Sheriff sale-Liens-other pertinent info helpful

[Wendy Busa]

There is a property in Wisconsin that goes to bid on a sheriffs sale next month. My concern is if there is a lien on the property. I went online to the register of deeds and did not see anything in tapestry. Paying for a title search can get expensive especially since I am not sure I would win the bid. Is there a more affordable way to verify if the property has a clear title?

I know I need to go to the sale with at least 10% cash/certified check, but are there any other issues that I should be aware of?

Thank you.

[Joshua Martin]

Hey Wendy,

  Not sure what county you're talking about but they're probably all about the same. To be clear, I've never actually bought at a sheriff sale I've just attended several in MKE and the guy I just started working acquisitions for buys at a lot of them (I'll be doing this going forward) so I was asking him these same questions yesterday - so that's my reference point - I'm not an expert.

 There is certainly a lien on the property, probably the first mortgage, which is why it's at the sheriff sale. I know MKE county handled tax foreclosures differently as well as Waukesha and I believe all the counties have their own process for disposing of tax foreclosures. If it's at a sheriff sale at all I think it's because someone has been granted a judgement of foreclosure. If you search CCAP or even links associated with the address on the county page itself it should normally direct you to court records where you can see the foreclosure amount. If you have a relationship with a title company you could maybe have them do a soft search and see if there's a bunch of seconds listed. From the way I understand it you're typically going to have a formal title search done after you win the bid because you're right, not worth spending all that cash if you don't get it.

Also, just to say, a month can be a long way out for a sheriff sale and you often see them pull right up to the date, so don't stress about it just yet but just keep asking questions. Hopefully I can tell you more in a few weeks after I've been at a couple and seeing this start to close.

Best of luck,