I am having a title company to do a title search to make sure that the only lien is that of the investor that owns the tax certificate .  

Unused contingency funds, unless they were received directly from the borrower, must be used to reduce the outstanding balance of the renovation mortgage after all of the renovation work has been completed and the certification of completion has been obtained.The loan is not re-amortized.Draw Schedule: The program has a maximum 4 draw process.The initial draw can be up to 25% of the total project and can be for materials for the project.The final draw will be at least 10% of the total project as retainage and funds will be released upon receipt and approval of final inspection, Certificate of Completion from Appraiser, signed All Bills Paid Affidavits and Lien Waivers.Additional Draw Information: Signed Draw Request by borrower and contractorSigned All Bills Paid Affidavit review and approve the draw request and will release funds for disbursementA check will be issued in the name of the borrower and contractor and delivered to borrower via USPSAn inspection of work to date will be performed at 50% completeChange Orders and Cost Overruns: Changes to the initial plan are not permitted unless prior approval.

The only way to verify insurances for contractors is by getting a Certificate Of Insurance (Accord firm), Directly from the insurance agent, Not a copy provided by the Contractor.

(I figured about $5k, which is what a standard paint job would cost at a property this size, not the $22k that the guy with an EPA certification wants to charge.)

A tax lien certificate is placed on the property.

I have been considering getting my hvac certification cause of all the money I spend on a/c contractors.I suspect 5 years from now there are going to be a ton of motivated sellers trying to get out of all these low cap rate, marginal deals.

Having a PMP and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification have helped me create a process-oriented approach to executing strategy and analyzing data to prioritize initiatives as well as course correct well before issues become catastrophic.

That usually gets them moving.If it does not work, then if you have a tax certificate you must wait six months and file the ejectment lawsuit. 

In all cases the comps the appraisers used obviously demonstrated the appraiser's lack of knowledge of the area, so I suspect the comment of @Josane Cumandala is correct - they're using unqualified saps who got a mail-order certificate from somewhere.In any case, there's no real defense against this.

Probably about your only other option for 12 months is to find a certificate of deposit special and that will probably only get you 2-3%.You could put the money in the market, but you run the risk of it dropping when you need to pull the money back out.