Sheriff sale foreclosure

[Shawn Ross]

Hey everyone, been reading the books for a couple years now and ran into a situation I thought the forums might be able to help with.

I’ve been following a house that’s been up for mortgage foreclosure for a couple months now. The second mortgage was up for sale for a cheap price, 11k. The house is nice and looks like it’s worth about 200k+, so obviously I knew something was up. I found the first mortgage is still not satisfied and it’s a 21 year mortgage from 2004, for 190k. So I’m thinking there’s 4-6 years left unpaid on the mortgage still. 80-100k. Can’t get the owner to answer the door. That’s another issue, person still lives there. But also means house is in livable condition. 

Here’s where it gets more interesting, I go to the sale and get outbid for 29k. I didn’t feel comfortable going further without know the exact amount on the first mortgage. So I ended up running into the buyer a few hours later (what are the chances) and she had no idea there even was a first mortgage. She’s never done this before....She had already paid the 10%, but not the full 29k yet. I showed her the info and she is way out of her league and doesn’t have the funds to pay the first mortgage. I told her I will still purchase the house so we talk to the sheriff. 

I’m waiting on info from their solicitors as well as my attorney. They told me I can pay the remainder of the first sale and have the deed put in my name. And then I’m obviously on the hook for the 1st mortgage. But I’m hung up because if this uninformed buyer wasn’t here I would’ve only had 11k invested (a lot easier to walk away from) instead of 30k. They also said the remainder I pay over (19kish) would go towards paying off the first mortgage so I wouldn’t be paying more, just risking more upfront essentially. 

Can the payoff on the first mortgage be more than what it was for somehow? It isn’t an open ended mortgage or anything. Could they have not paid that first mortgage for more than a year or two? And I owe more than 4-6 years?

I know I can risk it and see if she defaults and it goes back up, but I also risk losing the house. I guess I’m looking for advice or what some of my other options are. And this has to be done in 3 days of course lol. Thanks I’m advance guys!