All Forum Posts by: Chris Pohlson

See below

Taylor, you're correct.  If someone lives there, it's not abandoned and will require the full 180 day redemption period.  

I've had a few requests to follow up on this post.  I've learned a lot in the past couple weeks so I'll try to pass that knowledge on to you.

Normally you would do all the due diligence BEFORE buying a property at auction but obviously the risk was small for me so I had the liberty of doing it afterward.  Here is a step by step of what I did.  If you're going to pay a significant amount for the property you buy at sheriff sale, might I suggest moving the purchase of the property to the last step :)

Bought property for $1

Called county tax assessor and found out back taxes owed = $2300

Called Register of Deeds to see if any other liens were on the property: there were none.  The mortgage that was vacated was originally $130k (curious because the property isn't worth half that)

Called city to see if there were any open code violations: there were none.  There were some in the past but they've all been brought up to code

Went to the clerk of courts and did a civil judgement search on the defendants to see if any judgments were attached to the property: there were none.  (the cost of this was $20 per background check)

I could have paid a title company to do a more thorough search ($159) to see if there are any IRS tax liens (register of deeds would not catch that) but I feel comfortable moving forward for now.

Filed certificate of sale

Insured property

I'm a little unsure what I'm going to do next.  I'm going to go knock on the door in the next week to find out the story of the occupants and go from there. (If I were to buy another foreclosure, I'd probably reach out to the owner prior and I would only buy if the property was unoccupied)

Can anyone think of anything I missed?  Hope this helps!

Thanks for the replies, guys.  I'll head down to the register of deeds today and ask about other liens.  If that comes back fairly clean, I'll probably move forward.  The notice says the home is abandoned so we'll see.  My lawyer thinks I should move forward but I wonder if that's because she gets paid no matter what... :) Small price for the education I suppose.  Thanks again!

Jennifer Larsen at Hagan Wilka and Archer.  She's been great for me so far.

I went to a sheriff's sale auction in Sioux Falls, SD to learn the ropes.  A property came up and the mortgagee didn't put in an opening bid.  The sheriff took about an hour trying to get a hold of the party but ultimately the auction happened without a bid.  Since I was the only one there bidding, I bid $1 and won.  There's about $2300 in back taxes owed-not a big deal (tax assessed is $66k).  I'm trying to figure out if I should pursue the deal or if I'm just spinning my wheels.  Can someone tell me if the mortgagee can redeem?  My thought is the mortgagor probably can't come up with the cash it takes to redeem if I maintain the property, pay taxes, etc...but I'm sure the mortgagee can.  If I pay a lawyer $200 an hour to draw up certificate of sale, am I just spinning my wheels because the mortgagee will likely redeem?  Thanks in advance!