Article #6 from Foreclosure Articles
by David Whisnant Editor, Real Estate Investor, and Attorney

Foreclosures:

Foreclosures And Divorce


it go to foreclosure. I don’t care. She took my guns and gave them away when we divorced…”

You get the picture.

I have a few rules for dealing with foreclosures in this type of situation. These rules were developed through dealings with actual foreclosure sellers, and figuring out the patterns that commonly emerge in this fairly common situation.

Foreclosures - Rule 1: Keep the wife and the husband apart. I’m generalizing. If they have a good relationship now, let them handle the deed paperwork through your closing attorney, but if not, keep them apart. GENERALLY, The spouse (wife) will go nuts if you tell her that her ex-husband is refusing to sign the deed. She’ll call him and yell, and he will dig his feet in deeper. Your foreclosure deal could easily head for auction because you can’t get good title. The less conversation that the ex-spouses have, the better. This is especially true if you can tell that there is bad blood between them.

Foreclosures - Rule 2: Say the right things to the husband. Tell the non-cooperative husband the following, which is extremely close to what I told the husband in the past foreclosure deal that I am discussing:

“Let’s be honest. I’m going to make some money on this foreclosure. I’m also going to have to invest some money in the house. For whatever reason, the deed was never done after your divorce, and now it is in foreclosure. That foreclosure will count against both of you, as you are both on the loan. I do not want to try to force your hand to sign anything. I think that you should have been given some compensation for your equity when you signed the divorce papers, or at least gotten


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