All Forum Posts by: David Mitchell

Learning to do it yourself can be very cost effective.  Particularly if you intend to be very active in property auctions.  PM me if you want some tips on training material for title searching.  Good luck.

The Assessor's site will also likely have the mailing address of the owner if you pull up the property you're hoping to purchase.  Good luck.

I'm definitely not an attorney but perhaps you can offer the family a small payment in exchange for a quit claim deed.  That would transfer whatever ownership they do have to you.  You could then pay the taxes and have your attorney proceed with a Quiet Title Action.  Seems like that might work, maybe run the idea past your attorney.  Good luck.

David Pelligrinelli recently appeared on FlipNerd.com's REI Classroom to discuss how Real Estate Investors can break out of the Newbie Cycle. REI Classroom has many great topics and the FlipNerd's podcast is a valuable tool too. Below is a link to the specific topic of breaking out the the "Newbie" cycle:

http://shows.flipnerd.com/real-estate-investing-classroom/breaking-out-of-the-newbie-cycle

The amount paid may or may  not be listed on the deed.  In some states the information will be available via the appraisers office.  To find the current balance on the mortgage you'd really have to get that from the seller.  The mortgage will be recorded in the land records and it will have the initial amount of the loan.  However, it will not provide a current balance.  Sometimes, if a property is going to foreclosure the banks will record a new document that will state what the outstanding balance is with all of the add'l interest and fees.

Best of luck.

Have you run a title search on the property to see how it all shows up from w/in the official land records?

There are many different services that offer nationwide title search services.  Depending on the type of foreclosure auction the traditional title insurance companies may not be willing/able to help you.  Below are three options to consider:

LienList.com

Deeds.com

TitleSearch.com

Full disclosure, TitleSearch.com is my company's website.  Best of luck!

Have you run an official title search on the property.  That deal sounds too good to be true.  I would double check that it is the first mortgage foreclosing.  Spend the $100 to make sure you don't make a mistake on this one.  Just a suggestion.

I'm curious if you've done a title search on the property. $100k for a $260k property sounds too good to be true. Are you sure it is the 1st mortgage that is foreclosing and not an HOA/COA or the 2nd DOT? Be careful, I've dealt with many people that contact us after a purchase only to find out the bought a foreclosure for the 2nd and still owe the 1st.

Learning to do your own preliminary research can save some $$$ but take up some time.  Depends which is more valuable.  The clients we work with focus on other areas of the business and have their title people do the research.