I buy land in Port St Lucie, Florida. Recently, I sent out postcards to people who want to sell their vacant lot in Port St Lucie.
I want to buy land in the area from people like you.
Wow, did I find a seller in a predicament.
I won’t give addresses or names of course, but the general gist of the story about this piece of land is as follows.
How partners bought vacant land
Two partners bought the quarter acre lot for nearly $100,000 at the height of the land rush. Other lots in more expensive developments were pushing over $600,000 during that land rush time.
These two business partners secured a mortgage from a community bank to purchase the land.
One partner brought 20-30k in cash, and together, the partners mortgaged for the rest.
Eventually, their relationship soured and they won’t talk to each other.
Nobody pays the mortgage or the tax bill.
An aborted foreclosure on the land causes confusion.
One partner filed bankruptcy.
The bank foreclosed on the land and then had the sucessfull foreclosure vacated, leaving the owners on the hook for the mortgage and the owners still remain title holders to the building lot.
The bank goes silent and never speaks to them again and as the mortgage is transferred to other servicing agencies, they lose addresses and never successfully reach the owners.
The partner who filed bankruptcy never put the lot in the documents because it was thought to have been lost in foreclosure.
The partner who put up the cash thought the land was lost to foreclosure as well.
The county records had a bad address for everyone and hasn’t successfully found anyone in a few years.
I find the owners of the building lot.
I eventually found both partners through awesome research work my assistant helped me with.
The bankrupt partner charged a giant fee to quit claim the deed to the money partner.
The money partner is ready to sell to me now that the deed is in one name.
That is when title work reveals there is an unsatisfied mortgage on the property.
The money partner won’t let me talk to the bank.
The bankrupt partner won’t let me talk to the bank and doesn’t want the bank to find them.
The title company won’t close because the mortgage is not released.
The end of this vacant land buying story
At this point, the money partner seller will likely loose the land to the tax auction and I’m not sure that I’d be able to buy it.
While I could receive a quit claim deed to the property, I won’t be able to resell it without a satisfaction of that mortage from the bank.
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