Original owner had three children and three properties with over $1M in equity from all three houses combined.  Prior to her passing, while she was sick and on her death bed, her son created a living trust on behalf of his mother, that named him the Trustee to her estate and left him all three of her properties.  He was also able to get his mother to refinance one the three properties and pull out $300k in proceeds. Shortly after all this was completed she passed away.  The son never told his siblings of the trust or the refinancing and transferred the title to all three properties into his name soon after her passing.  About a year after her passing, he fell on hard times financially and couldn’t keep up with the mortgages on 2 of the houses that had mortgages.  One of those houses that he fell behind on the mortgage with, his sister lived in with their brother. Her mother had let her stay in that house as long as she paid for it and managed it like her own.  Which she did for many years. She eventually found out that the house went into foreclosure when I contacted her and informed her that a Notice of Default was recorded against that home.  She was shocked and outraged and told me about the other 2 houses her mother had.  Upon my further Investigation I found out that of the two other houses, one was free and clear and the other had already been lost to a foreclosure sale.

Our Solution:

I evaluated all the properties and how much was owed and their values. I quickly realized that the Brother who caused all the foreclosure had did a cash out refinance of the house the sister and brother lived and pulled out almost $300k.  The total value of the equity with that cash out refinance was about $900k. Which means that 1/3 of the estate had already been inherited by this brother.

What I proposed to the sister was to retain a couple of different attorneys to represent her and her brother in regards to her mothers Estate and the fraudulent activity we suspected of her brother.  I have very strong legal partners that I use regularly for Probate and Real Estate matters.  I would then communicate directly with her Brother to inform him of our suspicions and try to negotiate a peaceful transfer of the properties and the estate into her and her brother’s name.  By doing this, it would give his sister control of the remaining 2/3 of her Mother’s Estate to divide between her and her brother. Unfortunately, when the brother did the cash out refinance he encumbered the property his sister and brother lived in to a point that was unaffordable.  Which means they eventually would have to move out and lose that property as well.  However they would be able to fix up and sell her Mother’s free and clear home and recover some of what they lost in the property that was sold at a foreclosure sale.

PCC would finance all the attorney costs, negotiation with the brother, recovery of the remaining proceeds, rehabbing her Mothers free and clear home, relocation and moving costs and would form a Equity Partnership in the eventual sale of the last house remaining.

How your solution was successful:

We were able to convince the brother to transfer the Estate to the sister and brother. By doing so the Sister was able to form an Equity Partnership on the Rehabbing and sale of the remaining free and clear home. We rehabbed the home and sold it at full market value. We recovered the remaining proceeds from the house that was lost at a foreclosure sale. We assisted the sister and brother with all their moving and relocation needs including helping them secure a new permanent residence. The Mother’s Estate was eventually divided more equitably then before and the Sister and Brother had greater peace with how things turned out.

Mrs. Owner passed away with no will or trust.

Her Brother was helping her with property in her last days and got authorized on the Loan prior to her passing and pulled it out of Foreclosure at that time.  About 6 months later he passed away.  Since no one was authorized on the loan the bank would not communicate with anyone.  Brother’s wife was left with the responsibility of the property but was unable to speak with the lender about anything including the past due amounts and payoffs.  The property fell back into foreclosure and ultimately had a Trustee Sale date set for it.

Our Solution:

2 days before the Trustee Sale I got in contact with the Brother’s Wife who was now handling the property affairs.  I proposed that I would be able to negotiate with the lender and convince them to postpone the sale due to the fact that the Family didn’t want to lose the property or the equity it had in it.  This would allow the property to be properly set up for a sale with all the necessary documentation that the bank required.  It would require the property to go through a probate to name Brother’s Wife as the Administrator of the deceased sister in law’s Estate.  This would allow the bank to properly recognize her as the appointed responsible party to their loan.  This would allow her obtain reinstatement and payoff figures and be able to communicate with the bank.  My solution was to handle the negotiation with the Lender, arrange and pay for a Probate Attorney to handle their petition and Probate. Reinstate the defaulted loans once we were able to obtain the figures from the bank.  Arrange and Finance the Rehabilitation of the property to maximize the Equity Potential for the sale of the property.  Handle all administrative functions with the Lenders, Contractors, Attorneys, heirs and Brokers.  For doing this all we would form an Equity Partnership on the sale of the property.

