All Forum Posts by: Justin Dell

I called PCI yesterday, but they told me I had to be in contract for them to conduct a title search due to the cost of the search is based on the selling price of the property.  I don't feel comfortable going into contract on a property that has obvious title issues.  Not to mention, there is clear indication the company (Land Ho/Mango Cap) that is trying to sell me the property is not the legal owner of the property since Rocon doesn't appear to have ever owned the property.

I contacted Land Ho this afternoon. They were already closed because they are on ET. But I left a voicemail for the rep I'm dealing with and told him the scoop and sent him a copy of the current "legal" deed for Poor. I told him I will not begin negotiation until Rocon can prove they were in fact the rightful, legal owner at the time of sale to Mango Capital. I attempted to find contact information for Rocon of Bella Vista so I could just contact them directly to figure this out, but couldn't find a phone number. All I found was Rocon of Bella Vista, LLC is a Florida based LLC, and the "president's" name as well as a New Jersey address. But could not find a phone number. I'm tempted to send the president of Rocon of Bella Vista a letter, but I doubt the chances of receiving a response are slim to none. Especially since they already sold the property to Mango Capital, INC.

Also, I'm glad to see another member from the area!  

I appreciate your inputs!  A little update; I spent a few hours at the recorders office doing a little digging through their database.  I was able to obtain a limited warranty deed with the state commisioner as the grantor, and Poor as the grantee.  This shows legal ownership of the property belonging to Poor.  I attempted to locate a deed that shows Rocon of Bella Vista as the grantee so I could see who Rocon received the property from.  Unfortunately, I could not find anything.

It appears that Rocon of Bella Vista purchased 88 properties here in Northwest Arkansas back in 2014.  I went through each deed within the database of the properties Rocon purchased in 2014 to see if one would have the parcel id, or the legal description of the property in question, but did not find one.  The only deed I could find in the database that pertained to that specific property was last month when Rocon of Bella Vista transferred ownership to Mango Capital.

I called the Commissioner of State Lands after leaving the Recorders office, and spoke with a representative within the office.  The rep looked up the auction details from the sale of the property in question, and only has record of Poor purchasing the property.  They have no record of Rocon of Bella Vista ever purchasing the property from the auction.

My question is this: How did Rocon obtain "ownership" of this property and have the ability to sell it with a warranty deed, if there is no record of them even "taking ownership?"

Hello everyone!  I'm glad to be apart of this forum.  I feel like I'm going to learn A LOT!  I'm completely new to anything real estate.  I am a first time home owner, so it's not like I'm a pro at purchasing or even dealing with real estate.

Anyways, I have the opportunity to purchase the little .22 acre lot next door to my house for fairly cheap from a company that "owns" it out of New Jersey.  Unfortunately, there appears to be some issues.  I've been looking into this lot for about a year now, simply because I would like to expand my garage as well as build an apartment above the extension to the garage.  I looked on the county assessors website at the parcel map and it shows as 

follows:

DATE:               Grantor:                Grantee:                       Deed Type:

6-27-2016 Rocon of BV, LLC Mango Capital, INC. Warranty Deed

6-13-2014         Comm                     Poor                    Limited Warranty Deed

12-12-2008       Comm                    Powell                      Redemption Deed

7-23-2004       Powell, JB              Powell, B                     Quitclaim Deed

7-8-1981          Arbaugh                  Powell                        Warranty Deed

So it looks like in 1981 Arbaugh sold that lot to Powell with a warranty deed.  I'm assuming Powell passed in 2004 in which his/her heir Powell B took ownership of the property with a quitclaim deed.  It appears that the heir Powell wasn't paying the taxes, and after 3 years the property is seized for back taxes.  Powell paid the back taxes and got the property back from the commissioner with a redemption deed.  Powell failed pay the property taxes again, and the property was seized and sold to Poor in 2014.  When I first purchased my house in April of 2015, when I looked at the assessor's parcel map, Poor didn't have a Limited warranty deed at that time.  It changed to Limited warranty deed in January of this year, so I'm assuming he had to sit on the property for a certain amount of time before being able to issue a limited warranty deed?  Anyways, Poor put a for sale sign in front of the property earlier this year and I didn't know until I got back in town.  By that time, the neighbor on the other side of this lot struck a deal with Poor by making payments of $500/mo for 4 months.  I was pretty irritated if you know what I mean.

Last Friday, I received a letter from Land Ho, INC stating they were selling the lot for a certain amount and that I better hurry and pick it up before someone else does.  I was confused, but there is another lot next door that I'm in the process of obtaining, so they had to have been talking about the property that the neighbors bought.  So I called the number in the letter, and sure enough it was that property.  They emailed a copy of the warranty deed that has been notarized and filed within the county.  On the deed, it shows that Mango Capital (a.k.a Land Ho, INC) purchased the property from Rocon of Bella Vista.  I called the County Assessors office on Friday and they have no record of Rocon of Bella Vista ever owning the lot.  So I called Land Ho, INC. back and left a message for them saying there is no record of Rocon of Bella Vista ever owning that property and questioning the authenticity of the deed.  Land Ho called me back this morning and left me a message saying he's been calling different county offices all morning and finally got a hold of the administrator of the recorder, and that Land Ho does in fact own the property.  Well I called the administrator of the recorder myself to verify, and explained everything and my concerns, and she very well, after digging deeper, had the same concerns as well.  She advised me, saying that if it was her buying a property like this, that she would contact a title company and have them do a title search.

Up until yesterday,  Poor was still the owner of the property according to the count assessor.  The neighbors on the other side of the property still are not showing up as a legal owner of the lot.

I called a few title companies and they only do title searches on property that are under contract.  I'm sure you can understand that I really don't want to do anything until I know for a fact that Mango Capital (Land Ho) is in fact the LEGAL owner of that property.  I apologize if this doesn't make any sense, or that it's so long.  I just don't want to do anything stupid, and really don't know what to do next.  I appreciate everyone's input.

Here are my questions:

1.  How would Rocon ever become a legal owner of the property?

2.  Do I need to go through a title company to have them do a title search, or is there some way that I can do this myself?

3.  What should I do?