Purchasing a tax lien property from investor

[Carey Branam]

A local broker/investor has recently bought a tax lien for the house next door to us. We want to buy it from him but he has not quieted the title. We have a well known RE attorney here that says we should be able to quiet the title but it all makes us very nervous. If during the quiet title process the original owner comes up with the $5k for the taxes then she can get it back and we’re out $35k. (We agreed on a purchase price of $40k). The investor doesn’t want to bother with doing the quiet title himself, he said if he does that he will just sell at market value. Has anyone had the prior owner come back during the quiet title process and try to reclaim the property? Do I just put all my trust in this attorney (who is highly trusted and very well known all over the state). We really want the property because it’s right next door and would have so much potential if we fixed it up. We already have 2 houses on our lot so it would give us 3 houses right together.