Foreclosure Experience

In 2018 I sold a home to an unmarried couple, and held terms (I am too old to do that now, so have stopped the practice). The folks made the first 5 payments and no more. Payments were a hair above $900, which even then was not bad for a house like they got. After a year, maybe 2, I started a foreclosure. Not many lawyers will do this any more. There was just one local one who’d do it. In due time, we did a virtual appearance before the judge. The buyers said they were going to get a regular mortgage to pay me off. The judge agreed to hold things off for a couple of months while they did that. Think. Now, what bank is going to fund people who make no attempt to pay? Of course they are going to ask me about their payment history. And of course I would tell them the truth. And when the next date came around, of course they said they were still looking for a mortgage. So they got a few more months. This went on and on. Finally they did not even bother to appear, which finally pissed off the judge. So we could now go to the next step. Finally.  Things moved again, though very slowly, and last August the foreclosure was finally decided in my favor. But so far, the judge has not signed off on his ruling, which is the final step before it's official. I think my lawyer is afraid to piss off the judge by leaning him do his job.

Then I learn there is a lien on the place of 10 grand (unpaid rent from before my time). They had that when we started and my lawyer (a different one) failed to pick it up. So, now I have to pay that off to give clear title to anyone who buys it.

Finally they (father and son) left, She’d been gone a couple of years before, after an argument they had. Went to Montana…somewhere. No one would tell me where, so I was unable to serve papers on her. That made an another huge delay, in the beginning. In a new place, he was now wiling to be, in his words, “cooperative.”

So I asked my lawyer to draft a deed in lieu of foreclosure from them to me, along with other needed paperwork. They both agreed to sign (by now she’d returned to New York and I was again able to communicate with her). Since she did not want her ex to have any notion where she was living, we had to figure out a way to eliminate addresses on the paperwork. She met me, but did not sign then and there as I (foolishly) hoped. Some weeks later, she did sign and returned things to me. Then I called him to get his signature, but had to leave a message. He did not bother to return the call. Two weeks later, sShe called, checking on things. I explained that I was waiting on him. Grrr, she’d get his butt moving, she said.  She did too and 2 months after I started the deed in lieu of foreclosure mess, he signed. Very friendly now.

The following day I was at the lawyer's to have him look things over and to settle up with him. All was good, the papers properly executed, so I headed to the County Clerk to have the new deed filed. But they did not like the fact that she’d xeroxed the papers and the little “sign here” stick-ons were xeroxed with it. But they were nice and said they’d let this slide. Then the girl got her superior to look things over. Apparently the xeroxing  was not to her satisfaction as one page showed up twice, with the lower half x-ed out on one and the upper half on the other. Can’t have x-es, she said. Could I get that redone? If I had a mustache, both ends would have touched, I drooped so much as that request. She noticed. I explained how much trouble it had been to get this done the first time, so she got creative with Scotch tape. I just had to fill out the top part again; we’d retain the half with the signatures.

I asked if I could title this as we usually do, in our trust’s name. The front deck gal said “Sure”. But when the back desk gal saw that, she said we now had to completely redo the deed as it originally was in our names, not the trust's. Reluctantly, she agreed to let me white it out and rewrite it the way she wanted. So I paid them their $200 and was done. It was now mine again.

I marched across the hall to the County Treasurer to make sure taxes had been paid. Of course they weren’t. So another check was written, for well over $10000. Then they told me that did not include the most recent bill as they don't get sent over until June 1st. When I got home, I called the Town for their figures. Fortunately, someone was in who could answer for me. That is not always the case; these little Towns do not have full-time employees in their offices. For nearly $5000 more, the rest of the taxes could be up to date. Whoopee. This should be a lesson to anyone who fails to pay taxes on time. Their “little" charges add up very fast, they compound. Since no one from the town bugs you to pay taxes, many find it easy to put them out of their minds. Who wants to think about taxes anyhow? Let it go long enough that they simply take title to your home and sell it to someone who will pay taxes.

Anyway, it’s now ours again to fix up and sell again. Did I mention they had a fire? Not a bad one, but still it’s damage that must be repaired. I'd spent a day earlier picking up trash from the yard. What I could see. When I cut the grass, I found a lot more. The burnables, mostly limbs, are piled up in the garden to immolate once the State ban on fires is off. I figure that I have at least 9 cubic yards of stuff that I need to take to the dump. Along with 12 tires ($4.50 each to dispose of). I spent 2 hours today getting left-behind toys out of a closet. There were 2 full totes of toy trucks, car and tractors, all in good shape. And another full of Legos. And a smaller one with kid's DVDs and books and school stuff. And a brand-new, never-worn set of boots, buried under the piles of stuff. More totes and lots of shopping bags were filed with things I had neither time or patience to sort out. Among the detritus were thousands, many thousands, of tiny little balls, crayons, pencils, all things that could fit inside shot glasses. I really regretted not bringing a snow shovel to pick these things up with. It would have been so much faster.

Now, I know a major reason why he failed to pay both his mortgage and the taxes. He spent his money buying crap for his kid. So you know what I will be doing for the next few weeks. Cleaning up, making dump runs, remodeling, painting, getting things working again. The lot and location are top notch. The house will be beautiful again once we are done with it. We did it once, we can do it again.