All Forum Posts by: Blair Nye

UPDATE: 

I've filed a claim with title insurance and have been assigned an attorney. All attorney fees are to be covered by my insurance. 

My closing attorney has something to lose since she's the one that reviewed the title and called it good, so I'm no longer directly working with her. 

Rocket Mortgage is still pursuing the foreclosure. 

Title Insurance has admitted to me that they may have to eat this one and pay the balance of the mortgage owed to Rocket Mortgage if fault is not found to lie with my closing attorney who reviewed the title. 

Apparently the closing attorney had reason to believe the old debt had been settled, so she sent out a "letter of satisfaction", stating that the debt had been satisfied. Rocket Mortgage then had 30 days to respond. After 30 days with no response, she proceeded to close the transaction. Nearly two years later (now), Rocket Mortgage is filing for foreclosure. 

At this point I'm 99.99% sure that life will generally continue as usual for us and our rental property, but I'm not relaxing until the ink is dry and the debt has been settled. 

I'm scheduled to speak with my appointed attorney this coming Monday. I'll update the post upon any major developments.

Thanks to everyone for your insightful and actionable responses. 

Thanks for the thoughtful response. This is a huge help. I just emailed my attorney asking about everything you mentioned. I'll update the thread with how things are going once I know more.  

Thank you @Todd Rasmussen! This is a clear and concise action plan. I'm working it this morning. I appreciate your help!

I'm an out of state investor living in Tacoma, WA. I own a property in Fayetteville, NC that I bought in January of 2021 and have never missed a payment on. When my PM visited the property this morning they found foreclosure documents there, with a scheduled court hearing date of December 5th, 2022. Apparently three owners back the owner did a quit claim deed to an LLC. This was in 2013. That owner is now being pursued by Rocket Mortgage for $58,000. And since Rocket Mortgage doesn't appear to have gotten ahold of him, they are now coming after the property.

When I bought this property, we went through all the standard paperwork, including title insurance and a title search. No red flags came up and we had a smooth closing. I had a local agent representing me and we closed through a local law firm that handles a high volume of real estate transactions. 

The same law firm that handled the closing AND the title search is now looking into this issue for me. I have a lot of questions, but these are my top 3. Any insight is appreciated!

1) Should I speak to another attorney about this?

2) Has anyone ever been on the wrong end of a foreclosure and successfully fought it? If so, what did you ?

3) What would you do if you were in my shoes? 

Hey Joshua. I don't yet own any properties in the Charlotte area, but I do own a single family rental in Fayetteville as well as a duplex in Tacoma, WA (also a competitive market). I highly recommend getting good at analyzing markets and taking a look at the secondary markets around Charlotte (Gastonia, Concord, Albemarle, Rock Hill, etc.). They'll experience growth as Charlotte grows. 

Also, if you're open to it, house hacking is a great way to get a single family or small multifamily in an expensive market. You'd technically have to live there for a year, but you can secure great financing with low money down and have a cash flowing property when you move out. 

Thanks for your input @Bill B.. I ended up going with the property manager that quoted me those original numbers, but I was able to negotiate a better fee structure. 

I know this post is about a month old, but if you're still looking for a great property manager, I recommend NRB Properties. The owner, Randy Schell, is an expert communicator and provides great customer service. I've worked with them for almost two years. Fantastic company. 

www.nrbproperties.net

@Andrew Carlson Thanks, man. I won’t let it get me down. There’s always bumps in the road with real estate. And agreed! This area is beautiful. Especially in the spring and summer. Thanks for the input and encouragement! 

@Andrew Carlson That's depressing. Lol. Thanks for the input. We've contacted a few window repair companies as well as a roofing contractor. We hope to have it figured out soon. I'll post when I have more info. 

We re-caulked all of the window seal and the siding above / around the window. Not sure how it could be getting in but I’m no expert in this area. Thanks for the input. Talking to some window contractors now.