Offering to Pay Off Seller's Liens

[Itzel Salazar]

I'm contacting some properties that have tax liens on them. Should I mention we can pay off any liens on the property? 

[Braden C.]

@Itzel Salazar You can pay off any liens you want, but if there's a mechanic's lien for $50k and the house is only worth $40k, you're not going to pay that off because you aren't going to close on the property. Essentially, if you put in your contract something like "buyer agrees to pay off all liens" and then you find out there are liens way higher than you anticipated, you'll still be on the hook. You could write, "buyer agrees to pay off all liens up to $X,XXX" so you protect yourself. I would have an attorney write it up though so you're as close to being safe as possible. 

When I say you can offer anything as long as it's legal, I am not talking about liens. I mean you can't offer to do something or have the seller do something illegal. Paying off liens of the seller is not illegal.