wow, that would piss me off, more so if the other person who bought the house was in cahoots and knows them personally.

This is so frustrating. I've heard the FDIC is doing this as well with their REO - selling to a lowball bidder even if there are others willing to pay more just to get the real estate off the books.

I'm a little confused as to why the home was in foreclosure though -- if the OP had the cash why was the mortgage in default (or was it)?

Maybe next time you will stay current on your mortgage and this won't happen.

Homecomings, a GMAC company. I used to work for GMAC ResCap and I can tell you this, that company used to spout "business with integrity" all the time until the market went in the crapper. Now they are just as scummy and scammy as anyone out there. Not that they were ever that great.

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

Something tells me that if these people couldn't even save their industry from almost total collapse, they're probably not conspiring to screw over homeowners. It's probably just a nice side-effect.

Sounds like the only injured party here is the lender, which got less for the house than it otherwise could have.

So, if he could outright pay for his house to begin with why was he in foreclosure?
That sucks dude, I hope you get it back.

@JustThatGuy3: No, I'd say that the Eric was damn well injured since he lost his home and basically wasted all the time and effort he invested in it.

@Mr.DuckSauce: That was my first thought. Sell it cheap to a "friend" then make a tidy profit a few weeks later.

@Mr.DuckSauce: Yeah I agree. This whole thing was a bunch of shit. But the question is: What can he do about it? You can't complain to anyone about it, can you?
Least I can see is reporting to the Realtor Law people in NC and telling them a offer was accepted on 11-24 and see what they do.

Man this whole thing was reallll shitty.

@RagingBoehner: he said a buddy was helping him out.

"A friend was helping me try to save my home"

With all the money I have put into my house since buying it, I dont know how I would honestly handle the situation.

Since I paid for appliances, siding, garage door, doors, windows and other upgrades I think they might be moving them with me if I was forced out. I do have the reciepts for the guy at the door.

V

@TeeDub: really Captain Obvious? you've come to save us all??

sometimes shit just happens that you cannot control no matter what you do. Taking that stance doesn't work in all situations.

@TeeDub: Well that was just unnecessary.

There's no way the law firm could possibly have 20K in fees. A routine non-judicial foreclosure costs between $1,200 - 2,000, and I fairly certain that North Carolina is a Deed of Trust state so it would be non-judicial. Unless he was challenging the foreclosure, there wouldn't be 20K in fees.

Also, if there was a realtor involved, then they would have written a contract immediately (active or not active). It's their commission on the line, and if they can get more, then they'll do anything.

The story seems to be a little strange.

@JustThatGuy3: unfortunately this is not uncommon. This summer I 'lost out' on bids because the Realtor 'forgot' that I was sending in a bid, even though we(my Realtor and I) had been in constant touch with them and they were aware that I was willing to pay listing price or more.

@RagingBoehner: There's no way they could legally sell off his house unless he hadn't been paying (unless he fell victim to one of those deed swapping scams)

@TeeDub:

Thanks for the useful advice 4chan moderator.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: Yeah, I'm kind of wondering this myself.

Dar's copper in dem dar walls!!

Just kidding. Don't do that. Really.

@JustThatGuy3:

This might sound CRAZY but I'd say the guy trying to buy his house back was screwed over.

@vdragonmpc:

If I was forced out of my home believe me I would be back to collect my appliances even if I had to break in.

My question is: what would the house actually be worth if it wasn't being foreclosed on? The OP says he had a $100k mortgage on the home but it sold for less than $49k. Was this a deal of the century (in which case, if the Op had gotten it at 50K it would have essentially wiped out 50% of his mortgage debt) or was it massively over-leveraged???

What happened here is obvious. Someone involved in the process of selling this home, either in the lawyer's office or in the realtor's, put together a sweetheart deal for themselves or a friend to get this property at a bargain price. They shut Eric out of the process by misleading him so they could get the house themselves for the minimum the bank was willing to accept.

At the very least he should document what happened and inform the seller. The realtor and/or lawyer basically stole money from them, and they are probably not aware of what happened.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: It's entirely plausible that money was tight for a while -- a layoff, let's say, then followed by a cash windfall -- and the mortgage-holder fell behind by one or two payments, in which case there is then NO negotiating with the bank, no matter how much they claim there is, and by the time he had the cash they were already well on their way into the foreclosure and nothing would stop it, come hell or high water.

You know, sometimes you forget to turn off the burner with bacon in the pan which happens to be next to a dishrag which happens to be next to the curtains which happen to be next to an old pile of newspapers...

