Perhaps I get concerned too easily, but I rec'd some paperwork on a 'short sale' of an rv. The seller is 'upside down' and apparently lender will take much less, (preferable to liquidation/auction/bankruptcy?) The paperwork seems to indicate their doing this; "escalation dept", but I'm getting queasy. So I took paperwork to my banker and credit union and neither liked what they saw. I did some research and the 1st 2 results on the lender were about buyer not receiving the title/lien release after paying off the sellers' loan. All of this concerns me a bit. When I tried to call the sellers' lender for clarification, they wouldn't take my call because I'm not the account #.

Now I do understand the short sale of a home; and I hear Dave Ramsey et al telling people in financial trouble (not me, seller) that they shouldn't bail out; they should call lenders and offer pennies on the dollar. So I get the logic. But I've never done anything like this, and it seems to me the buyer is in last place with regard to actually getting the title and clearance. Am I being skittish for no reason?

Sure sounds like three day old fish to me, without confirming with the lienholder I wouldn't touch it.

quote:

Am I being skittish for no reason?

No.

If your banker and CU "didn't like what they saw", it might be an indication.

I would seek legal advice on assuring a clear title or a refund.

Ditto
When they hand you a clear title, you hand them the money. Nothing else.

quote:

When they hand you a clear title, you hand them the money. Nothing else.

Make it a tellers check. At least this adds a little bit more to a paper trail.

I've read lately of dealers selling cars they didn't legally own, and in this situation the unwary buyer is eventually losing the vehicle and what they paid.
Matt

One more scam to watch out for; buyer pays you in cash for the large dollar item, you sign over title, at bank you find out the cash is counterfeit!!
Corey

Hey stringmann, I'd walk a BIG circle around that one......

If the previous owners bank was willing to "short sell", and they had a buyer with cash in hand, you wanna bet that they would find you someone to talk to PDQ, account # or not.

These "scams" are becoming more difficult to detect, and they are fairly sophisticated. Even the old cashiers check, or bank check is not safe anymore, there have been occassions here where they have been counterfeit, or get this - stopped payment on. Yes, you can stop payment on a bank check.

Just as soon as we learn of an old scam, seems like a new one pops up. One of the best ways for sellers to get their money, as my bank recommends, is a wire transfer, but, be forewarned, my bank advises that you set up an account for the purpose of the transfer ONLY, then when the transfer comes in to you, you should transfer it out of the "new transfer account" into your "old account" thus rendering the "new transfer account" which received the initial money as a closed account, that way the transfer cannot be reversed, or revoked, or money withdrawn......

I know none of this helps you at this point, but maybe it will help another seller, and will also educate us all at what a scammer can do if and when they get their hands on you hard earned dollars.....

Tina

FIRST I AM A LAWYER- If you are approached with a 'too good to be true" deal you can protect yourself by getting a lawyer to act as Closing Agent and he or she will assemble the paperwork, check titles and financing and arrange for payment to an escrow account (called Attorney Trust Account in Texas) and handle the transfer of the money and the clear title for you. It will generally cost a couple hundred, depending on outstanding liens or judgments that are filed or are being filed (Lis Pendens) and the cost of checking credit, warrants and liens. But for a Barth that you could be spending thousands for it will either result in a clear and complete sale and transfer, or an early collapse of the "offer", and that should be relatively inexpensive. Just check with your friends and acquaintances for a knowledgeable and fair lawyer.

Thanks for all the input. The reason I posted this topic was primarily to see if others have run into this (I hadn't, and have been in the mkt for a long time), and also to generate awareness in case more of these come along.
To be clear, I haven't sent and will not send a cent; common sense and caveat emptor both raised their voices instantly. However, I think this is more of a mess than a scam; the sellers lender was bought by a division of GE, and the seller is in a real money mess; so I suspect their 'escalation' dept is set to negotiate partial payments and 'quit claims' (Is that one of the terms?)on anything that beats a repo/auction dollar amt. I was more concerned about the buyer being in 'last place' here. So the suggestion that no $ changes hands until title is clearly legal and handed over w/ atty present is the only way I would do this, if at all. My son in law told me that he bought his house under a very similar scenario; seller was on the brink of foreclosure and out of state and bank took well below mkt because it was cheaper than utter liquidation. So I think that is what this is, and perhaps more of these are on the horizon?

I would guess that very few folks' RV loans aren't upside-down at the moment, unless they've had both the RV and the loan for a number of years.