Assessed Value is less (or way less) than Final Judgment Amount

[Artem Voznesenskyi]

I have been looking for pre-foreclosures on county clerks website. In many cases assessed value is less than final judgement amount. What can I possibly  do to approach the owner and actually help? Is there way to negotiate this final judgement amount?

[Dan Maciejewski]

You can ignore the assessed value, so you should be running a CMA on everything you look at that you think is interesting.

For your original questions, no negotiation with the lender; the final judgement amount is final.  The person judged against should have tried to negotiate that.

And you can mail, call, and/or doorknock to try to help.  You will probably need to build a relationship -- people don't just trust someone that cold-approached them.

And in my experience, people that are being foreclosed on have other issues in their life.  Happy, successful people pay their mortgage.  They will need more than just, I'll buy your house under market value and pay off your judgement.  They will be out of work, have some medical emergency, be supporting a family member, etc. . .The problems to solve will inevitably be more than just real estate.