Buying my first HOA foreclosure home.

[Lucky B.]

Some of you may have been fearless or fearful on your first attempt at buying through the court auction.i made a deposit and I am prepared to spend up to 30k ,and then pay off the past due delinquent taxes. I did my own title search here in FL and the two resources I looked at are the tax collector and comptroller. The search has been easy because the person's name is unique,only one such person in the county and the property only had one prior owner. Wouldn't you agree that makes title searching easy, since the chain of title isn't long . I was privy to some info in confidence by the nanny who is my friend . The owner lives in Europe and his property manager doesn't seem to be doing their job because the taxes have not been paid in two years , and the HOA foreclosure date is set. The HOA judgement is 8k. There is no mortgage on the property which the nanny confirmed . If I didn't know the nanny I would not bid and would walk away from this kind of transaction. What are your thoughts ? What other resources besides the comptroller and tax collector should I check? Can I negotiate the delinquent property taxes that is due for 2014 ,2015 and now 2016 ?

[Jeff Copeland]

Lots of issues here for you to consider. 

First of all, keep in mind that an HOA foreclosure does not necessarily wipe out a mortgage lien. I have seen people here on BP who bought a property based on the HOA foreclosure, only to find that there was another (much larger) mortgage lien on the property that was still pending foreclosure.

You're saying the property has no mortgage, but you're basing this on the fact that The Nanny told you so? And from looking at the deed?

The deed/title really has nothing to do with whether a mortgage (or a mortgage satisfaction) was recorded. You're looking for the wrong thing, and looking in the wrong place. Looking at deeds does not tell you whether a mortgage or other lien exists.

To find any mortgages and liens that were recorded on the property, you can search in the County's official records (which for Clermont/Lake County is at https://officialrecords.lakecountyclerk.org/).

You want to look for the owner's name(s) and the property address (depending on how you can configure the search) and look specifically for mortgages, liens, and satisfactions as the "instrument type".  It's not uncommon to find several mortgages and satisfactions recorded (because every time a refinance is done, the previous mortgage is satisfied (hopefully, if everything was done right) and a new one gets recorded. You might see something like:

Mortgage Recorded in 1999

Satisfaction Recorded in 2005 (from 1999 mortgage being paid off by refi)

New Mortgage Recorded in 2005 (new mortgage recorded at refi)

And on and on and on...

If there is a mortgage recorded without a corresponding satisfaction. That's a HUGE red flag. 

Keep in mind, this "do it yourself" method is far from foolproof.  As @Wayne Brooks stated above, It's well worth a hundred bucks or so to pay for a title search to get a complete & accurate picture - especially before you drop $30k on an auction bid!

Good luck!