Foreclosure Axe To Fall on Foreclosures.Com Owner

Looks like no-one is safe! An interesting predicament brought on by the fledging real estate in the USA.

Neil "Mortgage Man" McJannet

Top News
Wednesday, 22 December 2010 17:29

By: Faridah Huller, Editor
Miami, FL

Miami, FL—A twist of irony is being served up by the media today with the news that the founder of Foreclosures.com is facing foreclosure and an auction of her house early next month.

Alexis McGee, owner of Foreclosures.com, has made a name for herself and the subscriber-based website she first built in 1995, by helping investors find and buy real-estate properties owned by people struggling to keep foreclosures at bay.

Those very same investors she helps now have a chance to grab the opportunity to buy her Craftsman-style home in Fair Oaks, Sacramento, at a courthouse sale in January 2011. McGee has joined the ranks of thousands of other distressed homeowners fighting off foreclosure.

According to a report by the Sacramento Bee, McGee and her spouse own two real-estate properties, the Fair Oaks home and another in a resort in Squaw Valley. Records show that the couple started having money problems nearly two years ago.

In March 2009, the state filed a lien against her property for $127,000 in unpaid taxes. In August this year, the federal government filed a lien for $210,000 in unpaid taxes.

In June, the couple went into default on their Fair Oaks home as well as on a property in the Squaw Valley. As of June 15 the couple was behind $65,000 on their Fair Oaks mortgage. As of June 28, they were $25,000 delinquent on their Squaw Creek loan.

The Squaw Creek property was scheduled for a foreclosure auction but McGee managed to arrange a short sale for it. That’s where she, as a buyer, got the lender to agree to let her sell the real estate for less than the money she owed on the mortgage.

She is also trying to set up a short sale for her Fair Oaks home. In Dec. 2010, the lender filed a notice of trustee sale which showed that amount owed on this property was $1.7 million. McGee told the Sacramento Bee that she is working with a Lyon real estate agent on a short sale even as the house is scheduled for auction in January 2011.

McGee thinks her house could sell for just under $1 million; way below the $3 million and above value appraised for it after it was built in 2007. McGee said she tried to get the loan modified but the lender, First Horizon Home Loan Corp. was not receptive.

"There's just not a lot of interest in working with the high-end homes. We’re lucky we knew what to do." she said on how she was quickly able to revise her strategy from seeking loan modification to securing a short sale.

The Foreclosures.com owner is not the only recognizable character that has fallen victim to a foreclosure. Fox News commentator and financial guru Tom Sullivan publicly admitted in October that he was looking to short sell his home. Earlier this year, former basketball player of the Sacramento Kings, Ron Artest and his former team mate Kevin Martin, also sought short sales for their homes.