Forclosure / Bankrupcty question (bank owned, short sale, real estate)

[lexib]

Hello


We are in the process of purchasing a bank owned home. We are suppose to settle on Friday the 16th. We recieved notice today that the owners of the house had filed bankrupcty. Since the bank already took back the house how will this affect us? It's just very confusing.

[beilart]

If the bank has already foreclosed then the bank owns the home, not the owners and should have nothing to do with their bankruptcy. I would ask my realtor or the bank. I can't imagine why you would get a notice.

[Richard Martin]

I imagine that would depend on who actually legally owns the home. My daughter's home was foreclosed on. She moved out and the bank took physical possesion of the home. The bank even went so far as to put up no trespassing signs and contact info on plackards on the house. The home appeared to have changed hands from the bank to another entity. Another person went into the house and cleaned it up, did a couple of little improvements and painted some walls. Then the house was put on the market and sold. 9 months had passed since the time the bank took possesion of the house and the day it sold.

My daughter was shown on the legal records as still owning the house until the day it was sold. The record shows legal possesion transferring from my daughter to the mortgage holder and then to the buyer all on the same day. I would provide a link to the transaction but that's really her personal business.

You can do an address search of any property in MD here. Real Property Search

It will show you who actually owns the property. If the foreclosed owner is still the legal owner then there may be a problem with the mortgage holder selling the house. The foreclosed owner still has a lot of power as far as bankruptcy goes right up until the property is legally transferred.

[lexib]

I checked the real property website. They are still showing as owner not the bank. I would assume that they would take care of the title and everything before it it put on the market. Is there anyway around this ? . At this point what would our options be? I have my entire apartment packed. LOL Unbelievable!!

[Cigar56a]

Was the house completely foreclosed on or in the foreclosure process? I am thinking there is some sort of technicality here.

If the foreclosure was completed, the bank really is the owner. However it would not surprise me to see the former owners still being listed as the owner. I doubt these databases are being updated every day, and with the flood of foreclosures much of the information may not be current. However, it is surprising that you were notified of the previous owner's bankruptcy. Why would that have anything to do with you?

[lexib]

.
This is what we were told via our realtor.





Per the attorney, No, the sale has not ratified yet. The debtor’s filed for Bankruptcy and this sale is expected to ratify by 5/20/2010.

[lexib]

Also I do know that they were Miltary and they were transferred. The house was on the market last year and they had accepted a contact and in the mean time I assume it went into foreclosure.

[janetvj]

For what it's worth the MDAT (MD Dept. of Assessments and Taxation) database is not always current. There is usually a delay of a few weeks to a month or so from the date of the actual transfer of ownership and the date that it is recorded. For example, I settled on my house on 12/11/1993, but the MDAT information gives a transfer date of 1/26/1994.

[lexib]

One would think that the bank would have this stuff in order before they put the house on the market. It's just frustrating

[Cigar56a]

It'll be OK. From what I have been reading there are a lot of headaches, poor communication, etc., with buying bank-owned/short sale/foreclosed properties. You just have to hang in there. Actually your realtor should be clearly explaining to you what all this means. Is he or she not doing her job effectively? You should know exactly what's going on, what is being done about it and when it will be fixed. That's why you hire a real estate agent.