Posted by Tony Colella on April 19, 2007 at 09:48:30:
I would not use their attorney. My attorney has found in nearly every foreclosed land/home deal we have done that the previous attorney(s) had missed problems in the title search and the fact that your seller wants to sell via special/limited warranty deed it sounds as though they have had the same experiece and want to limit their exposure.
Typically it is the buyer who determines who does the closing. Have your attorney (or title company) do the title search, obtain title insurance for you.
Quite often and especially when done in bulk the first problem is the home was never repossessed and had not previously had the title retired. The foreclosing companies send out these foreclosures in bulk and they get done as such with little attention to detail (from what I have seen) and by companies that are not familiar with the fact that mobile homes often remain personal property and as such the foreclosure of the land does not give them title.
The deal may still be worth doing but you need to cover you assets and at the very least get paid for the effort.
We go into much more detail about this in our land/home book and courses here.
Let us know how it turns out.
Tony