Title Examination Archives

How Can Purchasers Protect Themselves at Foreclosure Sales?

October 19, 2015

Community Association, Conditions Precedent, Deed of Trust, Foreclosure, The X Files, Title Examination, Trust

How Can Purchasers Protect Themselves at Foreclosure Sales?

What reasonable steps can investors take to build a better foreclosure property portfolio? People who have access to more information tend to make better decisions in the long haul. In the 1990’s Sci-fi TV show, The X Files, David Duchovny portrayed a rogue FBI agent determined to uncover a government conspiracy to cover-up the existence of UFO’s. In the opening sequences announcing the name of the show and the cast there was a message, “The Truth is Out there.” While few people claim to be able to relate to experiences with UFO’s (not me), shows like The X Files are popular because everyone experiences feelings of curiosity, distrust and fear from time to time. In the world of real estate foreclosure, investors owe it to themselves to get to as much of the “truth” as may be “out there” before making a commitment to purchase a property shrouded in mystery. There are ways purchasers protect themselves at foreclosure sales.

On March 4, 2015, I published a blog post comparing buying real estate through brokers vs. foreclosure sales. That article explained how foreclosures come at lower prices because of greater risks. These concerns rightfully discourage many shoppers from looking for a personal residence at a foreclosure sale. For those investors for whom bidding at foreclosure sales makes sense, how can they manage the risks and increase the likelihood that the purchase will be a rewarding? Even before making a bid, the purchaser makes a time investment by reading the classified advertisements, researching sales data, driving by the property, lining up the purchase money and going to go to the auction. Why should a purchaser spend any more time on one opportunity than it deserves? The following are strategies that foreclosure investors can easily take to increase their success:

Research the Property. In some commercial foreclosures, the trustee evicts the occupants first and holds an open house for potential buyers. When this is not available, a potential purchaser can at least drive by the property. What are the neighboring land uses? The bidders can obtain comparable sales data online first to see what is happening in the neighborhood. City or county tax assessment data is publically available online.
Research Pending Lawsuits. The purchaser is already at the courthouse to bid on the property. Why not check to see if there are any active lawsuits involving the property? Hopefully, the trustee would know this and react appropriately, but a bidder can only know for sure by checking.
Obtain a Title Examination. Ordinarily, a purchaser would not worry about title problems until someone alerted them. This is normally the concern of the settlement company in origination of the title policy. Many investors assume that the trustee conducting the foreclosure will not sign the deed unless they are prepared to stand behind it. Experienced investors purchase title insurance as a precaution. While these steps are reasonable, there is nothing that prevents an investor from spending a couple hundred dollars on a title report or taking time to research land records themselves. Any deviation in the foreclosure process from the terms of the deed of trust may be grounds for a suit filed by the borrower. I discussed this in a May 14, 2014 blog post about a lender’s failure to conduct a pre-foreclosure face-to-face meeting with the borrower. In Squire v. VDHA, the deed of trust incorporated HUD regulations requiring an effort to conduct such a meeting. The Supreme Court of Virginia observed that,

A trustee’s power to foreclose is conferred by the deed of trust. That power does not accrue until its conditions precedent have been fulfilled. The fact that a borrower is in arrears does not allow the trustee to circumvent the conditions precedent.

Foreclosure trustees may be under various pressures to ignore provisions in the loan documents. Without a copy of the deed of trust, the bidder won’t know whether things are off course until after making a substantial deposit.

Investigate the Community Association. Many properties are subject to covenants, rules and regulations of the neighborhood property owner’s association. A new purchaser will be bound by the governance of the board of directors and their property manager. Covenants and bylaws are found in the land records. Some associations post their rules and regulations on the internet. Whatever the new purchaser wants to do with the property may be limited by how the HOA rules are enforced. Associations can range from boards that reasonably collect and spend dues to cover essential maintenance of common areas to aggressive debt collectors using fines for rule violations to generate revenue. Under Virginia law, a purchaser becomes a party to the HOA covenants (contract) at the consummation of the sale. While not strictly a foreclosure related issue, dealing with the HOA is a part of the true cost of ownership. Many investors incorrectly believe their HOA responsibilities are limited to paying the monthly dues.
Review the Memorandum of Sale. If the purchaser makes the highest bid, the trustee will give her a Memorandum of Sale. This written agreement functions similar to the Regional Sales Contracts that real estate agents complete for their clients. Foreclosure sales typically occur in front of the courthouse. Buyers may not feel motivated to carefully read these Memoranda. Everyone is standing up, the weather may be unpleasant and people are waiting to leave. These distractions do not diminish the commitment represented by signing the document and making the deposit. The terms of the Memorandum of Sale will define the rights of the parties in anticipation of the real estate closing. This includes if and when the Trustee or the purchaser can get out of the contract. A purchaser can compare the Notice of Sale, Trustee Appointment and the Deed of Trust to the Memorandum of Sale before signing anything. The Deed of Trust reflects the trustee’s authority to conduct the sale. A Trustee may even be willing to share a copy of their form before the sale occurs.
Ask the Trustee Questions. Purchasers can have a hard time talking with people associated with a property. The current occupants probably aren’t talking much. When asked questions, the trustee may respond that they have duties to the lender and the borrower. The trustee may not volunteer as much information as a realtor would in a conventional transaction. However, to the extent the trustee and the purchaser are both signing the Memorandum of Sale, the purchaser has a reasonable expectation that the trustee answer questions about those terms.

Time constraints may not allow an investor to investigate all of these issues before every trustee’s sale. The property may go into litigation or have problems with its physical condition even if these steps do not reveal a problem. The same could be said about any investment. One of the other messages related in the opening sequences of The X Files was “Trust No One.” This reflect one extreme on the trust/distrust spectrum. People who live on this extreme are less likely to put themselves at litigation risk but often find themselves living in isolation or vulnerable to manipulation. In the world of real estate, many investors want to make quick, substantial returns while investing as little time as possible. Under these pressures, it is easy to operate to far on the opposite, overly trustful side of the spectrum. Potential buyers with the financial means to make this kind of investment have the discretion and the right to decide how much of these issues they want to deal with up front and which they can live with as a risk of doing business. Careful purchasers protect themselves at foreclosure sales. Expect the trustee to be an experienced foreclosure lawyer. Anyone investing in foreclosures should have qualified legal counsel of their own retained even before they make their first bid.