Tax auction w/ sheriff's deed refinance

[Josue Tizol]

Morning everyone, 

I bought a property at a tax sale auction in April and received a Sheriff's deed. From what I understand about Texas law, since the property was not a homestead the original owners had 6 months to reclaim the property. Now, 6 months passed and I'm trying to refinance to complete the BRRRR strategy but the title company won't issue a title policy because they say the original owner has 4 years to reclaim the property. Has anyone ran into this issue before? Thanks in advance!

[Jerel Ehlert]

You need to see if the title company has worked with sheriff's deeds before.  You also need to show that this was not a homesteaded property.  The conservative point of view is that if the property could have been the tax payer's homestead, the underwriter will assume it was until proven otherwise.  If it was obviously not (vacant land, for example), the escrow agent may just be going off the policy they know and not understand the difference.  Your call was probably one of 20 files she/he delt with that day.