All Forum Posts by: Karen Polis

Everyone knows this person- the borrower. He used to network heavily in the area. We've all met him in person. He told us from the get-go that this property is held in a land trust and gave both his personal name and the name of the trust. 

I'm confused on the Beneficiary - is that the person who set the Land Trust up? As opposed to the investors?

Wendell - a question about "Firing the trustee."

Sounds like you saying that we have the right to fire him from the contract and reclaim it for ourselves. I assume he would have to sign it over to us? 
One of the issues we are having is that he won't communicate with any of us. He appears to be in hiding (at least from the people he owes money to).

Is there some way to force him to sign this over or force him to contact us?

Wendell - this is a very useful answer (as was everybody else's as well). Thank you for taking the time to write all this out. I will forward this info to the others.

Thank you - fortunately, one of the investors is a licensed realtor, so we have a few things covered on that end. There are 2 attorneys involved at the moment, although I personally, don't have an attorney. I may at least want to consult with one. We've been meeting regularly to work this out among the 5 of us. Being that we all feel swindled by the borrower, I doubt any one of this group is actually out to screw the others over. We will be signing new contracts to cover all of us and we also realize we may have to compromise on those original contracts. 

Good idea. Thanks.

Thank you. We have done a title search. I didn't know that a title search could reveal unpaid contractors.
So, it sounds like you are saying that I need to put into writing what my terms are before doing any type of foreclosure, because I would be at the mercy of the other 3 if the deed becomes mine due to buying up the taxes?

Yes, we do have record mortgages for all of our loans. But no personal guarantees - do those even exist?
All of those involved are willing to work together to make it right for everyone. We are trying to get the land trust to deed the property over to us without further cost. I don't know if there are any precedents for this?

Seeking ADVICE / Property is in Norristown, PA

I lent money to somebody (a land trust) for a fix and flip. Unfortunately, I did not do my homework beforehand, otherwise I would have realized there are 4 other investors prior to me that were already defaulted on for their loans. The Land Trust has just been served for back taxes.

All five investors are now in touch with one another and we are trying to salvage this deal to the best outcome for all. At this point, we only want our original money back–we are not even expecting profits, although that would be nice.

One of the original investors is trying to get the property deeded over to him so that he can finish the deal, however, we just learned that if this happens, it could wipe all of us other investors out completely. Since I am the last in line on this, I am told that I am the one who should be foreclosing. Also, if the taxes are sold, then we are all out of luck.

I am willing to buy the taxes to keep it in our control, but I don't know where to go from there. We have tried to get in touch with the land trust owner and of course, he is ignoring us. He even ignored several attorneys letters sent to him in the past. At this point, my guess is that he has used our money to live on and is running scared. 

All five of us investors have legitimate contracts with paperwork that tie us to the property, so in that sense, it is not a scam. But we can no longer rely on the land trust to make this right. The investors have to band together and because we are all newbies (obviously the land trust owner knew this)–we are not sure how to handle it. 

Any advice from people who have actual knowledge in this area and not just conjecture from reading books would be wonderful. 

Thank you! Karen.