I co-signed on a mortgage with a friend. Now he has fallen behind on his payments. Can I take over the property?

If you co-sign a mortgage and are listed on the property title, you can bring a partition action to have the property divided between owners. If the property is owned by two people, then one will receive the title and the other will receive an equity interest in the property. That equity value is the market value of their percentage of ownership in the property minus any liens. If you bring a partition action, you may leave with the title and your friend will leave with a percentage interest. This will leave you free to control the mortgage payments without worrying about losing the property. A real estate legal expert in your area would be able to tell you if this is an appropriate action in your situation.

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What problems arise for the seller and the buyer in owner financed homes?

Owner (seller) financing is a situation where the seller of real property agrees to loan the buyer directly a certain dollar amount of “equity” in the seller’s home as part of the ultimate sales price of the home. The problem that could arise for the buyer is that the loan in place may not be assumable. If the loan is not assumable, the transfer of title to a new owner of the property may very well trigger a due on sales clause in the mortgage where the lender refuses to accept payments from the new owner.

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What does a home borrower do when his real estate loan is mishandled by the lender? How do you dispute irregularaties?

The first thing that a home borrower must do when there are mortgage disputes or mortgage irregularities is to personally call and speak to a representative of the lender in an effort to resolve it. Following the initial conversation, make notes and follow up with a letter confirming the discussion. Keep a copy of the letter for future reference. Going forward, it is valuable information should there be a later appeal.

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Rights When Your Home Mortgage Loan is Sold and Assigned to Another Lender

The practice of selling or transferring the servicing of your mortgage loan is very common in the mortgage industry and your mortgage servicing can be transferred more than once during the life of your loan. Whether or not a borrower has any rights to object to and perhaps stop an assignment of his or her loan for servicing or ownership depends entirely upon the written agreement between the borrower and the lender for the loan. Simply put, if the written documents do not prevent the lender from selling the loan to the borrower and its servicing rights, the borrower has no rights to stop the transfer and assignment.

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What is a second mortgage?

A second mortgage is just that – it is an additional mortgage on a house or other property where the original mortgage is still in effect. The term “second mortgage” denotes the loan’s priority in getting paid upon default. If you fail to pay your mortgages, and your home is foreclosed upon and sold to pay off the loans, the original mortgage will be paid before the second mortgage.

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