All Forum Posts by: Steve Babiak

As for paying with certified check, in most counties you only need to pay a deposit; the sheriff should have rules that set the amount of the deposit to be a percentage of the winning bid or a fixed minimum amount, whichever is greater.

You determine your maximum bid, and then get checks sufficient to pay that deposit amount based on your maximum bid. If you don’t want to put up more deposit than necessary should your winning bid be far below your maximum bid, you would get multiple checks calculated by using divide by two. One check for half your max bid, another check for one fourth of your max bid, another check for one eighth of your max bid, etc, with two checks for that final fraction. That assumes you are only bidding on one property; with bids being placed on multiple properties you would need more checks.

Quote from @Chad U.:

Quote from @Jennifer Porterfield:

Looking to buy at Sheriff's Sale in Lancaster county PA (for the first time). Found a property I'm interested in... have done title search etc. I have a few questions regarding this...

"All applicable realty transfer taxes will be fully paid from the sale proceeds by the Sheriff's Office. If the proceeds are insufficient to pay all the sale costs, realty transfer taxes, and priority liens, then the buyer shall pay the balance of such amounts to the Sheriff's Office within 30 days after the sale date."

1) If the upset price is 100k and I pay 101k for example, should I plan on paying the 2% transfer tax and county fees? Obviously 1k is not enough to cover the transfer tax and Sheriff's fees... 

2) I thought Sheriff's sales were exempt from transfer tax in PA? The above statement makes me believe its not. 

"Payment for properties must be in the form of lawful money of the United States, a certified or cashier's check from a Pennsylvania Bank"

3) How the heck am I supposed to know the amount to have my cashiers or certified check for if I dont know the final sale price ahead of time? "Lawful money" meaning cash? Really dont want to walk around with 10s of thousands in cash... 

4) Does anyone know what type of deeds Lancaster County PA releases after the sale/payment in full? It does not specify anywhere.

I have tried calling multiple times with no answer, may have to just drive up there. 

Thank all for the support and advice.

 Yes transfer taxes are owed, as well as a poundage to the sheriff which can amount from 2 to 3% of your bid price.  So plan on paying 4 to 5% on top of your bid.

There will be transfer taxes and poundage, but they must be taken from the amount paid per a court ruling. Only if the amount paid is insufficient to cover those costs will the buyer have to pay up more.

Quote from @Sanil Subhash Chandra Bose:

I have purchased a property via upset sale. Of course, the property has no lien other than the tax owed to the county by the previous owner. I am looking for a lawyer to know more about the redemption rights of the property. In the upset sale terms, it said there is no redemption right. I don't want to invest until I clarify redemption rights with a lawyer. The property is located in Norristown, PA. The property does require some serious updates, but it definitely has good ARR value based on the money that I paid. 

 Did you purchase this at a sheriff sale or at the tax claim bureau sale? If from the tax claim bureau sale, there will be no redemption rights. But if it was purchased at a sheriff sale, then redemption rights are a possibility.

The time to have consulted an attorney would have been before you bought this; now it’s yours, for better or for worse.

I don’t understand why landlords want to use these simple money transfer apps when there are numerous free to use apps specifically intended and designed for rent collection. You get features like automatic late fees and blocking partial payments.

Makes no sense to me.

BTW - I use an app called Tellus to collect rent.

Quote from @Mohammad Parwez:

Ask them to fill a pre screening application form first.

Most of them will not fill and those who fill and fit your criteria then you can ask them go ahead and fill the tenant application.

That's how I do with my rental.

I have prepared my own screening form that you can copy and add more questions relevant to you.

Having such a form is good.

Using a yes/no question for pets is not as good as an open ended question, such as what I use:
“How many and what type of animals will be coming with you?”

You might allow pets, but not more than a certain number, and not certain types of animals. That also gives them the opportunity to call their animal an “emotional support animal” or “service animal” (which aren’t considered pets under certain laws, but they are still animals).

Quote from @Levi Collins:

A friend borrowed money from our grandmother and used the deed for his house as collateral and has since defaulted on the loan. He hasn't made any attempt to pay back anything and is avoiding speaking with our grandmother. The loan was signed before a notary, what are her options?

Was there a mortgage document that was also signed? If so, was that mortgage document recorded with the county courthouse (recorder of deeds or register of deeds is the typical department name)? If yes to both of those, then foreclosure should commence, and that usually is initiated by sending a notice of default.

If this wasn’t initially handled with assistance from legal counsel, the documents might not include the things needed to enforce the loan.

Quote from @Michelle Kuebrich:

My town says i cant buy one and put it on my paid lot and rent it out!! Well thats what i hear. I havnt

officially asked but i will today

That is probably due to the zoning in place for your property. You might be able to get it re-zoned or get a zoning variance, but neither of those is guaranteed.

I am not familiar with how Allegheny conducts sheriff sales, so I can’t answer any questions specific to that area. If it is like most PA counties, some of the properties being offered for sale will not be mortgage foreclosures, and as such there are rules for those that differ from the rules for mortgage foreclosures.

A number of years ago I posted a Sheriff Sale FAQ that you should search for and read.

Since the overwhelming majority of properties listed for sheriff sale end up not going to auction in the month they are listed for, you can end up with lots of title searches where you don’t even get to bid on a property you wanted to bid on; it gets even more painful if you paid for those title searches. Since it’s possible to perform title searches DIY, you might want to consider that.

Quote from @Jason Carpenter:

Quote from @Steve Babiak:

Daniel Fisher and Mary B. - you are both correct. In PA, there can be no redemption period, and there can be a 9 month redemption period from the date that the sheriff's deed records (and I have bought both kinds too). Mortgage foreclosures in PA have no redemption period; municipal lien foreclosures in PA have the 9 month redemption period (except I think Pittsburgh / Allegheny County might have a different duration for redemption).

In Phila, they usually conduct those sales on different days to I guess help avoid confusion; in the suburbs, they only have one sheriff sale per month, so you will have both kinds on the same day.

 Can you sell during the redemption period?

No title insurer will insure during the redemption period, so that limits the buyers that might be interested. That eliminates anyone using a mortgage, for example. The odd thing is that you do get title to the property once the period to challenge the sale has passed with no challenges having occurred (if a challenge is made to the sheriff sale, title does not transfer until it is resolved) - but it’s an imperfect title with limited marketability. 

Quote from @David Krulac:

@Aaron Corleone

@Aaron Corleone

The PA law is Act 54, here's a summary:

https://www.pplelectric.com/at-your-service/electric-rates-and-rules/remsi/foreign-load.aspx

 Lots of old links that no longer work were on this thread; the link David posted above is one of them, but at least there is a replacement link for this one:

https://www.pplelectric.com/utility/about-us/electric-rates-and-rules/remsi/foreign-load