Buying a house with delinquent taxes from the owner

[Gavin Snyder]

Hey Guys,

I was looking at the tax records in my area, Houston Texas, and I came across a property in an area that is under going gentrification. The current owner doesn't live there but owes about 8k in taxes from 2015, 2016 and 2017. First off, how do would I determine if the county has already taken over the property and plan to auction it off. I can't find it an any pre-foreclosure list.  Second, what do should I do before approaching the homeowner to ensure I can legally acquire the property. Third, if I approached the home owner to buy the house and she accepted what would I need to do to acquire the house.  As you probably guessed, I have never dealt with tax liens and have minimal RE investing experience. Let me know what you guys think.

Tax info: 

https://www.hctax.net/Property/TaxStatement?account=HWCFQ4esXQ4X7yMRkc4QmpKDpy/BqLnUdR4s6dDwm8s=

Thanks,

Gavin

[John Underwood]

@Gavin Snyder,

Who is the listed legal owner? That will tell you if county has taken over property. It won't tell you if they are in the process of taking it over. You can contact your county Delinquent Tax office to find this out.

If you want to approach owner you should do a title search and make sure there aren't other liens or mortgages against the property.

If the property has a clean title minus the back taxes then you could offer the owner a few hundred for her time to sign the property over to you. Do not say you want to buy it. That will trigger a much larger price than the $300 for her time.  Only after you are the owner should you go and pay the back taxes.

You might want to talk to county, then the owner before spending the money on a title search to make sure there are no issues like owner to wanting to sign or sell.