Foreclosures of the Week: Bed Stuy Doubleshot

oops, to my post at 11:55, Option One has a satisfaction of mortgage on 10/14/03 and it seems then that Mary was paid something and then Johnny owns it though it says “Deed, other” and sells it to Carmen, so maybe the total owed is the $455K plus any other outstanding bills, property tax, Home Heating Oil is mentioned, but I don’t understand that, etc. Johnny still listed as contact. Mary seemed to still be living there.

All very interesting. I actually met the woman who owns or should I say used to own the house on Bainbridge. She was at the courthouse today waiting for the foreclosure auction. I happened to be there on jury duty and asked her if she had ever been to a foreclosure auction and what was it like. SHe ended up telling me that someone told her they would help her get out of foreclosure and they haven’t been paying the note and now she is afraid she will lose her house. I told her to see a lawyer right away because something seemed fishy. She is a very very sweet older woman who obviously got conned. She was with good reason frightened that her home would be taken away. Now that I see the Property Shark report it seems clear that “Johnny Hicks” may have done some sort of strange mortgage thing. I don’t understand the reports enough to understand it, but it is odd that it goes from Mary (whom I met) to Johnny to Carmen. There is no Option One Mortgage satisfaction of mortgage. So, it seems that somehow, there is a mortgage for 390K under Mary’s name and 455K under Carmen’s name and Johnny may have sold the whole thing and never put a dime down? I’d love some help with reading this.

I’m not getting the gist of these posts. If these townhouses went on the market today, they would get more than 400K easily. We’re talking about three story townhouses in Brooklyn afterall, not some far off corner of Albany. Assuming a gut reno (not a luxury reno mind you) with the basics of plumbing, electric and flooring, I would guess you could renovate these houses and make a profit afterwards with a price in the mid to high fives.
Why are we assuming mort. fraud? 397K sounds about right for these properties back in 04. The owner probably couldn’t keep up with the payments, didn’t have the tenacity to tough it out by renting out the place, or perhaps just gave up. Happens all the time.
I’m just surprised at the lowball figures being given for these properties when you can easily look up the comps in the area: 500K and up.
On another note, I think the subprime mortgage problem is overhyped, most of these homeowners will be propped up by steady property values, they will pay for another round of closing costs in the end but they will simply switch to a fixed rate 30-40yr loan. Those that are forclosed upon will simply be taken over by homebuyers taking advantage of the bargains. Again, this is New York City we are talking about.

A mortgage lien can also grow if the borrower defaults on interest payments and the interest piles up.