Pennsylvania Upset Tax Sale

[Kyle McCorkel]

I'll be attending the upset tax sales in Dauphin and Cumberland counties next month, and I'm starting to sift through the lists.  I've eliminated properties in sub-par areas/school districts but I still have a list of 200 properties left.

I understand that there could be other liens against these properties, which I will be assuming at an upset sale.  And I understand that I would discover those liens by ordering a full title search on all the properties.  However, I don't want to pay for 200 title searches.  Is there a cheaper (or free) way to determine other liens affecting these properties? Or at least a "first pass" that will help to narrow down the list.

I would like to figure out a way to narrow down this list to maybe 3-5 properties, then I could physically visit the properties to ensure they're vacant, and then order the full title search.  Any suggestions on how to narrow down the list?

What other risks are there with upset tax sales, or tax sales in general? I've heard that previous owners or lienholders can somehow dispute the tax sale.  How does that work, and is there anything I can do to protect myself or minimize/eliminate this risk?

Perhaps @David Krulac could share some expertise...I know from his book "How I started with Nothing and Made $12 Million in Real Estate Part-time" that he's done quite a few tax sale deals.

[David Krulac]

@Chris K., right as always.  Saw one sale where the buyer overlooked a $285,000 lien.  Bought the property then tried to get out of the sale. BUYER BEWARE, as-is where is, are words given at the beginning of all sales.  I have repeated many times on BP, that Tax Sales are the most hazardous way to buy real estate.

At another sale a bidder bought a cape cod house out in the country, innocently looking enough.  He searched the Recorder, but didn't have time before the sale to search Prothy.  The day AFTER the sale he searched Prothy and found out that in the 1930s, this place was a gas station and the original steel USTs were leaking into the ground water and aquafer and causing alleged medical issues for the surround neighbors who had filed a lawsuit.  And under pollution laws, anybody in the chain of title including the tax sale buyer, is responsible for any pollution damage that can be proven in court to come from this property. 

We've seen Tax Sale properties that were Super Fund sites.  we've seen Tax Sale properties that were encubered by multi-million dollar IRS liens.  We've seen land sold at Tax Sale that was at the bottom of a man made lake, or under active railroad tracks.  Properties that were merely expired leases, or property encumbered with 29 years of pre paid rent, so that the first time you could collect rent was 30 years from now in 2050.  Now that's quite a real estate find!  

If is bizarre, never heard of before, it will happen at Tax Sale.  How do you get rid of a property that is worth nothing or less than nothing?... just stop paying taxes and in a few years somebody will probably buy at Tax Sale.  One of my favorite Tax Sale properties was acreage, that the Army was using as a bombing range.