How To Handle An IRS Lien On Property

[Jeffrey Johnson]

Have an interesting opportunity we are trying to make work, wondering if anyone out there has ever dealt with something similar....

Met with a seller who has a property set for foreclosure auction on 6/5/18. She owes $250K on property. (including $22K reinstatement fee) House is worth roughly $350K and needs about $10K in repairs. She is willing to walk away from the home with basically nothing. The catch is she tells me there is an $80K lien attached to the house from the IRS. Obviously that kills the deal....or does it? 

I have heard that IRS liens can be negotiated way down and settled for a smaller amount. So that is question #1. Has anyone had success doing this?

Question #2 - Is there a way to "detach" the lien from the house and have it basically attach to the sellers credit only? So she could sell us the home and once we own it, could we get it to fall off?

My strategy may be to take the home over "subject to" and rent it out for a period of time while we try and figure out how to settle the IRS lien. Unless of course we have no chance of getting the lien reduced. 

Any thoughts or advice? 

[Wayne Brooks]

It’s doable, but not in your time frame. The irs would have to believe it is an arms length transaction at close to FMV, and the irs gets what’s left after the mtg pay off. As happens frequently in short sales, the would be removed from the property but the owner would still be personally liable.