Two investors fetched a house on foreclosure-battered Batter Terrace for $65,000, five times what someone else tried to pay five months ago.
The three-family house at 14 Batter went up for auction for a second time Saturday. The city had foreclosed on it. Another buyer tried to snag it for $12,500 at a December auction; the court later threw out the bargain as too low a price.
Saturday the house went to Victor Zayas (at far left in photo) and Bryant Thomas, a pair of first-time real estate investors under the guidance of longtime investor Rich Votto (at far right). Votto said he acted as a silent partner in the deal.
“I wanted to get my hands wet a little bit, so he’s helping me,” Zayas said.
Saturday’s foreclosure sale was just the latest on a curving one-block street where homeowners have been working hard to improve conditions, while contending with speculators and absentee owners. Read about that here.
Richard Nocerino (pictured, left), whose grandmother purchased the house with a $7,800 mortgage in 1942 and passed it on to Richard’s parents, showed up too. He said he hoped this would be the last time he would have to return there.
“I don’t even like coming here, even though this was a house where I spent a lot of years, he said. “It’s really turned out to be kind of like a nightmare for me.”
Since the previous auction, he said, he had cleaned out anything that remained that had any sentimental value. The few remaining objects will be left behind for the home’s new owner.
“I wish many, many months ago, there was someone I could just drop the keys in their hand and say, ‘Do what you want with the place. Don’t call me, don’t write me, don’t bother me, just leave me out of it,’” he said.
The State of Connecticut, which Nocerino said he had expected to file a lien on the house prior to the first foreclosure auction, sent a last-minute letter to attorney Justine Miller indicating that a lien had been recorded.
Yet Miller, the court-appointed attorney for Saturday’s sale, assured potential buyers the state was bluffing.
“In any case, that would be a subsequent lien that would be foreclosed by the sale,” she said, “but I went to the land records office yesterday and someone helped me to make sure that as of yesterday no lien had been recorded.”
Nocerino locked the back door again for what could be the last time.
“I just hope it’s over with,” he said. “I really do.”
Previous Independent coverage of New Haven’s foreclosure crisis:
• This Is The Face Of Deutsche Bank
• Banks Duck City On Foreclosed Homes
• Rescue Squad Hunts For “Tipping Points”
• Flippers Get 2nd Shot At Fixer-Upper
• Suburban Cop Finds A City Steal
• Absentee Banklords Thwart Foreclosure Sales
• City Forecloses On 40 Lots
• Crowd Seeks Cure For “Mortgage Distress”
• Donovan: “Help Is On The Way”
• Judge Forces WPCA To Give Mom A Chance
• WPCA Uproots Tenants, Too
• Home-Rescue Squad Ignores WPCA
• Sewer Agency Unloads House
• Foreclosure Evictions Halted
• Let The Bank Have It, This Time
• Hazel St. Sale Reflects Economic Climate
• Hill Foreclosure Triggers Memories, & Prayers
• Foreclosure Fee-Slashing Judge Leaves Town
• She’ll Be Watching Deutsche Bank
• A Last Pre-Foreclosure Look At A Lifetime Past
• New Yorker Snags Foreclosed-Upon Gem
• Foreclosure Dream Goes Sour
• Judge Slashes Foreclosure Bounty
• Tax Break Saves Woman’s House
• Bank Replaces “Gunshot Alley” Landlord
• Foreclosure Bill OK’d
• Singh Seeks Home For A Song
• Foreclosure’s Neighbor Worries More About Speeding
• Networking Replaces Foreclosure at Christy’s
• Foreclosure Bargain — & Renewal — Jeopardized
• Bank Outbids Akbar; Family May Keep Home
• “So Don’t Worry About Pablo”
• Bankruptcy Postpones Foreclosure
• Next-Door Foreclosures, 53 Years Apart
• They Met On Foreclosure Way
• Little Garage Draws Big Bids
• A 2nd Chance on Lewis Street
• Foreclosure Attracts New Breed of “Specialist”
• In Foreclosures, Judge’s Hands Tied
• Home Saved From Foreclosure. Cycle, Too
• A House For Precious?
• Deutsche Bank Grabs Dixwell Condo
• Reluctant Bidder Snags F. Haven Bargain
• Well, There’s Always Powerball
• Neighbors Retrieve Home From Bank
• Somebody Has Plans For Bassett Street
• Foreclosed, the Khennavongs Leave the Santanas
• Foreclosure Steal May Be Too Good
• 2nd Foreclosure in 3 Months Dims Bright St.
• After Foreclosure, W’ville Owner Still Hopes To Sell
• He’s Not Buying, Yet
• Quiet Foreclosure on Porter Street
• 3 Minutes Too Late
• Historic Gambardella Property Foreclosed
•2 Homes Lost, 1 Gained
• “Everybody’s Got To Eat”
• More Foreclosures, More Signs
• Foreclosure Sale Benefits Archie Moore’s
• Rescue Squad Swings Into Action
• A Bidder Shows Up
• Bank Beats Tanya’s Bid
• Westville Auction Draws A Crowd
• DeStefano: Foreclosure Plan Ready
• Can They Help?
• “We Should Over-Regulate These Bastards”
• Rosa Hears of Rescues
• WPCA Grilled on Foreclosures
• WPCA’s Targets Struggle To Dig Out
• Sue The Subprimers?
• WPCA Hearing Delayed
• Megna’s “Blood Boils” at WPCA Tactics
• Goldfield Wants WPCA Answers
• 2 Days, 8 Foreclosure Suits
• WPCA Goes On Foreclosure Binge
• A Guru Weighs In
• WPCA Targets Church
• Subprime Mess Targeted
• Renters Caught In Foreclosure King’s Fall
• She’s One Of 1,150 In The Foreclosure Mill
• Foreclosures Threaten Perrotti’s Empire
•“I’m Not Going To Lay Down And Let Them Take My House”
• Struggling Couple Sues Over “Scam”
To learn about the ROOF Project, a community-wide effort to help New Haveners navigate the foreclosure crisis, click here.
The following links are to various materials and brochures designed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.
How to prepare a complaint to the Department of Banking; Department of Banking Online Assistance Form; Connecticut Department of Banking, Avoiding Foreclosure; FDIC Consumer News; Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, Inc; Connecticut Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service.
For lawyer referral services in New Haven, call 562-5750 or visit this website. For the Department of Social Services (DSS) Eviction Foreclosure Prevention Program (EFPP), call 211 to see which community-based organization in the state serves your town.
Click here for information on foreclosure prevention efforts from Empower New Haven.
