Renting with only a certificate of title in Florida

[Josh Garner]

Ive been talking with a woman who acquired her house through the purchase of a certificate of title at the courthouse auction. She swears that while you hold the certificate of title, and until that tax lien is satisfied to you then you may rent the property out. This sounds a littlle out if sorts to me and was hoping someone could shed some light on what I may or may not do with a certificate of title. I was under the impression that this type of investing was in the hopes that the new house would be sold and you were to collect your investment plus interest/penalties.

[Wayne Brooks]

Josh Garner, someone is confusing terms.
A Certificate of Title (CT) is what you get as the result of a Mortgage or HOA Foreclosure.
A Tax Deed is what you receive as the result of a Tax Deed auction, where Tax Certificates are redeemed.
A Tax Certificate is what you get when you "loan" the county money for someones's back taxes. This gives you No ownership rights, only the right to send the property to a public Tax Deed auction, where the whole world gets to bid, after a couple of years if you haven't been repaid.

A CT is not related to any tax liens, other than the fact that with a CT, you now own the property are responsible for any taxes owed.
But yes, if you buy a property at Mortgage Foreclosure, you get a CT after about 2-3 weeks and you do own the property and can rent, resale, whatever. Of course you may have inherited some liens, or even superior mortgages, if you didn't know what you were doing.
If you can clarify the situation, we can answer your question.