How our solution was successful:

• We convinced the Lender to Postpone the Trustee Sale.
• We retained a trusted (Strategic Partner) Probate Attorney to prepare and file the Probate Petition on behalf of our client.
• Client obtain Letters of Administration with full Authority
• Organized 9 heirs in four different states in order to complete Probate
• Provided funds necessary to Rehabilitate the property
• Completed Rehabilitation of the property to increase the Equity Potential
• Listed the Property with a local Real Estate Broker and marketed in on the open market to obtain the highest price.
• Received multiple offers, which drove the price over asking.
• Property went into Escrow and closed.
• Obtained Court of approval for final accounting of the Estate.
• All 9 heirs and our client received their inheritance

Don’s home had a Notice of Default recorded at the end of July and I met with him last week.  This home was given to him when his parents passed away many years ago.  This home has been in his family over 50 years, so he has some very strong emotional attachments to this property.

As I sat with him a local diner it was very evident that the prospect of losing his family home was weighing heavely on him.  He has been struggling to make things work ever since he was laid off his print pressing job a few years ago.

After being laid off Don immediately applied for unemployment to help ends meet.  He was able to collect for over 2 years but it ended this past year.  While unemployed he ran into some medical issues that ultimately landed him in the hospital and off his feet for over 6 months.  This meant he couldn’t actively look for work.  He then used all his savings and the little retirement he had left.  All his savings and unemployment benefits ran out this year and he no longer could make payments on his house.

Fortunately he does have a pension that’s paying him 800$ a month.  However, his expenses including his mortgage is just over $2000 a month.  His mortgage is 933$ with an interest rate at just over 5%.

It’s not hard to recognize that he has no other option but to sell the house and salvage whatever he can of the equity that’s left.  However, the emotional attachment to this family home are preventing him from seeing things clearly and could risk him losing everything.

I was able to analyze his situation and financial picture to help him see that unless he wins the lottery or someone gives him the money he’s going to lose everything.  I wanted him to realize for himself that he could take control of his property and not allow the bank to dictate what’s going to happen.  It’s a hard thing to do to separate the emotion from something like this but it’s a must.  I wish more people had the ability to do so.  For Don it’s gonna come down to either the Bank selling his property or he’s going to.  The only way he maximizes his situation is if he does.

Will see what happens!

I first spoke to this family in February when their NOD had just been filed.  I set an appointment to meet with them to discuss some possible options and on the day of the appointment they canceled and told me they would call me if they ever needed me.  I follow-up well! =)  They finally call me back a while after a Sale had been posted and want to have the appointment on the Friday before the Monday Trustee sale.  Yes, the Friday before the sale!!!

The family was so spun after meeting so many different people that they didn’t know what was what.  But the ‘Man’ of the house was so stubborn and out of touch with reality that he was spiteing his family for the sake of his way!  I explained that whatever route they would take, regardless if it was with me or not would require the sale on Monday being stopped!  He refused to listen how or why that would happen.  The poor lady was stuck with this guys leadership and he was heading to disaster!  There was close to 200k in equity he was playing with and he refused to hear me out.

I walked away convinced this house was going to sale and I was right!!  Monday morning at 10:30am the Property was sold at Auction and they lost a lot!!

Last week I met with a Homeowner who had a house that they owned for over 20 years.  They had a loan with Citimortgage and had been having issues with them for many years.  It became worse once they fell behind and started trying to get help from them.  They ultimately denied them any type of assistance and aggressively pursued a Foreclosure of their property.  The homeowners saved up all the money they could and in the final weeks tried to get a final reinstatement figure.  When it gets close to the sale things can get very hairy for both Borrower and Bank so no wonder things got worse.  The Bank was blaming the Trustee saying they were still waiting for their up to date attorney fee’s and the Trustee was saying that the Bank wasn’t giving all the information they needed.  The homeowner started calling everyday to both the Bank and Trustee with no success.  On the day of the sale the homeowner called the bank first thing in the am, the agent told them they were still processing the figures but that they would have their final reinstatement sometime that day. SOMETIME???  HOURS before the sale the bank somehow got the info and told the homeowners they would give them a reinstatement figure.  That’s crazy, HOURS before, I mean what happens if they get into a car accident going to the bank.  But anyhow it didn’t matter, When the bank finally gave them a figure they told them in the same breath that it didn’t matter because the property was sold to a third party!  Game Over!!  Don’t let your situation get to the 11th hour especially with Citimortgage.

