"XP has bowed out of doing anything about it, although she recognizes that it's a problem, because she is still good friends with Nosy's husbabd and doesn't want to cause tension." It seems that XP is being let off the hook a little too easily. Does XP care if the house sells? Since she is a co-owner and is on good terms with the husband (and still lives in the area), it only seems fair that she be involved in helping to solve this problem. Why should you take all the heat? Nosey's husband needs to be made aware of what his wife is doing. I'd ask XP to talk to the husband and realtor and let them know that if Nosey doesn't stop interfering, you will set up a motion activated camera that takes a pic of everyone who comes into the yard, and get a restraining order against her. I'd hand out flyers to the other neighbors. Offer them a commission if they can steer a buyer your way. I'll bet they aren't crazy about Nosey either. See if any of them would be willing let your realtor know when they see Nosey trespassing or bothering any other potential buyers. They should be able to do this anonymously so Nosey doesn't start pestering them too.

Xine, I'm not too concerned about BofA, although dishonesty and not playing fair doesn't sit well with me. What I am concerned about is being a pawn in someone else's game. And if there is something dishonest going on with the first contract, I would like it to be declined by the bank. The home is wayyyyyyy underpriced, suspicously underporiced.........nothing in the neighborhood has sold for less than $140,000 (not even the towhomes one street over). And this home is in far nicer condition, on a larger lot, and newer than most of the others. I am prepared to up my offer to the bank, I just want a fair shake at it. I honestly don't believe that the agent/broker ever really intended to sell it on the MLS, I think everything has possibly been pre-arranged w/ the seller, including possibly cash on the side. (the seller purchased it as an 80/20 and HAD a second mortgage, which has mysteriously disappeared...she has been in dire financial straights and there was no way she could have paid that off on her own) I think the house might just be on the MLS to put a show on for the bank. Being encouraged (by the listing agent) to put in a backup offer is not fair play if this is all just a pre-arranged investor game. As for my financial housing situation...My current house is prepped and ready for sale, I just won't put it on the market until I have another house to go to. (I have 2 large dogs and a cat and being put in the position to have to find a rental that will want my menagerie does not seem feasible) My current home has no mortgage, and the new home is to be a cash purchase...so no mortgages are involved on either side of my housing equation.

No offers will occur until either a sucker of a buyer wanders in, or the owner of the note lowers the price to match the market. The note holder does not want to loose money, and will sit on things (loosing money every day) until it becomes painful enough (or someone bails them out by purchasing the note from them). The problem will then switch to whomever bails them out by purchasing the 'toxic paper' that the note has become. The property may have become damaged in the meantime, further lowering its market value. There is not going to be a simple answer or fix. A lot of people made a lot of money during the run up, but are nowhere to be found now. At least some of them paid a price when their firms collapsed, but others are still begging at the federal trough for someone to 'do something' to save their hides since they are 'to big to fail.' It is not going to be pretty since it looks like we have privatized the gains made and will now socialize the losses (that means we ALL will be paying them).

Mary, If you purchase a property that is now owned by a lender because they worked out a "short sale" with their mortgagee there will be no consequences to you as a buyer. If the lender has a beef...it's with their mortgagee. Many "shorts" are negotiated to be non-recourse & dach...I'd sure recommend you try hard to accomplish that. I'm not a REA but have a good idea why you're not seeing the words "short" and/or "foreclosure" on the MLS. 1.) The lender always has a fiduciary duty to the mortgagee. 2.) If it's REO, it's no longer a foreclosure so there's no reason it would be advertised as such. 3.) To advertise a "short" would, IMO, violate the fiduciary duty thing & potentially leave the lender exposed to a liable suit...not something a good lender would ever risk. What you are likely to see advertised is "bank owned" or "lender owned" or "relocation company owned", etc. Nobody potentially gets hurt by those choice of words. Auctions... No, they most likely do not have a price listed in case someone wants to purchase it outright. If there were to be a normal sale it would be between the mortgagee & the potential buyer but NOT the lender. The lender is required to present the property to the public via the auction process since that's the standard for "fair market value". Not all states allow phone bids. Most of the states where I've conducted auctions for lenders the potential purchaser had to be on site registered & with a bidding number in hand in order to be qualified to bid. If a successful bidder fails to close within the specified timeframe they can be held liable for breach of contract. It's best to have all of your ducks in a row before bidding at a foreclosure auction. Frequently, I bid a property in at what we had outstanding including unpaid interest, fees, taxes, insurance, etc. but not always. In down markets, if I had an active bidder & we reached within 10% or so of my target amount I'd let the property go. I also did dozens of absolute auctions where I didn't bid at all so technically the property could have gone for $1.00. Those were in cases where I knew there were problems that could potentially be costly for the bank. An example, is one home (build in the 1930's) that was used as a gas station in the 1950's. I chose to auction absolute rather than risk an EPA fiasco. That property sold for around $30K & I was grateful to get it! Don't remember what our loan amount was but it was certainly more than $30K. /t