All Forum Posts by: William Murrell

Thanks to both of you.  My other question then is: if I understand this correctly, a Lis Pendens can be from the foreclosure of the primary mortgage, but it could also be from something else, perhaps some other debt or lien.  If they are saying upfront that they will only give insurable title, but not marketable, wouldn't that sort of imply that there must be something other than just the mortgage because that will be settled once I purchase it?  

It seems to me that it would be worthwhile to pay the 200-300 to check it and see what it has against it, and then see if it's worth pursuing but I'm really concerned with how easy (or hard) it will be for me to get the title cleaned up and marketable.  What would you do if you were in my shoes?

Ah, makes sense.  I appreciate the advice, @David Sicherman .  I'm not sure if I will move on this property or not, but if I decide to I will make sure to run the full title search beforehand.  Is there any advantage to using a title company over a real estate attorney who also offered to do the title search?  Seems like the title company would be cheaper.

Is the lien search performed by the title company?   

Good evening!  There's a house near where I have my current rental that has gone up for auction on Homesearch.com   The start price is low, it's already auctioned twice and finished with a hell of a deal but no reserve met, and perhaps it will this time as well.  If I could get it for a reasonable price, it would fit right into what I'm looking for.

According to the LA, the auction will give you a SWD and an insurable but not marketable title.  When you look at Zillow, it mentions there was a Notice of Lis Pendens given.  So let's say you were interested in this property, but not terribly interested in grabbing a tiger by the tail, what would you do?  I've never dealt with this before, but I'm guessing the safest route is to get a title co. to run a title search and see what clouds there might be on the title and then that will hopefully tell me all of what could go wrong from a lien standpoint.  From there I should be able to tell if the property is worth the hassle, correct?  I like the idea of getting a house for 20-30k off, but I don't like the idea of buying a headache.  Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

I live right down the road from that house.  That is one of the most expensive areas in Wilmington, and as soon as I saw the listing I knew it was a typo.  There's a similar typo on Zillow, also in Wilmington.  Big, huge mansion.  Listed for $0.  Not sure why.

Had that price been real, I would be out front with a bag of money.   "Here, take it now!"  

Wilmington here.  

Hi Shane, and welcome to the forum.  My wife and I live in Porters Neck in Wilmington, and we used to live out in Leland.  We still have a rental house out there.  What area are you focusing on?

That's why I insist that I get all bids from contractors in writing and with stipulations in there for "this includes" and "this does not include."  It is not 100% bulletproof, but it works most of the time.  Also, +1 to the opinion that he is trying to get one over on you.  A driveway should have rebar in it and he knew that when he bid it.  If he forgot to put that in there, that's not for you to correct. 

I would put all three on the lease, because if the one with good credit moves out and he's the only one on the lease, the others might say "I never even signed the lease so you claiming I need to do (insert whatever here) isn't valid."  And that isn't worth the hassle.  Put all of them on it, and make all of them sign it so all parties know what is expected of them.

@Account Closed  you say you "have had" which leads me to believe you're no longer holding any.   Why did you get out of it?  How did you learn about qualifying a house for the program, screening tenants, etc?  If you've had that many, surely you have some powerful insight.