Tim’s father purchased this house in Torrance back in the mid 1960′s.  He moved to California to pursue a Welding career and ended up at a Plant welding for a company in Torrance, CA.  Tim grew up in this house and followed his fathers footsteps as a welder.  For the last 40 plus years Tim’s been in and out of living in this home.  The last few years Tim has been taking care of his father due to his age and health problems.  Unfortunately, Tim’s father got sick, wasn’t able to recover from it and passed away very unexpectedly.  Tim wasn’t prepared at all for this loss and quickly realized that his father had several debts including the house that needed to be satisfied.

Tim had worked very infrequently while his father was sick, mostly on temp assignments or contractually for short period of times.  When his father passed all the creditors started calling and harassing Tim.  Although he wasn’t financially responsible for his fathers debts he was the person they could try to get something out of.  Times are tough for everyone so even creditors are a bit desperate.  The major issue was the house and the Bank gave Tim the allotted time to do something to satisfy their agreement. Tim’s father did place the property in a trust and gave clear directions to Tim on how to disperse what he had.  Unfortunately, what Tim didn’t realize is most everything it took, to handle his fathers affairs, required money.  So although Tim wasn’t the one financially responsible, he started to feel and act like a homeowner in denial with their foreclosure.  Without a full time job and hardly any money in his bank account he wasn’t going to be able to refinance the home.  But like most homeowners in foreclosure, he waited so long that he was now faced with a pending Auction of his home in less then 30 days.

The first thing I had to do was asses his entire situation, to figure out what I was dealing with.  Next, I had to figure what Tim’s capacity was to resolve this matter.  What has he done already and what was still possible.  And lastly, I wanted to know what he wanted to see happen immediately and in the short to mid term future.

Once I understood everything  it was clear what needed to happen.  He had to sell his home to prevent a total loss.  However, there were several things that made just selling it a challenging task.  With only 30days remaining before an auction of the property he needed to negotiate with the lender to prevent the auction from happening.  The house was also very old and run down.  It needed a lot work to get maximum value or else he would have sell at a serious discount.  Tim also had very limited finances but fortunately he had just secured a short term contract with a local company that would pay him for a couple months.  However, he didn’t have much in reserves and he was going to need money for a security deposit and first/last months rent.

What I proposed to Tim was to step in as a financial partner in the sale of his home and help him get where he was at now to wherever he was going next.  My proposal was simple but would maximize the sale of his home, prevent a total loss and allow him to transition to a new place seamlessly.  I would negotiate with the lender to prevent the sale from happening.  If necessary I would pay them money necessary to prevent the Auction from happening.  I would finance all the improvements to his home that were necessary in order for the property to sell at it’s highest value.  I would provide our relocation services to Tim which would help him find a place and pay the amount necessary to move in.  Tim wouldn’t have to come out of pocket for anything in regards to the sale of the property.  He would have an expereinced team working along side him that would eliminate any issues and insure maximu return on the sale of his home.

It didn’t take much for Tim to agree!  I’m happy to say this project is moving a long and the Auction of his home has been eliminated.    Tim has been very grateful and is eager to move on to the next chapter of his life.

When we set the appointment door knocking last week Mr. Roberts seemed very down and in the dark with his property.  We even noticed a DWP cancellation notice hanging from his door when we arrived. His wife of 46 years passed last year after a tough battle with cancer.  Mr Roberts took very good care of his best friend/wife until she passed.  However, his wife had handled all the finances for their home and once she was gone Mr. Roberts was left to take care of everything.  This is common amongst the senior community when one half passes on and a trigger point for home foreclosures.

Sitting down with Mr. Roberts at our appointment he seemed very depressed and down on his luck.  His home is the largest one in his neighborhood, a second story add on from the 80′s he had done.  It was dark and dingy with not much cleaned up.  I even saw medical files from his wife care taking services still lying around.  We began to examine his finances and very quickly realized that he’d lost control of most everything he was supposed to be taking care of.  It didn’t help that half the income he was relying on from his wifes pension was cut off in the last few months.  But at the core of it all was that Mr. Roberts was very down and beating himself up for not being able to manage without his wife.  The fact that he was losing his home wasn’t even registering with him.  He was stuck in a dark place and couldn’t find his way out.

Once we completed our evaluation it was evident that he need a lot of help getting out of his darkness.  He had no one else of real significance in his life except his wife.  And once she passed he couldn’t handle it all.

