Stupid Once, Not Stupid Twice - What do we need to do?

drushepherd · Joined: 13 Nov 2008 Posts: 3 2.86 Dollars($)

My husband has a house in another state. He signed for it Oct 06. The seller has $88k in escrow held by the seller for a "period to be paid no later than 3 years". Does this mean he can not sell this house until 3 years or the seller's escrow can keep him in this house? He signed it for a friend who was about to lose the house. So they refinanced it all to his name, but keep telling him 10%-20% of the house is held in escrow by his friend. What does this mean? I've looked at the paperwork and it appears that 100% of the loan is in his name. The ONE piece of paper that vaguely mentions the seller is what I stated above "held in escrow by seller". We need to get away from this house. There is someone who wants to buy it. We do not want it foreclosed because from my understanding it would all be his credit. The seller (his "friend") asked him to file for bankruptcy in case it ever approaches foreclosure so the friend doesn't lose the house. The house belonged to the friend's dead mother and wants to keep it for sentimental reasons. The agreement was the friend was supposed to have refinanced the house back to themselves Jan 08 and they were to stay on top of payments. Of course, that hasn't happened and my husband has pulled out loans trying to keep the house from going into foreclosure. The friend will make large payments every 3 to 4 months to the bank. They even have changed our mailing address so the friend receives all the late notices, etc. The friend now doesn't speak to my husband. After the loans, we can not afford an attorney. What language do we use to explain the situation? Does the friend really have us trapped? How do we get out of this? We are willing to start over.

gmakerley · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 12:33 pm Post subject:

i disagree with one of your final statements. you cannot afford not to have an attorney.

the description of the situation is quite confusing, and since you really don't know how to describe what's happening, it only makes sense to run this by an attorney.

carlpruitt · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 8:13 pm Post subject:

I wholeheartedly agree with George. Judging from your description, you have no idea of the legal issues involved or even what you did to help the friend out!

The term escrow normally involves simply putting money in a protected account and not anything to do with the title to the home or your ability to sell it. The charge for having a title search done is generally less than $200 and you will know what ownership interest your husband has in the house and what, if any, ownership or security interest anyone else has.

It may be that the friend has actually made themselves a second lien holder in order to prevent your husband from selling the home!

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 5:15 pm Post subject:

Thanks! We are rearranging our finances to do what we have to do to obtain an attorney!

All times are GMT - 7 Hours

Page 1 of 1