Short Sale Investing in States with Anti-Short Sale Laws

[Account Closed]

Hi Everyone,

I live in Oregon and we're one of 14 states that has foreclosure consultancy laws. I've been told by my title company that I can't perform investor short sale transactions due to these laws.

Verbiage in OR House Bill 3630 states that I can't sell investment property before 24 months. Otherwise the investor has to pay 82% the profits back to the seller (bank). Furthermore, violators of the law will receive a year imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. So the title companies are extremely paranoid about not breaking these laws.

Nothing in the bill refers to short sale investors or LLCs that buy and sell homes. From my understanding, foreclosure consultants purchase properties only to sell them back to the original home owner for a higher price!

Is this the same as a short sale investor, who purchases discounted properties from banks, only to sell them to buyers for a profit? I don't think so! But evidently we're thrown into the same category with the title companies.

My question to all of you is this; does OR House Bill 3630 apply to the short sale investor? Are there any real estate attorneys out there (from Oregon or out-of-state) who can answer my question?

--Yvette

P.S. Here's a link to the actual bill.

http://www.leg.state.or.us/08ss1/measpdf/hb3600.dir/hb3630.intro.pdf