Texas tax deed question

[Mark C.]

I have thought about investing in real estate for years and I'm starting to more seriously  research different opportunities.  I've read up on texas tax deeds and have a couple of questions.

1.  When a property does not have a homestead exemption in the county appraisal records, does it automatically fall into a 6 month redemption?  If it doesn't, can you define homestead?

2.  Since these are tax deeds, does that mean when the county foreclosed on the property that the title was cleared including IRS liens and other types of senior liens?

Thanks in advance.

Mark

[Richard D.]

@Mark C. these are good questions, which I have covered in some of my blogs (self promoting) sorry.  So here are the short answers.

Use the county appraisal district, in Denton County its Denton CAD. The redemption is dependent on certain exemptions being in place the date the tax suit is filed. Good luck getting exemption history from Tarrant County, they just changed computer systems, and can't tell if they have the info or not. 

With liens it's NO! Not all liens are cleared with the suit. This is very important, especially IRS liens. They are superior lien to a county tax lien; therefore, they stay and you would inherit the debt.

To define homestead, read the Texas tax code chapter 11.13. It is available online through the State Comptroller office. Just search 2015 Property tax code. The new edition should be released any day now.

Welcome to BP and good luck.