All Forum Posts by: Ann Watkins

Thank you Jimmy Hong, I believe that is the equivalent to our Clerk of Courts here in Harris County, TX, which is online. But...I have found somethings were not there and then you cannot see the actual document only the notation like "WD" or LN" for Warranty Deed or Lein or "LR" which is I think Lein Release.

On the site www.courthousedirect.com you can get a subscription but you only pay when you download, not to join the site. You can actually pull the document and print the copy. It is country wide and the cost is like $1.25 a page. I've used it and their pretty accurate.

But I will say one property I purchased at the auction had the buyer wrong....it was not me. Well that struck terror because I've heard the horror stories about folks actually buying the lot next door to the one they thought they were bidding on.

Well it turned out to be incorrect I bought the property I wanted, but for some reason the law firm who handles the recording made a mistake. And believe me the folks at CHD let it be known that they only report what the court records.

I did receive my deed and it is correct, so I 'm not sure what happened there.

Brandon Turner (See I'm learning already...lol) Thank you and I'm taking a look at the link you provided now.

Thank you Ben and yes, I've been a long time reader but just decided to go ahead and sign up. So now I'm no longer invisible...lol.

Hi again Brandon,

I'm a broker and an investor, looking to learn from the pros. I've pretty much maxed out on getting a decent mortgage due to number of properties, so the next option is cash. Mine at the moment...but maybe also looking to leverage with some other investors...that would be great!

Thank you Brandon, I really appreciate the welcome!

Hi All,

I'm looking to get some blanks filled in and share the bit of information I have. So I want to get more into buying properties at the Harris County Constable's Auction. This event...um...circus takes place every first Tuesday of the month at the Family Law Center on Congress.

These auctions are primarily for taxes from the various school districts and other municipalities.

So here is what I do...and I'm being very open throated here so go easy on me...lol.

I pick out properties on the Linebarger website www.publicans.com that meet my criteria. Minimum bid amount, number of bedrooms, location, year it was foreclosed on. Not exactly in that order of course and the year is important to me because the older the foreclosure I figure the less chance of the previous owners making a last minute deal which would cause the sale to be canceled.

Then I google the address to get an idea of what the property looks like and the location. You'd be surprised how many houses have become vacant lots or have been torn down. But...but...I have also found some vacant lots with very nice homes on them that the taxing districts were not aware of.

Next I pull as many records as I have access to online. Tax records, payment of taxes, MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration System..or something like that) it doesn't always return a mortgage but sometimes it does, Courthousedirect.com to see what they have by way of liens and other civil filings, and also the Clerk of Courts - I search the property and the owner.

Somewhere in between all this...I can't resist and I drive out to the location and see what I can see.

If the property is still available a week before the sale I start putting my money together. Getting cashiers checks and cash. I've learned on this when I forgot the Monday before the auction was a holiday and had to spend the whole weekend hitting up ATMS and paying fees to Western Union to transfer my own money to me to get the cash. But hey, I was the successful bidder that time and got the property I wanted.

If it's a condo, I call the HOA and try to social engineer as much information as humanly possible from them. One time all my talking got the property pulled at the last minute.

I guess I should have known when the HOA member said "What auction?" and "Who told you that" this was not going to come out in my favor. They quickly paid the tax and it got pulled that day.

I've even paid for a title search once only to find out there was no new information than what I already had. So that is now like a last option, as you could pay for the title search and then it get's pulled.

So the part I would like someone to fill in the blank for me on is this. How do I determine "first lien position" if none of the steps I'm doing shows a mortgage. Believe it or not, I've only gone to the court house to research just a couple of times and didn't get the impression I'd really gotten everything.

Okay, thanks for reading and I look forward to learning new information.

Hi Andy,

Yes I have. I came really close on some great properties but often get out bidded because I only go with a set amount and don't get caught up on the bidding process.

Thanks Ben, no formal training with the auctions. I actually bought a property the first time I ever went. It was a vacant lot next to a property I owned, so it was a pretty safe risk.

But now I want go after SFR and those take a lot more research, as I've reached the maximum number of properties I can get a mortgage on.

You can check out the properties online and they even have pics of some of them now. www.publicans.com then just navigate your way to the Texas Sales.

Thanks for the welcome!

Hi All,

I've been an investor for the past 25 years, but due to being strapped to a day job couldn't really do it full time. I became a realtor in 2006 and a broker in 2008. In 2015 I will retire from my 9-5 and plan to do real estate sales and investing full-time.

My primary interest are acquiring single family homes, which I rent out. Currently looking for my next property. I've done pretty well thus far and have used my rental income to put three kids through college, without getting student loans.

The last one graduated this past May so now my cash flow will actually look like cash flow...lol.

You can find me the first Tuesday of the month hanging out at the Harris County Constables Auction (that's if I can take the day off from work). I use my real estate license to make better deals on foreclosures.

So that's about it, my brokerage is small at the moment myself, my husband and two of my kids are my agents. Glad to be here.