But just keep in mind that unless the property goes through the tax foreclosure process then any and all liens against the property still are existant and in full force.You still can find good deals this way the same as finding any distressed homeowner who will accept a lot less for his property than it is worth but you will still have to deal with any legal lien claims which could kill the deal.And then you will find those that did not realize that they were the actual owners and you will be alerting them to pay the taxes so as to keep the property.

I do not get why you would not want to claim ownership - and the willingness to jump through hoops to hide it.

And not putting the interests of you, a customer ahead of my client.

When you list it, you specify what the buyer's agent will be paid. 3% would be the custom, but you can make it more or less.

We are the individuals that never made them sweat and now they are certainly overlooking the loyal & worry free customers/investors.

The owner has not seen the property in years and although she claims she knows the neighborhood has gotten worst since she lived there (20 years ago), it appeared that she is still thinking she owns a diamond in the rough.

When they added this requirement, that was one reason we decided to switch to using a much more reasonable and customer-focused custodial institution as the back-end for our programs. 

Have there been claims on the properties in the last few years? 

When questioned she claimed her “boyfriend” wrote a bunch of bad checks he stole.

Great comments about marketing and customer reach, as well as the competitive forces working against a FSBO listing.