternoon we’ll do more packing/cleaning in the library and my office.
This weekend, we’ll do a quick check of some of the germination test baggies. Some of the species should be well on their ways by now, but some won’t show any change yet. In particular, parsnips are notoriously slow-germinating. I won’t bother to check them until they’ve had three weeks to get started.
We’re expecting to hear about the house on Monday. The bank that holds the main mortgage on the property has already accepted our offer. The holdup is that some idiots gave the owners a second mortgage AFTER they’d declared bankruptcy in 2013 AND AFTER that bankruptcy had been cleared by the court last November. So that debt is still current and the second mortgage company has filed a lien against the property. The bank that holds the first mortgage is on the edge of foreclosing. If that happens, the second mortgage company gets nothing at all, so they should be motivated to take a small fraction of what they’re owed. We authorized our broker to offer them $5,000. Our real estate attorney is waiting to hear back from the second mortgage holders. If they refuse, the property gets foreclosed, they lose everything, and all bets are off on the sale of the house.
The lien holders are in a position to make life very uncomfortable for the owners. Since they went bankrupt in 2013, they can’t for a while and in the meantime, the lien holders could sue for any deficiency and get a judgement, which can then be sold to a collection agency.
Blood from turnips?
Unfortunately the second mortgage after a bankruptcy is all too common because there are way to many bottom feeding skeezy “loan” companies allowed to operate. They actually prey (actively solicit) on the bankrupt. Why do the “Regulators” allow them to operate? Because if a person has declared bankruptcy they have no debts so they can “afford” to take on new debt. Of course the interest rates are just below established usury rates. Makes no sense, but that is the shadow “World of Finance”.
Do expect that second mortgage either has already been are will be turned over to a collection agency and expect that you’ll have to get tough with them.
Final warning, I would not trust the Seller in the least. Require a final inspection after the Seller has vacated before the deal is truly closed. Examples of what some Sellers take with them: the HVAC System, hot water heater, toilets, carpets, copper pipe, copper wire, breaker boxes. In other words they strip the house.
” Require a final inspection after the Seller has vacated before the deal is truly closed.”
Absolutely!
or they could use a can opener (church key) to carve obscenities into the drywall
or pour chicken blood into heating vents
or a variety of nasty ways to get “revenge” on the banks and people who “took advantage” of them.
If the sellers are being forced, they may react badly, no matter how nice they would be under other circumstances.
DON”T expect them to clean or paint, or do anything else, and do expect (even if they are nice) a bunch of trash and leftover debris everywhere.
If it turns out otherwise, you can be pleasantly surprised.
nick
Oh, yeah. We’ll visit the house the morning of the closing, camera and camcorder in hand. If they’ve taken anything or trashed the place, we won’t close, at least unless the bank agrees to take less.
Do expect that second mortgage either has already been are will be turned over to a collection agency and expect that you’ll have to get tough with them.
Please, please, please tell me that you will be getting title insurance at the closing. Why do such beautiful houses have such sordid histories?
Title insurance is not mandatory here in The Great State of Texas for cash deals. In fact, a lot of cash buyers skip it to save the 3% cost and take that money from the seller. Many of the buyers regret that down the road.
Also, why is the seller is this predicament? Is it loss of job, a health issue, a drug addiction issue, alcoholism, or just general incompetence? Drug issues of previous owners can be scary when the dealers come around looking for their customers. Meth heads are totally irrational people.
DON”T expect them to clean or paint, or do anything else, and do expect (even if they are nice) a bunch of trash and leftover debris everywhere.
The last time I cleaned up my father-in-laws section 8 house, the tenants had not thrown out the trash for the last six to eight weeks. They just bagged it and threw the bags in a corner of the room. Those bags were moving when I hauled them to the curb. A couple of them broke open in the process, cleaning them up was absolutely horrible. They “cleaned” the fridge and just threw the contents in the kitchen sink. It was horrible.
In fact, a lot of cash buyers skip it to save the 3% cost and take that money from the seller.
Title insurance in Texas is paid for by the seller. And is much more expensive than in most states because we don’t have a modern title recording system in place.
They apparently have a history of this crap, including another house that was foreclosed on a few years ago. Anyone who’d lend them money is an idiot.
I don’t think we need to worry about drugs, etc. The couple is apparently in their late 60’s or 70’s. They simply have no clue about money management.
When I bought my current place the legal advice I had was that it was the vendors’ responsibility to maintain it in the same condition as when I inspected it. Because the sale of my house in Canberra took three months the vendors (a retired doctor who wasn’t in good health, and his wife) had to keep the garden in good condition and properly watered. They had already downsized into a smaller place.
Fortunately, it all worked out. The house was in great condition when I moved in, all I had to do was unpack furniture.
Voted in today’s state and local elections. Held my nose and voted for Vitter for governor; with all his faults, he can’t be any worse than the absentee governor who’s spent more time in almost every other state but Louisiana for the last eight years.
It occurs to me that another benefit of we peasants continuing to vote is that doing so may lull our lords temporal into a false sense of security, blinding them to the possibility of any eventual uprising.
Ya reckon the second mortgage holders are hoping the first mortgage holders will pay them off so that the sale happens?
Good luck with the house – it would be nice for you to finally have a place to move to.
It’s a shame that some people get themselves into these financial messes. Inability to manage their own lives; not a pretty picture. Sometimes not entirely their fault; shit does happen. Although repeating the same mistakes again and again (as these sellers apparently have) does argue that they haven’t yet understood life.
Whole bunch of USGS topo maps for free.
@SteveF – thanks for the link, could easily turn a person into a map junkie. Chalk this up as one of the good things about the Internet.
I got topo maps for my AO up here a while back, including detailed maps for the town and “city.” All free. But I did pay about 80 bucks for a large customized, laminated topo map of the AO, too, and it hangs behind me in the office, being used in conjunction with the scanners and local rag’s occasional police log.
“…blinding them to the possibility of any eventual uprising.”
Which they seem to be nervous about. We shall see soon enough.