All Forum Posts by: Alvin Grier

 Makes sense.  I figured as such.

Overall, I was just trying to make sure a title search isn't something I can do myself, once I heard that all they do is a FOIA request (assuming that's true).

Even if they question 3 or 4 departments, I'm sure that's something my assistant could do, since all the info is probably public record, it's normally a matter of just knowing what to look for, and knowing how to analyze said information.

I'm not desperate financially by any means, but if I can save $400, and have my assistant do this stuff in their normal duties, I've saved a couple tanks of gas.  LOL

...and I understand that a municipality isn't gonna say "yeah, 123 Main St. has a clear title," but I do think that they could provide the information that would help me make that determination myself.

I'm sure it isn't rocket science.  

It's just a situation where the title company (mistakenly) revealed how they do something, and I'm trying to figure out how to do it myself, because the high-level explanation sounds pretty simple.

That might be true, however I heard it from the title company's personnel themselves, when they said, "Hey, we can have Julie file the FOIA request Monday to find out about whether or not the title is insurable in it's current state..."

So with me having tons of experience filing FOIA's, I thought, "Hell, I may as well save $400 and do it myself, if all they do is file a FOIA to get this info."

I'd say probably 40% of the investors that call my phone looking to sell a house acquired the property from a tax sale.  

We normally tell them we're not interested once we find out where they got it from, however if I can file a simple FOIA to make sure I'm not buying someone else's problems, I'm all for it.

The sellers are never willing to spend the $400 for the title search. 

And since it's gotta be paid whether I end up buying it or not, if I can save $400 and do the search myself in all of 10 minutes, tops, why not?

I'm just trying to find out how the title company is going about making the inquiry, because I'm sure they won't tell me.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, by the way, Wayne...

Has anyone ever filed a FOIA request with a municipality to find out if the title on a property is insurable?

I overheard someone at the title company the other day talking about filing a FOIA to find out if a particular property that was bought at a tax auction had an insurable title.

I can do that myself, if that's all it takes, as I've filed numerous FOIA's in the past.

My question, though, is if I file a FOIA with the local Register of Deeds (R.O.D), is it as simple as saying, "Please let me know if the title on 123 Main St. is insurable or not?"

I didn't know if I would need to be more specific, and spell out each and every type of situation that could've occurred in the past on the title chain that could prevent the title being insured or not.

...as I type, I'm thinking that it's likely that the level of specifics I include would depend on the competency level of the person handling the request at the ROD office.

Yeah, I know, I can ask the people at the Register of Deeds office...  if only they answered the phone.  Furthermore I'm trying to avoid having to drive down there to ask in-person if at all possible :-)

...and yes, I also realize that I could simply call the title company and ask (and I may do that on Monday), but hey, any chance I get to talk with you guys on here I take advantage.

Thanks in advance.

 Nah, you're good.  The conversation got my wheels-a-turning which ultimately lead me to my resolution, so I appreciate your help nonetheless, my man!

Bingo!  I was able to find a huge spreadsheet of all of the parcels in the city of Detroit.

I downloaded it, and I'm able to cross reference the info I have to find the street address.

Nice.

My next obstacle is finding something similar for the rest of the cities in Wayne county, but I would imagine that I could get one with a FOIA request to the municipalities, if they don't want to give it up nicely LOL

Nope, all I have is that info I spoke of.  

I believe the "APN" number is the parcel number, yes?

I thought about that before I made the post, but I confirmed that I don't have that information.  If I did, I could've at least searched using that number at the Wayne County Tax Assessor's website (for free), which would've given me the regular street address.

I have a ton of properties I need to research, but all I have are the Liber, lot, Liber page numbers, and the subdivision names of the properties.

I'm looking for a way to find the normal street name (e.g. 123 Main St.) somewhere online.

My current options are to pay $15.00 per 15-minute session at the Wayne County (MI) Register of Deeds website, or to physically go to the office to search on their computers in the lobby.

These options are less-than-ideal for several reasons, as there are tons of addresses that need to be researched.

I tried Googling using the Liber/Lot/Subdivision info, to no avail, pretty much; sometimes it works, but most of the time I come up with nothing.

I wanted to throw this out there in case you guys knew of any other options that I'm not aware of. 

Thanks in advance for your time and consideration.

I want to find my own leads for properties in redemption period.

After doing some research, I believe what I need to do is:

1. Identify records/properties where a suit is pending against the defaulting borrower,

2. Identify instances/hearings where the matter fails to be resolved

3. Track which properties from step 2 have been recently sold at an auction sale

I know it might differ from municipality to municipality, but what office might I go to to find this type of information?

Tax assessor? Register of deeds?

I know all of this stuff is public record, but I don't know where to look to find the records that provide the information I need in steps 1, 2, and 3.

After doing some research, I stopped my practice of only reaching out to PR's of estates that had real estate mentioned in the inventories.

Why?  Because I went back through my spreadsheet and noticed that several people told me that they had already sold the properties or had offers pending that never had real estate listed in the inventory.

How this happens, I'm not sure.

Perhaps there's some loophole that allows the PR to sell without having to include the property in the estate of the decedent...  not sure.

...or maybe the family/PR chose to sell it before the decedent officially passed, to prevent having to include it in the estate (which sounds more likely).

Nevertheless, I just check tax records to make sure that the decedent owned the particular property they lived in at the time of death and move forward with contacting the PR from there.

So  you think it's advantageous to contact the attorney involved with the case as well as the Executor/PR, huh?  I considered it, but I figured that the PR had the ultimate decision...

I've recently seen that sometimes the PR's put all their trust in the attorney, so if that's the case, it wouldn't hurt to reach out to them as well.  We recently made a cash offer to a PR, and their reply was, "Well I'll run it past my attorney... he wants me to get 3-5 cash offers before we decide to close with someone."