Need advice on Tax Lien deal.... - Posted by Charity

Real Estate Investing Real Estate Law
#1

Posted by David Krulac on March 12, 2001 at 22:12:10:

might should have been would. I think that anytime you accept a property without good title, you are running all kinds of risks. I don’t recommend it. But I have done it and I know some people that have multiple properties with bad titles that they have had for years. As long as they rent them and don;t try to sell them, they’re ok. The prices were so cheap, that the rents paid for the properties long ago, everything else is gravy and if they lose the property tomorrow, they still made a ton of money. One guy has a property that he paid $2,000 for 20 years ago and rents for $375 a month!

#2

Need advice on Tax Lien deal… - Posted by Charity

Posted by Charity on March 08, 2001 at 20:19:35:

Sent letter to a woman who owes $345 in back taxes. She would be willing to let go of the property, but cannot sign a QCD because her ex husband is still on title. He left her 13 YEARS ago and hasn’t contacted her or the kids in 6 years. She has no idea where he is and he probably wouldn’t sign anyway. She said she has divorce papers stating she has the right to sell the place, but attorneys have told her she needs his signature. Anything I can do with this one?

Charity

#3

And maybe you don’t need good title… - Posted by David Krulac

Posted by David Krulac on March 09, 2001 at 17:07:08:

if you’re going to rent, you don’t need good title,
if you l/o or land contract, you don’t need good title,
if you’re going to liv there yoiu don’t need good title.
You only need good title if you are going to transfer the deed to somebody else, who is financing or demands good title.

#4

Re: Need advice on Tax Lien deal… - Posted by JoeKaiser

Posted by JoeKaiser on March 08, 2001 at 21:56:27:

While she may not be able to transfer clear title, she most certainly can sign and deliver to you a quit claim deed.

Forget about what the attorneys say. Go to your title insurer and ask them what they need. It’s their opinion that matters (and only their opinion) and they just happen to have attorneys themselves who services are free (sort of) with the purchase of your title policy.

Joe

#5

A Word of Caution … - Posted by Jim Kennedy - Houston, TX

Posted by Jim Kennedy - Houston, TX on March 11, 2001 at 21:21:52:

I must respectfully submit that part of your advice to Charity has the potential of causing her serious problems at some point in the future. I agree with everything in your post except when you wrote that she might not need good title “… if you l/o or land contract, …”

If and when the time arrives that the tenant/optionee exercises his/her option or the vendee fulfills his/her obligations under the terms of a land contract, Charity would be expected to deliver good title. If she were unable to do so, the tenant/optionee or vendee would probably have a very good cause of action against her. I wouldn’t want to be in the position of having to explain to my “buyer” why I can’t live up to my end of the bargain.

Best of Success!!

Jim Kennedy,
Houston, TX