I have a difficult client, a “know everything” type of guy. He flipped a condo, then bought 2 more, but then the market crashed, and he could not keep up with the payments.
He decided to declare bankruptcy. We begged him to allow us to short sell the condo prior to declaring bankruptcy, but he did not listen.
The court was in New York and the property was in Florida. The lender did not foreclose, so the condo was still in his name, and the maintenance fees and taxes started accruing.
I warned him, but he said it was their problem. He said he couldn’t care less.
Few years forward, unpaid association dues and late fees, which started accumulating from the day of bankruptcy, were already in the tens of thousand, and taxes were not paid for 3 years.
The guy kept saying he couldn’t care less.
Then the condo was sold at Tax Deed Sale…
He called me a few days ago. He is trying to buy a house in New York. He is married now and has a child, and a 1-bedroom condo is too small for him. He applied for the mortgage. Everything seemed fine, but then something did not work out, so the whole process started from scratch, and while it was supposed to close a week ago, it was still not closed. The mortgage broker made them pay extra money, pay off all credit cards, so they spent more than what they were anticipating, and yet they could not close…
I listened to him trying to put together the pieces, and eventually I realized that the condo, which he “gave to the Bankruptcy Court” and couldn’t care less about, was his problem. The Tax Deed Sale was less than 3 years ago, FHA dropped him, and it seems that it somehow affected him with conventional loan…
He is frustrated. He asked me what to do.
Well, do the short sale before the bankruptcy. He would have no problem, if he followed the advice.
When you can’t care less today, it may bite you tomorrow.
The guy is a difficult client. He is a sharpshooter, who never misses his foot…
Image is by David Goehring via Flickr.com
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