Did I do enough due diligence for this property?

[Konrad R.]

I plan on bidding on a property next week. I just want to make sure I've been doing my due diligence properly. Here are the steps I took:

-Read through the complaint and checked the promissory note and mortgage attached to it

-I looked up the property owners through the property appraisers website. I tracked it back to confirm the last title transfer occurred at the same time the mortgage was established. It is a special warranty deed. I checked the previous title holder and it looks like it was an REO. The last warranty deed was issued to the person that was foreclosed on. This occurred over 10 years ago.

-I then checked public records for all parties on the deed. I did not find any liens or second mortgages. I only found the one mortgage.

Is there anything else I need to check? I'm serious about purchasing this home, so I will be in a fair offer at the auction. Is it worth it to have a title company do a search? with insurance or without?

[Andy Mirza]

@Konrad R. When I was buying like you, I always ran properties by the customer service desk at my title company but I've been told that that's not normal for most of the rest of the country.

I would get an O&E report, which costs about a hundred bucks. People mention ProTitle USA. They're ok but we use a different vendor because the ones from ProTitle had what we considered too much inaccurate info. The O&E report is a way to double check your work.

If you have a good relationship with a title rep, maybe you could do even better and have them run a preliminary title report for you for free.

I bet that there's a good chance that the sale is going to get postponed. Some states are already postponing their sales for at least 30 days and I think it will trend to the rest of the country as well until things stabilize.