Real Estate Agent "specializing in short sales"

[William Gillette]

Recently found a property that has been vacant for 7 years. After discussing it with a few people on BP i was informed that i would probably need to do a short sale. 

What is the best way to find an Agent Specializing in Short Sales?

[Krystian Sosinski]

Sounds pretty complicated. To be honest, I'm not sure how I would handle it. But here are some ideas and considerations:

1. Who currently holds legal title? Not equitable title.

I believe your state uses trust deeds instead of mortgages. It's how deeds are conveyed. So in this case, the trustee will hold legal title which will be a title/escrow company usually. They hold it for the beneficiary who is the lender who holds the lien. Lender can instruct the title company to foreclose, which it sounds like they haven't. Seems like it's easier to assign or sell the mortgage to someone else for some reason. Find out who the latest trustee is or find out through the latest owner of the note so that you can see who currently holds the deed and what going on with it.

If the property was seized directly by the court via attachment and the bankruptcy was not settled, the court might still might have direct custody possibly.

Keep in mind the county recorders office is just a constructive notice place where people can time stamp their claims of ownership. It does not guarantee it's records in themselves are accurate or current.

If there were unpaid property taxes, the tax lien could have been sold. Someone might have a certificate of purchase that might give them first dibs to foreclose for ownership eventually. If no one bought the lien, the state might be holding onto it. 

2. Are there liens on the property?

Obviously there will be the lien on there created by the trust deed. But since the original owner bankrupted, there could be a lot of unpaid parties that still exist. Unpaid property taxes, attachments, assessments, judgments, IRS liens, watch out for all of these. Do your homework so you don't inherit them. See, perhaps, the lender lien is yielding priority to a property tax lien (government). If thats the case, perhaps they are choosing not to foreclose because they know they will be last in line to collect as an example.

3. Title Insurance

Definitely buy owner's title insurance if you do get the property since it changed so many hands. Depending on how the deed will be conveyed to you, it wont have a the general warranty of clean title. So insure that risk.

4. Buying the deed, novation or assumption

If its as simple as the bank holding title, then they should be able to buy the property from them. If its assigned note like you said, maybe they could "novate" or "assume" with you in it's place.

I didn't really answer your question. But perhaps that gave you a better picture.