FanHouse: NBA player defaults on his mortgage
Houston Rockets guard Kevin Martin has defaulted on mortgage payments on a house in California. He owes $44,000 in late payments on a 5,000-square-foot home he purchased in the city of Rocklin in July 2007 while he was still a member of the Sacramento Kings. See even high paid NBA players can fall behind on their mortgage.
Martin originally purchased the property for $1.9 million, including a $1.5 million mortgage. But home values have plummeted in his neighborhood over the last few years, and Martin’s attorney Michael Hackard told the Sacramento Bee that his client is attempting to negotiate a short-sale with his bank for $1.1 million.
Even though Martin has been served with a notice of default, the first step toward a potential foreclosure, Hackard indicated that a foreclosure is not likely to happen.
“He always wants to do the right thing,” Hackard told the Sacramento Bee.
“He’s a stand-up guy. There’s a legal dispute that he is right in the process of solving. … He’s not walking away. We’ve got a certain dispute with the lender.”
A short-sale entails selling a house for less than what is still owed on the mortgage, meaning the lender takes a loss but avoids having to take possession of the property through foreclosure. Banks usually approve a short-sale only when the home owner does not have the means to pay the difference between the sale price of the house and the balance of the mortgage.
Martin, entering the third season of a five-year, $55 million contract signed in 2007, could pay the balance of his mortgage with roughly two months’ salary, which may be why the bank is so far balking at taking a loss.
So maybe “doing the right thing” would be to payoff the mortgage in full. The problem here is that it is obvious that he is just trying to work a deal and there is no hardship involved. The problem for the Bank is that in California it is unlikely that they can go after anything other than the house. So Martin is somewhat in the drivers seat hear though his credit will tank he may be able to save himself server hundred thousand dollars.
