About Short Sales

Buy Notes – Who is Your Borrower?

I just got off the phone with the Sr. Vice President of a California bank in charge of note sales, and a note broker friend of mine who set up the call.

The bank had 3 defaulted mortgages which were commercial loans based in the Los Angeles area.

How to Buy Notes…communicate with your borrower

Hear me out…

So the SVP told me that one of the loans has a foreclosure sale scheduled 2 weeks from now.

The bank had not been in contact with the builder/developer (borrower).

I asked her if she was concerned about the loans or not, and if she was worried about whether she would have any problems taking over the properties through the foreclosure.

She told me she wasnt concerned because the property values would allow them to pay off their loan.

Buy Notes – My Concerns

The most important thing that I have learned is that building the relationship with your borrower is key. This is probably one of the most important concepts in the note buying business. Manage your relationships.

By not working with your borrower, you can really mess up your chances of getting out of your note deals.

This is why…

For all loans, there are 5 Note Buying Exit Strategies:

foreclosure, refinance, short sale or deed-in-lieu, note sale, and reperformance.

Out of these options, the only 2 that will succeed with no borrower contact are foreclosure and note sale.

In this example, the bank has chosen foreclosure as the exit. But the time it could take to recover the property can easily be postponed, if the borrowers file for bankruptcy. This is one of the risks associatied with foreclosures.

My Advice on Buying Notes

Buying notes can bring you high returns without have to foreclose or to sell the note to someone else.

So if you lose contact with your borrower, you are essentially killing about 60% of your note buying exits. (3 of the 5)

Would a professional golfer get onto a course with only 5 of 12 clubs?

Wouldn’t that limit their game?

Probably.

It sure would be entertaining watching him hit a putt with a 9-iron.

I know it can be painful, but working with your borrower is essential in the note buying business.

This is the same advice that I shared with the LA bank today.

I will be tracking her non performing notes so see if any of them end up in bankruptcy. Then we will know if she took my advice.

And if the notes do end up in BK, I am pretty sure that she will be regretting the fact that she lost communication with her borrowers.

One must decide whether or not to choose bankruptcy or foreclosure. The right decision is taking immediately is not very easy. A mortgage lender will initiate a foreclosure proceeding if the monthly mortgage payments fail to be met. The best way to prevent this action would be to pay the holder or your mortgage.

A mortgage loan can be compared to a car loan in the sense that if you don not pay it back, the car will be taken or repossessed by the bank. By not making the monthly mortgage payments you can ultimately wind up with the same fate of losing your house.

Bankruptcy is a last resort legal way to get out of paying your debts if you are unable to do so. These steps put a halt to proceedings against the debtor while the person is in bankruptcy. At this point the lender has to stop all planned actions including a planned foreclosure action.

Even then to get relieve from the automatic stay a mortgage lender can go for legal action and when granted a stay can comfortably proceed with the further action. The truth is bankruptcy does not stop foreclosure nor does it allow you to keep your house with out paying the mortgage lender. Bankruptcy does not eradicate the situation; it merely slows the process down.

While bankruptcy doesn’t stop foreclosure, it gives a person time to repay or at least makes easy to repay a mortgage lender. Because bankruptcy forces a mortgage lender to stop the foreclosure proceeding, it gives the debtor additional time to come up with funds to repay the lender. It is the last resort for any debtor to declare bankruptcy when he is totally unable to meet his creditors commitments.

Under such circumstances, he may be discharged by some unsecured debts but under mortgage, he shall be prepare to repay the debt within the given time as the debt is secured by tangible assets. In addition, chapter 13 bankruptcy is a fee schedule that is court-ordered, and lets the debtor make payments on his mortgage to get up to date on his balance across a time frame.

Not everyone qualifies for bankruptcy and Unfortunately if they do qualify, there are legal fees to pay. The legal costs and fees may be more than the amount needed to catch up and make current mortgage payments. If you think that bankruptcy may help you stop or avoid foreclosure, talk with a licensed lawyer. Bankruptcy is complicated enough that you need to hire a lawyer who knows what he or she is doing.

The article is composed of generalized info, so if there are any queries of any type in regards to this subject you need to consult with an attorney licensed in your state.

It has finally happened; you have qualified for a mortgage and now you own your home. Owning a home can be great, but it is now more important than ever to understand foreclosure and what some of the terms are related to foreclosure so you can hopefully avoid it.

Foreclosures can seem complicated since there are so many different terms associated with them. Real estate agents and loan officers might know these terms like the back of their hands, but to the rest of us, it would be easy to get confused when terms start to be used.

Lien holder is another term important to understand as it relates to foreclosure. The lender, usually a bank or credit union, gives you money to finance your purchase of the home. This means there is a lien on the home. In truth, the lien holder has the power to take back the home, or foreclose on it, if you don’t keep your contractual obligations.

Acceleration or acceleration clause is also an important term to know. Most mortgage terms contain an acceleration clause these days. This is what allows the lien holder to declare the entire amount of the home as debt owed and not just the amount you have defaulted on paying.

If you are behind on payments, and there is an acceleration clause in your mortgage, the lien holder can decide to accelerate your mortgage and require you pay the full amount or the home will be foreclosed. If there weren’t an acceleration clause, technically if you failed to make payments, the mortgage holder could really only hold you accountable for what you haven’t paid, not the full amount you owe on the home. They would have to wait until payments became due.

Default is another term often associated with foreclosure. Default refers to the lack of payments on time and in full to the mortgage. This means that the borrower failed to stick to the terms and conditions of the loan and therefore defaulted on their payments and the loan. Default often leads to foreclosure of the home.

Even though foreclosure can seem like a tedious concept to understand, knowing these terms will help you navigate your way through and hopefully even avoid foreclosure. Understanding the terms will help you be able to communicate better with your lien holder so you feel like you are not left in the dark.