Buy a house with liens

[Shawn Thom]

In July I bought a house that had many liens. Obviously in the sale, they were to be taken care of. I thought i'd pass along my experience so others could learn.

In my instance they had many liens for the city boarding up the house, mowing the yard, back property taxes etc.

Moral to the story is to follow up and make sure the liens get removed. I don't know if it is just the city of dallas, but it has been a fiasco. I went to refi the house and they found all sorts of stuff. It was complicated by my original title company being bought out and all the people left.

In the first instance, the title company paid the liens but Dallas did not credit them correctly. That was cleared up after a week or so. Then the title company went to pull a tax certificate and found a tax judgement. After a fairly lengthy process, they got the bill from the tax attorney. It was for 8 cents in back taxes! I don't know if the court costs are legit yet as the bill they sent (seperate page) was just for 8 cents (4 cents back taxes & 4 cents interest). I suspect there is more to the story on the 8 cents, but i haven't gotten yet. See pic below.

Removed personal info from pic below.

I can't believe how crazy this has been.

Moral of the story

Buy title insurance

Make sure you get the policy mailed to you

Follow up to make sure liens are removed

[Ned Carey]

Investors often ask about an investor friendly title company. It is more important to have a GOOD title company. There are so many details to take care of and it amazes me how often title companies screw up.