Chase To Forgive $100K In Short Sale, Stick $35K In Homeowner's Pocket; Finally Coming To Its Senses, Or Acknowledging It Can't Prove It Owns Loan?

In Sarasota, Florida, the Sarasota Herald Tribune reports:

• The bank spent the last two years denying Deborah Johnson's efforts to save her Sarasota home from foreclosure, and then out of nowhere, last month, sent her an unbelievable offer.



• If Johnson can find someone to buy the property for half of what is owed on the mortgage, JP Morgan Chase bank will not only forgive the remaining $100,000 or so of debt, but also send her away with $35,000 in her pocket.



• The proposal was far better than a foreclosure, which would punish her credit score more severely, strand her without money for a new place to live, and expose her to collection efforts for the unpaid balance for the rest of her life.



• "I thought it was a gimmick," Johnson said of the offer. So she called the phone number given, and yes, the offer is real and it surprises even veteran real estate experts.

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• At least eight other homeowners in Sarasota and Manatee counties have received cash offers up to $35,000 from Chase in the last two months to encourage so-called "short sales," say attorneys who work with troubled homeowners.

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• But real estate attorneys who work with troubled homeowners suspect banks have a less benign reason for the offers: covering up for bad or missing paperwork that would make foreclosure in court difficult. [...] "My only guess there is these guys don't have the note," [Real estate attorney Anne] Weintraub said.

For more, see Bank makes foreclosure offer she can't refuse.