What happens to a vacant property with no Deed?

Question

What happens when the deed to a vacant house is lost. Found this house but looks like it needs at least 45000 in repairs not on the outside though. But the neighbor who tried to buy the property in 2010 said that the bank owns it and is paying the taxes on it but the acessors database says the previous owners still own it...cant find them and only have this guy telling me that he found out the deed is lost so its just sitting there what can you do and what happens to a property when the deed is lost completely.

Ellis San Jose · Answer

The deed isnt lost if the bank owns it. The assessors database doesn't determine ownership.

Mike Hurney · Answer

@Alexaundra McCormick Welcome to BP. A little investigating should get you the current owner. @Paul Sorgi 's link works also. OR You could post the address here and the Wholesaling Sharks of Massachusetts would find the owners, get it under agreement and Assign it for a profit by nightfall. (Not advised! No money in it for you;-( AND If you are looking to Wholesale, your goal should be to come up with one of these a day.

Alexaundra McCormick · Answer

thanks everyone for such great advice yea I'm going to find out what the deal is on the property and get back to everyone on what I find thanks!!

Ann Bellamy · Answer

@Dion DePaoli, I don't want to contradict you, but also don't want Alexaundra to be too confused. I've never seen a Deed of Trust in Massachusetts, they are always mortgages. Alexaundra, use @Adam Carbone's link above, and you should be able to track down the last recorded deed.

Adam Carbone · Answer

Good Morning @Alexaundra McCormick, MA has a pretty good online registry of deeds that you should be able to start researching the deed and any mortgages that have been recorded... If the bank has foreclosed there should be a foreclosure deed filed but they are notoriously bad at filling them until they need them ( When they are selling as an REO ), so they may own it and not have a record, but the banks don't usually want the property to be taken for taxes so who ever is paying the tax bill will most likely be the owner. I think this is the link for the registry of deeds for springfield, http://www.registryofdeeds.co.hampden.ma.us/Web2/PublicSearch_Ashe.html. Good luck, if you have any questions feel free to reach out! ~Adam

Paul Sorgi · Answer

@Alexaundra McCormick you can research the Title of the property on the county website. You can search by name, address, document type, etc. Here is the link http://www.registryofdeeds.co.hampden.ma.us/

Dion DePaoli · Answer

BTW, that is why the previous owner is likely still on the tax record at the county. Foreclosure has not be completed yet.

Dion DePaoli · Answer

@Alexaundra McCormick , I am guessing some terminology is getting mixed up. If the property is located in your state, Massachusetts, then the security instrument is a Deed of Trust. That is similar to a Mortgage. Not to be confused with a Warranty Deed or Special Warranty Deed. It sounds like the neighbor thinks the 'Mortgage' was lost and thus the he/she believes the bank can not foreclose. That is not going to be entirely true either as the Deed of Trust (DOT) get's recorded to perfect the lien. The bank may have it's own internal reasons for not completing a foreclosure action right now that could involve other liens on title or it could be rooted in the neighbors speculation that the DOT paperwork is defective. Both can be worked around and neither really put the property into a infinite state of limbo. What you might look at doing is research the chain of title to the property, you might be able to do this on line and see who the current Mortgagee is of record. The original DOT will have a lender name and then ownership would be transferred by an Assignment of Lien, which is recorded. Sometimes, those instruments will list the Mortgage Servicer, who you can contact and see about making an offer if they foreclose. Or another method, is watch the property for a real estate agent or some other 3rd party who inspects the property on behalf of the Mortgagee and find out from them how to contact the Mortgage Servicer. There may or may not be a problem with the property or the liens. It is hard to tell but with a little work, you can get to the bottom of it and see if you can make a deal. It may just be, they too know how much damage is present and they simply don't want to pay to fix it just yet, which could mean you can make a deal. You may need to make an offer on the note and DOT and foreclosure yourself or you may want to try and get them to finish foreclosure and you bid at auction or if the property reverts back to them, purchase post foreclosure sale. Good luck.

Jack Bobeck · Answer

In the end, the county owns the property and leases it back to the "owner", so there is always an owner of record as stated above. Bank holds the promissory note on the mortgage and the "owner" the deed. To find the previous owner, you can use find the seller dot com and try and track down the previous owner.

Darrin Carey · Answer

The deeds are recorded just to prevent "losing a deed". Every property has a Title, and someone owns the property as shown with a deed. The owner of the property is the last recorded deed, transferring Title. (not even going to delve into the morass of unrecorded deeds.)