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What do you do when your loan servicing company stops taking calls and its website wishes you good luck? Where do you send you monthly mortgage payment? Now that many lenders have gone out of business and some servicing companies have ceased their operations, where does that leave the borrowers? The process of transferring loans from some services to others has been a nightmare for some borrowers, particularly those borrowers formerly serviced by Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Company. (You can read their horror stories on our site.)

A short sale purchase can be derailed by many issues: a lender that refuses to cooperate, a seller that refuses to submit information to his or her lender, a problem with the title to the home, a contractor lien placed on the home, and even a tax lien placed on the home. Some of these issues can be solved by putting some time and effort into resolving them. Others can only be solved with the payment of money. Where you problem will come up in a short sale purchase is unknown, but for this reader, the problem was a tax lien.

If you are buying a home, you might read over the listing sheet, but you should also review any seller disclosure form given to you.
Most states have seller disclosure laws that require sellers to disclose to a buyer any major or material defect in a home. In addition to the seller disclosure form, you should also inspect the home using a professional home inspector.

If you are selling your home and are not planning to pay off your loan, you should know that your loan probably has a due on sale clause. The due on sale clause allows the lender to call the loan due. The lender can accelerate the payments owed and force you to pay off what is owed on the loan. If you are the lender on a loan and your borrower sells the property without getting your permission, you should make sure your loan documents have a due on sale clause.

When an investment property is sold as a short sale, it generates what is known as "phantom income." The IRS looks at the difference between what the property is worth and what your sold it for in the short sale as income. You should receive a 1099 for the phantom income generated by the short sale of the investment property.

You get divorced. You refinance your home. Your ex-spouse gives you a quit claim deed. End of story? Not so, says this reader whose ex-spouse wants half of the proceeds from the sale of the home 13 years after the quit claim deed and and 14 years after the divorce. Does the divorce decree trump the quit claim deed? Does the quit claim deed trump the divorce decree? What should the ex-spouse get in this real estate problem.

If you are buying a home and find out you may have a title problem, you should talk to the title insurance company to determine if the title problem can be insured over by the title insurance company. Many real estate properties have minor title insurance problems that are small enough that the title insurance company may be willing to give you peace of mind with coverage under the title insurance policy.

Worried about contractor's liens? When you buy a foreclosure, check to see if there are any contractor's liens against the property that have survived the foreclosure. Often, the lender will wipe out all other subordinate liens, including contractor's liens, in the foreclosure process. But in some cases, those liens may still exist and be valid. If you suspect there might be other liens that will be filed against the property even after you close, be sure to purchase a title insurance policy with coverage over contractor's liens. You will want to have this insurance in place to have a title company cover the costs of litigation and the costs to remove the contractor's liens with the purchase of the title insurance even if you bought the property after a foreclosure.

How do you know when real estate buyers become prospective buyers for your home? Does something magical occur when a specific real estate buyer knows your home or house is for sale? If you have your home listed for sale, does the listing broker keep count of prospective buyers so that you know who they are?