All Forum Posts by: Denise Evans

If you don't turn in your certificate and get a deed, the law assumes you have ownership, but it's not completely clear-cut. You can continue making the annual payments and preserve your interest. It is best to get the deed, though. The fee is only $5.  Then for sure you are the owner and there is no dispute with insurance companies if you suffer a loss.  If for some reason you need to rely on regular adverse possession instead of tax sale short statute of limitations, it requires ten years of possession after color of title. That tax deed is your color of title. Also, if you have to go to court for some reason and you have a tax deed, the probate judge's signature is prima facie evidence the tax sale was done correctly.  Someone can dispute that and then you'll have to prove it, but usually nobody disputes it. But, if all you have is a tax certificate, you MUST prove the tax sale was done properly, even if the other side does not raise that issue. That is only if you are in court, though.

@Diane Merrill, you can also bid against other people. If the total owed is $75,000 and someone bids $76,000, you can increase your bid to $77,000 and so on. The extra money over and above your payoff must be paid to your borrower, or to secondary lienholders if there are any. So, if there was a credit card judgment against your borrower, you would contact the lawyer who represented the credit card company (their name is on the certificate of judgment in the real estate records) and pay the money over to that lawyer.  The lawyer who helps you do the foreclosure will order up a title report and tell you what should be done under different scenarios. 

Just make sure you hire a lawyer who has LOTS of experience with foreclosures.  Ask a real estate agent in the area for a few closing companies.  Call those closing companies and ask to talk to the closing attorney. Ask that attorney for the names of a few attorneys who do a lot of foreclosures. The closing attorney will know the actors in that field.

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There is always that chance. It is hard to say in the abstract. The foreclosing party places the opening bid.  If your opening bid is the amount owed, plus legal fees and foreclosure expenses, then any auction bidder with have to bid a higher price to get the real estate.  That way, nobody is able to grab the property for $100 or so, just because they are the only bidder.  If nobody bids, then YOU are the successful foreclosure bidder. You get the real estate and can then place it with an agent to try to sell in the regular manner.

The ADOR list is a good place to start. If you buy an owner's redemption rights, you will have to pay full taxes and accrued interest to redeem. But, with all the inventory at the State, you can find something that is worth it. Often, it is not simply a matter of the former owner being unable to redeem. If they DID redeem, what would they have--usually a house that is not habitable and cannot be made habitable without an infusion of $30,000 to $40,000 that the owner does not have and cannot borrow.  Just make sure there are no liens against the property. The tax sale "launders" off all liens except local government liens--sewer, grass cutting, demolition.  If the owner redeems, or if you buy out the owner's rights and then YOU redeem, all of those liens re-attach to the property.

BTW, do not count on buying vacant lots and building something on them. With construction costs today, and rental rates in the neighborhoods where most of the properties are location, you usually can't make the numbers work.

That is correct. But once they have been evicted from the lot, and not removed the mobile home (as they are required to do) then it is considered abandoned. If you get an eviction order and they do not get out, then they are in contempt of court and can be brought before the judge. He/she will give them additional time, but at some point they will be told they can go to jail for contempt of court.  You can, of course, pay Sheriff's deputies for the turnout order and you can pay someone to move the MH off the premises, but that is not your only remedy.   I recommend you join the local state trade association for mobile home park owners, and you will probably learn a lot and learn a lot of names of attorneys and others that can help you.

The remedy is eviction, not ejectment. Eviction is easier and faster. As far as the tenant owning their own mobile home, look at Alabama Code Sections 35-12A-1 through 35-12A-15, which provides the remedies for selling mobile homes that are abandoned. A mobile home is abandoned if the tenant has been evicted from the lot but does not remove their mobile home.

Contact Josh Anderson, Anderson Realty Group in Birmingham, AL. He wholesales tax deeds and also has a finance company for tax sale investors.

Thanks @Michael Penny. At the time, I contacted tech support and they said I could not do that. I will do it right away.

You can call me, if you want.

Did they pay the $100,000 into court when they filed their lawsuit? Did they make written demand on you for the value of the post-foreclosure improvements? Short answer, redemption includes the VALUE (not the cost) of post-foreclosure improvements, no matter who made them. Copies of receipts for materials and paid bills for labor are evidence of value, but not essential. An appraiser can testify as to the before and after values, assuming you can tell him what was done.  If the redeeming party failed to pay the money into court when they filed the lawsuit, then the one year did not stop ticking down and now they can't redeem. If you failed to timely and properly respond to the demand for the value of the improvements, then you lost the right to be paid for them. This probably requires a much longer discuss that can be done on this post.