Tax Foreclosed Property: strategy to clean the title?

[Marc M.]

Greetings BP,

I purchased a tax foreclosed property in Detroit and let the previous owner stay in the property for 10 months to 'house sit' while I was busy with other projects. We have a good rapport, and she will be moving out next month. My plan is to sell the property this summer. Here's the question: should I try to get her to quitclaim any interest she has in the property to me instead of quieting the title (even though I currently hold title via quitclaim deed from the county)? And if so, is it worth incentivizing her to do a quitclaim to the tune of $500? Or, is it unlikely that I would need to quiet the title given that she is the previous owner and I know for a fact that she received all the foreclosure notices?

I recently had two other properties that a title company wouldn't insure (and it sounds like very few title companies are insuring anything that Wayne County foreclosed last year given many legal complaints against the county). For those two particular properties I had to clean up both titles, which cost me $1000 each as a package deal.