how to contact bank? vacant house next door

Question

Just bought my 1st foreclosure.

We just completed $40,000 in renovations (purchased property on courthouse steps for $40,000) and have it on the market -  $150,000.
It has been on MLS for 60 days.

Great neighborhood - very "clean" street, everyone keeps up homes & lawns.   HOWEVER the house next door is also a foreclosure (been vacant for the past 8 months and an "eye sore" according to realtor feed back.

The property has been turned over to the attorney (rtt-law.com) and foreclosing bank is JP Chase Morgan.  The law firm will not disclose when the property will be offered for sale.

How can I contact JP Chase to discuss the property!???!
I would love to purchase it.

Thanks for any advice.  :-)

Steve Babiak · Answer

You make offers based on them being money makers for you, regardless of whether it is REO, short sale, courthouse auction, FSBO, etc.  What the bank is owed becomes almost irrelevant, except if there is too big of a difference the bank might not approve the short sale.  But you don't want to overpay either ...

Tracy Briggs · Answer

I guess this is stupid question but gotta learn somehow.
How much do I offer???

The house we purchased had an outstanding mortgage balance of $94,000 and courthouse bid started at $39,000.

The house next door has a balance around $123,000 I'm guessing.
(original loan Nov 2006 for $127,000 variable interest rate started at 10.6%  and slated to change Nov 2008).

Tracy Briggs · Answer

Hey Thanks!

I thought it was "too far along" in the process.

I very much appreciate everyone's advice.  :-)

Jake Kucheck · Answer

Yeah, none of these things are really relevant.

Step 1: Find the owner.
Step 2: Ask owner, "hey, can I buy your house for X?"
Step 3: Convince owner that short sale is advantageous to foreclosure.
Step 4: Find Realtors to negotiate short sale with servicer.
Step 5: Close.

Nowhere in there are you talking to anyone that works for JPM Chase, law firms or whatever.

Ibrahim Hughes · Answer

I agree with Jake on contacting the owner and doing the short sale. Look at the foreclosure file. There should be a proof of service document showing where legal docs were mailed to in an attempt to reach and serve the owner. Likely one of those addresses is where the owner is located. Have everything lined up including all paperwork that needs to be signed and realtors ready to represent you and the seller.

In the meantime, don't allow the eye sore to cost you more sales. Clean up the yard, cut the grass and whatever else you have to do to make the property real perty like. It's a catch 22 because eventually you want the place to look like a dump and drop in market value so you can purchase it. BUT your priority right now should be getting your rehab sold.

Tracy Briggs · Answer

I went to the courthouse (South Carolina) and did a search.

the mortgage was assigned in May 2010 to Chase on behalf of Ameritrust which was the original mortgage company.

the substitute trustee has been assigned to the law firm of xxxx and has been given a CP (civil proceedings #).

William D. · Answer

Educate yourself on your state's foreclosure process. This way you can at least gauge where you are in the timeline. If it is about to go to auction or judgment or hasn't moved in a year you will know the probability of your strategies succeeding. If you have time you may be able to do exactly what Jake said and do a short sale with the owner (which is your best shot).

I don't mean to come off as too critical but given the players mentioned there is almost no chance you can make direct contact with a person who can give you private access to buying the property once the bank takes title. One of the big reasons is that it is nearly impossible to determine who the investor/beneficiary is of the loan. It could be a JMP serviced loan on behalf of Fannie Mae. Any offers made will fall on deaf ears and you will be just wasting your human capital.

Jake Kucheck · Answer

So it isn't a foreclosure then.

I would contact the owner and ask them to short sell, then find a couple realtors to represent each of you and make it look like an arms length transaction (otherwise the short sale won't get approved).

Tracy Briggs · Answer

it has not gone to courthouse steps yet - the law firm will not disclose the date it may "go" they just say watch our website

Jake Kucheck · Answer

I'd start with getting their name right: JP Morgan Chase.

From there, its a twisted world of property preservation companies, REO agents and asset managers, none of whom have any incentive to work with you, and certainly not for the purposes of fire selling the asset.  But... if you are adamant about pursuing this particular property, I would do the following:

1) There should be a notice posted on the property- something to the effect of "In event of break in, call XXX-XXXX".  Call that number, see who answers.

2) If that's a dead end, look up all of your local REO agents who are consistently getting fed, and maybe one of them will be lined up for it.

3) Go to your local Chase branch and get friendly with a loan officer, ask them to start digging internally.

If this was 2008, this might get you a deal.  Since its 2012, it probably won't work, but these are the steps I'd take if I were doing this.

Some reason you didn't by this one at the steps too?

how to contact bank? vacant house next door

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