Pls. explain how Certificate of Title works in Florida - Posted by chris

Real Estate Investing
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Posted by Rob FL on December 14, 1999 at 09:49:23:

A certificate of title (In Florida), is the final deed issued after the public auction is held for a foreclosure. Normally, if there are no other bids, the lender would be purchasing the property back. Usually this happens when there is minimal equity.

Lenders usually start bidding at $100. Why? Because Florida has a sales tax (i.e. documentary stamp tax) on title transfers amounting to $.70 for every $100 of purchase price. Lenders don’t want to pay anymore tax then they have to, so they all start bidding at $100 but will max out at the total amount owed if another party bids against them. If the lender forecloses, no money will actually change hands, since all the proceeds of the sale would revert back to the lender anyway.

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Pls. explain how Certificate of Title works in Florida - Posted by chris

Posted by chris on December 13, 1999 at 19:28:46:

I have been searching the property appraisers web site for foreclosed properties in my area. I see many properties listed with a sales code showing Certificate of Title and always a sales price of $100. A legal terms search said that it is basically an opinion that the property had marketable title. I have heard of warranty deeds, etc. but this is new to me.

How does this work? I assume the lender does not usually accept $100 for a $140,000+ property.

Thanks for clearing up the confusion.