The $300 propbably is for a title insurance policy. You can ask a title company to do a Preliminary Report. They might charge about $40 for it. It will show all the liens against the property. Then you can sit down with them and discuss how to clear them. I have paid for title insurance myself for a house I bought at a trustee sale. Some people will just ask the title company if they are willing to insure the property;if they are willing, then that is good enough for the investor. I like to have the insurance.
I have found a house in a great neighborhood that is going to be sold at a public auction. I know this house has leins against it, with only the IRS and state tax leins being taken care of in the judgement(set for April 27). My questions are, how do I go about getting a title search without having to pay $300 to a title co.? And when I find out which leins are against it how do I get a clear title? I have obviously never done this but the property value in this area is aprox. 90K. The opening bid will be 20K according to the attorney handling the estate. If no one bids this, will they come down at the auction or will it have to go back through the court system. Also, I am looking into traditional financing, through banks,(I will be living in the house)for the loan to purchase and home improvement(20K). Am I going about this all wrong and stressing over the down pymt, closing costs, ect., or is there another way to purchase this house?
Usually, they won’t come down on their price, if they said they will start bidding at 20k, and you can count on that. ALso, don’t bring your hopes so high, because I am sure there will always be another bidder to bid against you. I have never went to an auction with no other bidders.
ABout the financing, you want to make sure you can get the financing before hand. Usually they give you a really short amount of time to get the financing and require a non-refundable deposit.
But, again, I am not sure, becasue I don’t know which state you are in, I guess it varies states by states? Well, that’s the way they do it in mines.
Be careful. When you buy at auction, usually, you are buying the house and their liens.