Elvis Clark
Elvis Clark has been a guest on Collecting Keys, the real estate investing podcast hosted by Mike DeHaan, Dan Austin and Dylan Koch.
How to Close Pre-Foreclosure Deals Without Getting Burned w/ Elvis Clark
Elvis Clark, an Austin-based investor focused on auctions and pre-foreclosures across the Austin–San Antonio–Houston corridor, walks through how his five-person team works with homeowners facing foreclosure: educating them on loan modifications and reinstatement before ever discussing a sale, reinstating loans with their own capital, taking the deed, and then helping the seller relocate. He and Mike DeHaan also dig into the risks of subject-to deals, including Mike's story of a lender calling $850,000 in loans due after he bought three pre-foreclosures sub-to.
Key takeaways
- In pre-foreclosure conversations, lead with the homeowner's other options (loan modification, personal loan from family, reinstatement) before bringing up buying the house — that builds rapport because "do you want to sell" is the last thing they want to hear.
- Elvis's team uses its own capital to reinstate the loan, but only after terms are agreed, contracts are signed, and the deed is recorded — then the seller typically gets half the equity up front and help relocating.
- Subject-to carries real risk: a homeowner can call the lender a year later and ask to get the loan out of their name, and Mike had a lender call $850,000 in loans due within 30 days after noticing the deed change. Deeding the property back to the seller did not fix it.
- Insurance and payoff statements are the under-discussed sub-to problems — the servicer may refuse a payoff statement because you're not the borrower, so staying on good terms with the seller until the property is sold is essential.