Odd situation with an Owner Financed Home

[Anonymous]

Ok

I am in an odd situation with a home i used to own in california and sold in 1990...

When my (now ex) wife and i sold the home we financed 30% of the purchase price and they paid 35% on a first mortgage (all they could qualify for if i recall right) and 35% cash..The total was something like $250,000 in total... (so basicly $75000/$87500/$87500).. In that agreement they would pay the balance off to us in 10 years and would pay intrest payments @ 8% on that ... I dont recall what the payments where supposed to be now but it wasn't a heck of alot... There attorney set it up and at the time we where tickled to make a large profit on the house (we moved to south florida and only had to get a small mortgage)..Anyway, life happend and hurricane andrew forced us to move to charlotte nc... Some how in the proceeding months, we forgot about the mortgage in california and they did call and ask us what to do, we told them to hold off until we got settled and send us a lump sum at that time..Which never happend (very bad on our part and they never called us back because they lost track of us)...And we never payed any attention to it (don't ask why, life was hell at that point)... Well after a divorce, mid life crisis, and rasing 3 kids  through college, it was all but forgotten about... About a month ago i got a call from an attorney in san diego and it all came back to me ..I know its not normal, but i am very forgetful... Long story short, the house has some kind of either tax lien or something against it and i still have this mortgage against it (which is the bigger claim or ?because its $75000+8% intrest yearly)...The owners who bought it long ago want me to forclouse against it and lease the house back to them... Since i had some how let this go so long ago, should i just tell them to forget it or should i proceed with an attorney? This is very bizzare and i am mad i forgot about this long ago (even though i paid taxes on the full amount from 1990-1993)..Any help is greatfully apprciated...

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Well if it was me I'd get an attorney, there looks to be some sort of profit you can make out of it which could be much greater than the attorneys fees you'd be charged.  Honestly it's going to be tough for you to get advice from layman's because any advice that would be given to you would be legal advice, and unfortunately one could be sued for giving you legal advice that turns out to be damaging.  I'd look up real estate attorney's in the city/county that the home is in, perhaps first with the title company's legal department that issued the title insurance for a good recommendation, or see if they have any input on it.

[Anonymous]

Foreclose - kick them out and lease it at market or sell it.  Be careful of the tax lien - that trumps the mortgage - so I would definately hire an attorney and be prepared to clear the tax lien.