Door/window signs

[Mario Arguello]

I acknowledge that everyone's time is very valuable so I will thank you in advance for reading through my post/ question and I especially thank you if you have any knowledge to help settle my questions.

In my local area, I built a pretty long list of possible properties that I could assign over to local investors. I've tracked down mostly all of the owners except for a few "unclear" owners.

These few properties have an owner listed under them but the door/window signs mention a lender protecting and preserving the property. Or it just has a city sticker on them. Some just appear abandoned with no stickers or signs.

As far as I can research, most of these properties have some Notice to Foreclose document on it but no Judgement, Power of Attorney, or Possession doc that tells me a lender is in control of the property (especially with the properties that have no stickers/signs and just look abandoned).

I came across several other properties I thought I may be able to do something with. However, after a little research and digging it was clear that the name on file of the property was some lender, bank, or even the city/municipality. There was a clear Notice to Foreclose doc, Judgement, Power of Attorney doc, and then Possession doc. But with the properties I'm talking about in the above paragraphs, as far as I can research, the owner name stops with a specific individual.

My questions are, may there still be a possibility that the owner of the property has a chance to sell it if contacted? Could a lender own a home even if the name attached to the property at the tax assessors office is a specific individual? And if the lender is in control, is there a way someone could contact them and possibly purchase the property from them even though the home is not on the market?

Thank you for taking the time to answer any of these questions. I really appreciate any feedback.

[Tj Hines]

Hey Mario,

Believe it or not in most of the time these properties are in the foreclosure process but have not yet been foreclosed on. I know here in Florida, depending on the lender it may take a couple of years to actually go ahead and foreclose on the property. So the answer to your question is YES you can still let the owner that their property hasn't been foreclosed on.

A way to find out if the owner has not been foreclosed on is ask the owner if they have received a letter regarding a specific sale date where the property will be auctioned off down at the court steps. If they haven't received this letter then there is still time for you to purchase this property.

The sad news is the only way you can purchase this property is by getting the owner to do a short sale. This is where your expertise will have to come in hand. You have to educate the homeowner on all of the BAD things that could happen if the bank forecloses on the property. You MUST know all of the fear factors, this will be very helpful.

2nd step to that is you must know how to negotiate with other lenders negotiators which can become very trying and frustrating. I would honestly do some research to see who are the top short sale negotiators are in your area and delegate that work to them. They will charge you a flat fee or in most cases if they are good at their craft they will have the bank pay their negotiation fees.

Hope this helps! Go get em'