Potential Deal But Messy

[Jesse Gomez]

Myself and a friend of mine are planning on partnering up to start rehabbing. We have a lead on our potential first deal but it seems a bit conplicated. The story is this....

the house has been abandoned for the past couple of months because the woman who lived there is older and moved in with her kids. She just received notification from the bank that she has 15 days to remove her belongings from the property. I did a search and wasn't able to find anything in the public record about foreclosure filings or any related action taken. However, I did discover that the property was refinanced in 2004 and I found foreclosure filings from late 2010 to early 2011 (appointment of substitute trustee, etc). From what I can tell, they must have been able to pull out of foreclosure at that time and now are going down that same path. There may also be unpaid taxes as well. To complicate things more, the woman and her husband separated years ago but didn't ever legally divorce. Both names are on the original deed and every other document I can find.

Any advice on information I should get or how I should proceed would be greatly appreciated. We're ready to get started on our first rehab but definitely don't want to get tangled in any messy legal stuff. Is this what most motivated seller deals look like? Thanks!