Ask a 40-year records investigator: liens and title traps before you bid

Foreclosures
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Ask a 40-year records investigator: liens and title traps before you bid

Mark Caron
Real Estate Consultant · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2026 · 14 posts · 9 votes

I've spent about forty years digging through public records for a living. Started as a kid at a place called Auto Recovery Bureau on Telephone Road in Houston, finding people and property that didn't want to be found. These days I pull county records by hand for real estate folks — the liens, the back taxes, the breaks in a chain of title — and lay it all out before somebody signs.

I see the same thing over and over. A buyer does their homework on the house and skips the paper behind it. Then a federal tax lien, or an old mechanic's lien nobody released, or a deed that got recorded wrong, turns up after the gavel falls. By then it's their problem, not the seller's.

So, ask me anything about reading a property's records before you bid. What survives a foreclosure and what gets wiped. Auction title traps. How to spot a bad legal description. Where the county index quietly lies to you. I'll answer straight and I won't sell you a thing — I'd rather you learn to catch this stuff yourself.

I'm out of Phoenix, I'll be around this week. Fire away.

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  • John Leland
    Specialist · I give advice - [email protected] - I focus on states where investing is profitable, reasonably safe & secure · Member since 2026 · 179 posts · 63 votes
    2w
    Quote from @Mark Caron:

    I've spent about forty years digging through public records for a living. Started as a kid at a place called Auto Recovery Bureau on Telephone Road in Houston, finding people and property that didn't want to be found. These days I pull county records by hand for real estate folks — the liens, the back taxes, the breaks in a chain of title — and lay it all out before somebody signs.

    I see the same thing over and over. A buyer does their homework on the house and skips the paper behind it. Then a federal tax lien, or an old mechanic's lien nobody released, or a deed that got recorded wrong, turns up after the gavel falls. By then it's their problem, not the seller's.

    So, ask me anything about reading a property's records before you bid. What survives a foreclosure and what gets wiped. Auction title traps. How to spot a bad legal description. Where the county index quietly lies to you. I'll answer straight and I won't sell you a thing — I'd rather you learn to catch this stuff yourself.

    I'm out of Phoenix, I'll be around this week. Fire away.

    Does an HOA foreclosure follow the same process as a lender foreclosure?

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    • Mark Caron
      OP
      Real Estate Consultant · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2026 · 14 posts · 9 votes
      2w

      Good question, and no — they don't, and the difference is right where people get hurt.

      Start with priority, because that's the whole ballgame. When a lender forecloses a first mortgage, it generally wipes the junior liens off the property — the HOA lien included. Go the other direction and it usually doesn't work in reverse: foreclose the HOA lien and the first mortgage typically survives. So the fella who "won the house" at an HOA sale for a few thousand in back dues can find out he took it subject to a quarter-million-dollar loan still sitting right there. He didn't buy the house. He bought the dues.

      The catch is it's state law, not one rule. A couple dozen states have what's called a super-lien — a slice of the HOA's past-due assessments, often six months' worth, that jumps ahead of the first mortgage. In those states an HOA foreclosure can actually knock the lender out (Nevada had a famous court fight over exactly that). So the first thing to pin down is whether your state is a super-lien state and how big that priority slice is.

      Process is different too. Out here in Arizona the HOA has to go through the court — a judicial foreclosure, a judgment, a sheriff's sale, and a redemption period after — while the mortgage lender just runs a trustee's sale with no redemption at all. Different track, different timeline, different rights for everybody involved.

      So before you bid at any association sale, two things: pull the record and see what mortgage is sitting senior to that HOA lien, and check your own state's statute on super-priority. Get those two wrong and a "cheap" house turns expensive in a hurry.

      Not legal advice — every state writes this its own way — but that's the shape of it.

      1Reply
    • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
      Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
      2w

      Very good you were being tested and you passed !!!!!

      Podcast Guest on Show #222
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    • Mark Caron
      OP
      Real Estate Consultant · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2026 · 14 posts · 9 votes
      2w

      Ha — glad I studied. Forty years in, and the records still find new ways to keep me honest. Appreciate the good word, Jay. Coming from you, that means something.

      0Reply
  • Danielle Thomas
    Member since 2022 · 5 posts · 6 votes
    15h

    Hi Mark,

    As someone who is just getting into learning the foreclosure process, I wonder if you are open to sharing more about how to actually pull the property's records, finding the title, any existing liens and the deeds.

    I'm located in the Asheville, NC and have been able to locate the physical board where they are posted, learn about the 10 day upset bid process they use here, and just attended my first in-person auction earlier today. I've found how to find the legal documents like the foreclosure notice, delays, plats, etc. on the county website by looking up the case number.

    Is that the same place where I should look for the title, deed, and any existing liens? How do I know if I'm getting the full story? What am I looking for when I do find the title or deed? How would I know if it's the wrong kind of deed, or if it was recorded incorrectly even if I was able to locate it?

    I know these are big questions, but I would appreciate any direction you could offer. Thank you!

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