Our proposal was to simplify his life as much as possible.  He had way to much home for himself to handle.  He had a substantial amount of equity and he needed to use it now!  He and his wife traveled the world and shared so many stories together and he found comfort in sharing that just with us.  He needed a place where he could share stories and continue to travel.  We began to explain all these possibilities and how we could situate him in a much better place.  Often times when homeowners are consumed by the negativity surrounding their lives it’s impossible to see the possibilities!  But man, when Mr. Roberts began to realize before our eyes that he was in the darkness for a long time and their was a glimmer of light for him his whole being began to change.  It was if he gained 10 years of his life instantly!

We locked Mr. Roberts into an agreement and will began the process to transition him into a more simple better place.  He recognized that although it was okay to be hurt and down about his wife’s passing, he needed to live his life more fully then he was.  Something we all know his wife would have wanted for him!!

I’ve been doing this a long time and I haven’t seen such a transformation in 2 hours then I did with Mr. Roberts.  It felt really good when he thanked us and told us that he hadn’t felt so good in such a long time.

UPDATE ( 11/9)

When we first proposed our concept to Mr. Roberts I asked him where he’d like to spend the next chapter of his life.  He immediately responded that it would ideal if it could someplace near the ocean, since he had such a fondness to the Water.  That totally connected with me cus I too have a strong connection with the ocean.  I’ve always had to be close to the water and it made me think if I was spending my last years someplace where I’d want it and that’s the first vision that came to mind.

After getting all the logistical matters for the sale of Mr. Roberts property out the way we told him that we would scout Senior communities that where in or around LA area and would look particularly for someplace near the Ocean.  That’s the nice thing about Los Angeles, we are surrounded by it all including the mighty Pacific.

So we took Mr. Roberts to a couple places this past weekend.  We found a place in Santa Monica near the water and another place in the West LA area near his Hospital.  We saved the Santa Monica place for last cus we new that it was close to the ocean and would probably get Mr. Roberts very excited.

The first Place we took him to was a sprawling High rise community in West LA.  It was recently built with so many amenities and the most advanced technologies around.  But upon arriving it really felt like a spruced up Hotel.  You could immediately tell that Mr. Roberts was disappointed with it but he was gracious enough to take the tour and participate with the hosts many questions.  I wasn’t that impressed and for the cost it just wasn’t a match.

We immediately headed off to Santa Monica and even though Mr. Roberts knew it was a ocean community he was a bit down cus the last place left a stale impression of what his future held.  Hopefully the power of the Ocean can make a better impression on Mr. Roberts.

We arrived at the Santa Monica Location and parked right along the beach.  The Housing community is just south of the Santa Monica Pier.  We got so lucky cus it was a beautiful day and the water was so calm. As we walked into the building I looked over at Mr. Roberts and he still seemed down.  I was hoping he would be a little more perky and excited about this location.

We took a tour of the building, which was much older and seemed to have a lot more character.  We arrived at one of the room options on the 7th floor.  We knew what Mr. Roberts was asking for and this was the moment we where hoping for.  A strong impression from a room with a view.  And boy where we not disappointed.  Mr. Roberts walked in and immediately headed to the balcony and saw what kind of view he would have and all of sudden he that smile and perkiness I was looking for arrived.  He fell in love!!

We met with Jasibel first thing in the am so that if there was something we could do we would have all day to work on her auction.  In meeting with her we uncovered another rental property in trouble and a lot leakage in her finances.  Jasibel was certain that the problems she was having with her rental and the money she had to spend to fix the entire situation cost her the money she would regularly have for her primary residence.

Elderly people that we meet with are usually on some type of fixed income and either something happens to that flow or there is leakage in her cash flow.  Jasibel was the latter and with a problematic, costly rental and no savings for her rental, made getting that property whole again very costly.  Another common thing with elderly people is the lack of family support or the desire to not make family aware of their problems.  Jasibel’s situation was both.  Her only family was her son and he was dealing with a lot issues himself and she didn’t want him to know her problems so as not to add to his.

But now the tricky part, Jasibel has so many people wanting to ‘help’ her and since we now connected I feel the responsibility of making her situation right.  There is only so much she can do and being that we connected with the day before the sale it’s very likely had we not stepped in her home would be lost.  Jasibel wants to keep things as status quo as possible.  So what do we do??  She needs to have an entire overhaul of her finances much like an audit.  So we can detect where the leakage is happening.  We need to find an accountant that will overlook her finances on a regular basis.  She needs to either short sell or let her rental property go.  It’s upside down, and is costing her like $500 dollars a month.  It doesn’t work for her anymore.  Finally she needs to sell her home and salvage what she can with the equity that’s left.

