Since November I have been watching a home in the foreclosure process. While I have done many deals in the past, this was my first attempt at obtaining a pre-foreclosure through direct contact. I was a bit nervous and of course, as I got there, I noticed another car. I suddenly realized that I might not be the first one to knock. I took a deep breath and jumped out of the car and headed to the door. As the other man was leaving, I noticed that he was the actual trustee posting the notice on the door. I spoke with him briefly asking if he was the bank. "I am with the title agency company," he said. I then asked if he knocked on the door and he said, "nope, I just came to post the notice, go right ahead". As I knocked, I could tell someone was home.
Knocking on mobile homes is nothing new to me, I have had to do it for unpaid property taxes at the assessor's office for a few years now. So I employed a few tricks by knocking and also calling the owner by name..in Spanish. Still no answer, I wrote a note that said that I could help if they needed it and walked away feeling hopeful for a call.
No call. That was it for me, I went out of my comfort zone and it didn't work. The only thing is that I couldn't let it go. So I dug a little more and noted that the last trust deed recorded was seller financing and that ValTrack title agency was the one handling the transaction which happened to have the same address as Southern Utah Title Company, right around the corner. I went over and asked the receptionist who then gave me the name Dave Prisbey who was very busy at the time. As luck would have it, the title company was having their annual Christmas party a couple days later which the assessor's office is invited to each year. At the Christmas party, I looked around for Dave but couldn't find him. As I was eating, an employee and her parents sat next to me and it provided the opportunity to have a conversation and create a relationship of trust. I asked if she could introduce me to Dave and she took me right in the back and introduced me to Dave. It was a great conversation and he gave me valuable information about escrow specialists and what they can do for me. I learned about seller financing and the cost for them to collect payment for me. He, unfortunately, he did not have any additional information about the foreclosure.
During my morning routine, As I was listening to the bigger pockets podcast, I heard them talking about people giving up so quickly and how it always takes multiple efforts to contact. I gained some new motivation to try again. I went back to the home and sure enough, it was clear someone was home, but no answer. I left another note on the door.
I was surprised when I got a call on a couple days later from Jaime, Martins' brother. I found out that Jaime lives in the home and rents from his brother, Martin the owner. He was surprised to hear about the foreclosure because he has been making payments to Martin and so I gave him some suggestions. I wanted to be able to run over there and just talk in person, but alas, work and kid duties at home prevented me from being able to get over there over the next couple of evenings. But since he called me, I had his phone number. I knew that the problem was that I was not talking to the main owner, Martin so I followed up with a text the next day asking for Martin's number but no response. The auction date was only 2 days away and so I kept thinking they would need to call, but they didn't. On the day of the auction, I arranged to get the $5,000 certified check and showed up at the courthouse steps ready to bid up to $70,000. (the last deed recorded showed $64,000) and I figured it was worth 91,000 as is. As I was waiting, another bidder showed up, but to my relief, he was interested in another property. I ended up being the only bidder, however, I was sad to find out that Dave Prisby only showed up to tell us the auction was canceled. It appears that Martin was able to work something out with the lender. I can't help but wonder if I had anything to do with that and by trying to snag the property before the auction actually thwarted my plans. I sent one more text knowing that most likely the agreement was rushed.
So far no response, but I learned so much about the process and made good connections. It was nice when I was able to say hi to Dave, the trustee at the auction.
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