Second Mortgages Behind Your First Mortgage Investment

Don't Count on the Second Mortgage Holder to Bring You Current

Let's suppose you are considering a first mortgage investment of $100,000 on the purchase of a $200,000 little office building. The buyer is putting $40,000 down (20% of the purchase price), and the seller is carrying back a second mortgage of $60,000 (30% of the purchase price). A first mortgage loan of only 50% loan-to-value sounds attractive; but keep in mind that if the deal goes bad, second mortgage holders rarely bring first mortgages current, and if they do, they almost never keep up the payments for long.

You will recall that if the borrower defaults, the second mortgage holder will (almost always) be wiped out if the first mortgage goes to foreclosure. This is true even when there is a lot of equity in the property. Why? Because (almost) no one ever bids at foreclosure sales. Therefore, the only way for the second mortgage holder to protect himself is to bring the first mortgage current and to keep the first mortgage current while the second mortgage forecloses.

In real life, this almost never happens. In fact, I have owned Blackburne & Sons, a hard money lender, for over 30 years, and I can think of very few cases where a second mortgage holder actually brought our first mortgage current. More importantly, there has not been one case in over 30 years where a second mortgage holder has kept our loan current while he foreclosed himself. Not one.

The wise first mortgage investor will therefore never rely on a second mortgage holder to bring his loan current.

This is not an offer to sell first mortgage investments. An offer is made only through an Offering Circular. Investing in first trust deeds and first mortgages involves substantial risk. Please be sure to carefully review the Risk Factors section of the Offering Circular before investing. A substantial and prolonged decline in real estate value is possible.

Please click here for more information on first mortgage investments.