Our proposal to her was to purchase her property and allow her to rent it back.  We would have her carry back the equity she has and have it secured by this home.  She could name her son as the beneficiary so she takes care of him as she wanted.  We would pay a reasonable rate for the note and allow her to rent the property back for the as long as she lived or could no longer pay.  Things wouldn’t change for her, she’d get to stay in home and live out her remaining years there.  The only last piece is that it’s her best interest to make her son aware of this deal so she’s protected in case something ever happens.  I’m gonna meet with him this week to sit down about his situation and let him know whats going on with his moms.  Let’s see what happens! =)

The owner is the widow of 8 kids with only two of them living with her currently.  3 years ago her husband passed away and left her and his kids the home and over $300k in a retirement account he had for them. While he was dying of cancer,oOur client’s sister, who had never been active in their lives before, got wind of what he was leaving his kids and ultimately convinced our client that she wasn’t capable of managing $300k for her 8 kids.  Unfortunately our client, is a little off or as her daughter describes “a bit Gullible”.  Thank goodness her daughter is overseeing her affairs now.  So the sister got guardianship of our client and when the husband passed away took over the accounts and the payments on the house.  In a matter of 2 years she completely depleted the funds, stopped paying the house and left the entire family with nothing.  I mean how could you live with yourself after something like that.  And the family we met with was so calm about it.  They tried suing her with very little money which didn’t go that far.  Now they are in foreclosure with nothing else but what little equity they have left.

The house needs a lot of work but is located in a decent part of Compton, so there is some good potential for their sale. We are going to help them rehab it and partner with them on the eventual sale.  We will assist them in their relocation and help them secure a new place.  They will make enough to help them with the next chapter of their lives!

He was very hesitant and skeptical meeting with us, so much so that it took me close to 3 weeks to finally lock in a face to face.  He had given us some background of the situation and himself prior to meeting him and one thing that stood out was that he was an Actor and former Movie studio exec.  Curiosity led me to check him out before hand but it wasn’t until we met him in person that I realized how ‘Famous’ he was.  All the pics hanging up on his walls helped me a lot! =)  I knew going into this meeting that although this was a multimillion dollar home I had to treat this person as anyone else needing our direction.  It’s interesting though cus in the close to 10 years we’ve been dealing with foreclosures and distressed properties we haven’t been in front of more multimillion dollar homes then this year.  That’s one of the beauties of covering a larger area like Los Angeles County, we can experience both extremes almost daily.

We took a tour of the home and found it to be very clean and elegant.  As we began to discuss his situation we realized quickly that his situation was not uncommon and a classic story of living beyond your means.  It’s all relative though, right.  He was once generating an income in the hundreds of thousands and his lifestyle and family became accustomed to that.  He’s gotten older and the work isn’t happening like it once was and his expenses keep climbing.  He ‘s a good man and cared deeply for his family.  Paid for all his kids education and has supported them through their hard times.  Not explaining to them that it was costing him a lot to do so.  He doesn’t have a regular 9-5 so he’s always chasing the next gig.  The Entertainment industry is feeling the effects of the economy too so a lot of work is being put off until more monies become available.  Which adversely affects all the projects he has in the works.

It was clear as day that he can not afford the property he’s in.  The loan he has is terrible but it’s he can’t afford regular payments either.  He’s followen 6 months behind and his reinstatement amount is over $40k.  He owes just over $2M, so after expenses and paying off his loan he has close to about $800k in equity left in his property.  Before meeting with us his mindset was very much about how to stop the bleeding so he could move on.  But after going through everything it was clear that their was a solution that would free up his equity, minimize his expenses and have a retirement set aside for his future.  But it takes having to sell the property now.  So that is really the Million dollar question.

I think he realized that by changing the scope of his situation and seeing things from the perspective of looking down the road, forecasting a bit and using what you got to reestablish yourself made sense.  Deciding to sell your home is no easy task but it’s definitely the right thing to do in this case.  He hasn’t decided yet but he certainly appreciated our take and welcomed us back to discuss the how a bit more in the next weeks.  Stay tuned!