Searching for All Liens on a Foreclosure in Texas

[Ken Urquiza]

Hi,

I live in Travis County (Austin, Tx) and I'm interested in a foreclosure house.

I'm wondering, is there a DIY approach to finding all the liens on a property that's up for foreclosure? I've searched under the address and owner's name on the Tax Assessor and County Clerk website and have found no liens on this property.

However, I want to be certain that I'm not missing something. The house does have an HOA and I would think that if someone's not paying their mortgage, they're probably not paying the HOA! So there might be an HOA lien that I haven't found.

In addition to the Tax Assessor website (https://tax-office.traviscountytx.gov/) and the public records at the county clerk website (http://traviscountyclerk.org/eclerk/Content.do?cod...).

Should I be checking somewhere else?
How can I make sure the IRS has been notified of the foreclosure?

Many thanks!

Ken

[Ken Urquiza]

I attended the bank foreclosure auction at the Travis county courthouse on Tuesday.  I was very surprised at how much people were willing to pay for foreclosure homes that can't be inspected and where the owner is often times still residing.  In all of the cases where I knew the market value, the homes went for the market rate +/- 20%.  

Considering that I wanted to pay 50 or 60% of the market value, I was disappointed. 

I took the opportunity to ask some of the old pros there a few of the questions that I've expressed about lien search above.  Regarding the lien search I asked someone who does title research for a living and he said that IRS tax liens, state, and local tax liens will all be recorded with the county clerk or tax assessor.  If not, then they haven't followed procedure and can be dismissed.

This answers my question above about whether a title search that covers the county clerk and tax assessor is sufficient.  It seems like it is.  That said, I don't see the added value in paying for a title search given that all of the county clerk and tax assessor information can be found online.  Please let me know if you have any thoughts on this!