I wonder what happen if the reader were to conveniently strip everything in the house of value? Or, could he accidentally break every window on the way out?

More than likely, he'll get to keep the house as the story gets investigated by the local press. However, if the writer gets so furious that he no longer wants the house, is there anything stopping him from making sure nobody else will want the house either?

@TeeDub: Simply put: shut up and die, jerkoff.

A realtor has a fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interests of the property owner (presumably the bank in this instance). By ignoring an opportunity to obtain a higher selling price, the Realtor is in breach of contract.

You should contact the Real Estate boards in both states. You should also contact the seller who's best interests were not served by the RE agent. It seems to me they might want to NOT pay the commission owed, since the Realtor is in breach of contract.

Your state Attorney General may also have an interest as will local TV stations, since this is both a 'human interest' story and it puts a local face on the mortgage crisis, certainly a continuing major news story.

Good luck!

My parents were victims of a "sweetheart deal" in Wilson, NC... basically everyone involved in the transaction was in cahoots, letting my folks buy a house that they really couldn't afford (so yes, my parents take some blame in this too). But it was only after they had left NC that they learned how much back-room dealing apparently went on... arranging the mortgage as some sort of business loan, interest-only with a baloon payment (before this sort of thing was popular), stuff like that. Surprised my folks went in for that, but they loved the house, I guess.

It definitely sounds like there was some sort of collusion that went on so that someone could get the house on the cheap.

Eric should contact the state attorney general (maybe even CA's AG, too) and also whatever state entity in NC that is responsible for licensing real estate agents.

This doesn't make sense. I don't know North Carolina law, but generally a mortgagor has an absolute right to redeem the property, even after the foreclosure sale, if he pays the amount of the outstanding mortgage debt. That does not entitle the law firm to insist on attorney's fees above and beyond the mortgage debt.

This guy needs to hire a lawyer right away. And he should file a complaint with the North Carolina Bar Association (or whatever they call it) against that law firm.

@JustThatGuy3:
If the property was bought by a partner or affiliated company then they will resell the house when the property value rises and will make more than he was offering. They get the advantage of waiting as long as they want where as he is SOL.

@backbroken: I think it's sad that people would do that when they couldn't pay the mortgage, but if I was getting screwed over like the guy in the post and I was still living in the place, I'd put up an ad on Myspace and Facebook advertising free beer and free sledgehammers for a demolition party at my house.

@TeeDub: I don't know why everyone is jumping all over you. Your tone may leave a little to be desired, but your point is valid.

That being said, it does sound like the OP was making a good faith effort to correct the mistakes he made, and the shoddy business practices he ran up against prevented him from doing so.

@Adisharr:

Nobody can claim to be "screwed" because another party chose not to sell him something. It's not his house (it ceased to be when he defaulted on his loan), it's not his call to whom it should be sold.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: He said a friend was helping him. Maybe that's where the extra money to save the house came from?

@elocanth:

Eric "lost" his home when he failed to pay the mortgage and defaulted on the loan. At that point, it became the bank's house, and then could sell it to whomever they wanted, at whatever price they wanted.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: Did you not read it. He didn't have the money. A friend got involved to get him the money to buy off the mortgage.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: As the OP noted in his story, his friend was helping him buy the house back. One might infer that the OP ran into financial trouble and only got help after he defaulted on the mortgage.

@Adisharr:

And that would be breaking and entering and theft. The appliances become part of the house once they're installed.

@vdragonmpc: Yeah man, I would strip all that shit out, even if I couldn't use it.

@dwasifar:

Agreed - sounds like someone ripped off the bank here.

@BoomerFive: Nah, IMO ResCap has always been kinda scummy (in my experience of business dealings at least). They jumped on the Alt-A tide just as fast as Countrywide did (and even built one of the most widely used automated underwriting systems to support the making of those loans.)

A house is a house, just that and nothing more. Cut your loses and take your cash and get a better place.

@SkokieGuy: I agree, you should definitely contact the local media about this.

@backbroken: How else would he get his fix money? Doing speedballs every day isn't cheap, and like you said, the copper is right there for the taking.

@ZenMasterKel: I concur. The laws are pretty laid out for what must happen in a forclosure- it kind of sounds like the OP didn't really know what they were or had anyone working for him as an advocate to ensure his rights in the situation.

Not really related to the story (which really does suck), but I find it funny that those who express themselves best are the most likely to apologize for their inability to do so.

This was a well-written and articulate--if somewhat impassioned--account of what happened, which is a rare find on the interwebz. And then he apologizes for his "poorly written email". Just kind of funny.