All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Phillip Mazur

What county are you looking to buy in? Each county has a different set of websites to check and different steps you must take to perform a thorough title search.

Here are all the websites I use to search title in Cook County:

Cook County Recorder of Deeds

Cook County Treasurer's Office

Cook County Assessor's Office

Property Tax Portal

Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court

Delinquent Property Tax Search

Annual Tax Sale Search

Flood Zone Search

NFIP Flood Risk Profile

Chicago Building Code Violations Search

Chicago Water Department

In addition to checking these websites, I always call the town's building, water, and scavenger departments to determine the amount of municipal liens, unpaid bills, and code violations.

If the property is under the control of an HOA, I always call the development's management company to determine the amount of unpaid or special assessments attached to the home.

@Mark Doyle

1) Are you positive that the HOA allows rentals?

- A majority of the condo buildings in Oak Lawn have banned renting or put restrictions on who you can rent to (i.e. immediate family members only).

- Check with the management company to ensure that renting is allowed without any restrictions. Do not trust what the listing agent tells you on this issue; contact the management company directly.

2) For the 2012 tax year, were there any homeowner or senior citizen property tax exemptions on the unit?

- $1,354 in property taxes seems too low for Oak Lawn. I would guess that the unit currently has at least one property tax exemption. Once you rent it out, you will not receive any tax exemptions.

- Check the Cook County Assessor's website to see if there were any exemptions in 2012: http://cookcountyassessor.com/

3) Does the unit come with garage parking?

- If there is a garage included, then $1,000 per month in rent is realistic.

- If there is no garage parking included, then $800 - $950 seems to be the current market rent for an older 2 bedroom, 1 bath unit in Oak Lawn.

4) What floor is the unit on, and is there an elevator?

- First and second floor units are much easier to rent and resell in Oak Lawn.

- Without an elevator, anything above the second floor could take awhile to rent and eventually resell.

5) Are there any pending Special Assessments?

- Check with the management company to see if there are any Special Assessments on the horizon.

- Thoroughly study the building's financial statements and check how much in reserves they have.

Try calling or visiting the city’s Building and Water Departments, and explain to them your situation. They should be able to tell you the type and amount of liens currently attached to the home. Ask them what steps need to be taken in order to cure the liens and have them released.

All liens should technically be recorded with the County Recorder’s Office in order to be valid. However, many cities in my area do not bother recording liens. Instead, cities will just claim to have “unrecorded” liens on a property and refuse to issue real estate transfer stamps until the liens are cured.

Here in Illinois, no title company will insure a property without the necessary city real estate transfer stamps being issued. So, if you want a deal to close, you are forced to follow whatever steps the city requires to cure any “unrecorded” liens and receive real estate transfer stamps from them.

If there is a sufficient amount of equity, you can just buy the home at the upcoming foreclosure auction. Then, you do not have to deal with any agents.

Make sure to calculate and factor in all the costs on top of the winning bid, including:

- Back Due Property Taxes
- Rehab Costs
- Municipal Liens
- Past Due Utility Bills
- HOA Liens
- Mechanic Liens
- Eviction Costs / Cash for Keys
- Legal Fees
- Court Fees
- Transfer Taxes

Eric Michaels is 100% spot-on with his advice.

Over the past 12 months, a handful of massive institutional buyers have flooded the Chicagoland foreclosure auctions. These institutional buyers literally have billions of dollars to spend and are recklessly bidding up to 100%, or more, of a property’s retail value.

Before these institutional buyers arrived, you could realistically purchase a few properties every month at auction for 65% - 70% of retail value. However, at the moment buying anything at auction for less than 80% of retail value is nearly impossible due to the increased competition.

If you do plan on buying at auction, make sure to perform a thorough title search BEFORE bidding on a property.

Here are some pertinent websites to visit for Cook County foreclosure auctions:

AUCTION LISTINGS

Illinois Foreclosure Listing Service
The Judicial Sales Corporation
Kallen Realty Services
Cook County Sheriff's Site

WEBSITES FOR SEARCHING TITLE

Cook County Recorder of Deeds
Cook County Assessor
Cook County Treasurer
Cook County Clerk Delinquent Tax Search
Cook County Property Tax Portal
Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Search
Chicago Building Code Violation Search
Chicago Water Department
NFIP Flood Zone Search
Illinois Flood Maps

Yes, this is a common problem for FNMA owned homes listed with traditional agents.

I routinely see discrepancies between the listing status on the MLS and on Homepath.com. There are also frequent differences between the asking price listed on the MLS and the asking price listed on Homepath.com.

Personally, I rely solely on the information listed on Homepath.com and disregard the MLS listing status and price. FNMA listing agents in my area often try to play games and manipulate the MLS status in an attempt to secure both sides of the commission.

Even if the home is listed as

You could apply stacked stone veneer panels to the bottom third of the exterior front wall. This will likely cost more than $500, but it makes a huge difference and is a popular trend at the moment.

Manufactured stacked stone panels sell for around $5 per square foot in my area. I am not sure what the installation cost would be in your area.

Here are some links to house pictures and a company who manufactures stacked stone panels:

Stone Veneer Pic 1

Stone Veneer Pic 2

Stone Veneer Pic 3

Eldorado Stone Website

Using a bidding service is not any safer than bidding yourself at a foreclosure auction. In my area, no bidding services offer any sort of title insurance or guarantees to quality of title prior to purchasing at auction.

Some services offer condensed title reports for your review, but they do not offer any guarantees. The only real benefit they provide is the convenience of not having to sit at the auction every day.

I actually think that using a bidding service is more dangerous than bidding on your own. As Andy Mallos mentioned, some bidders meet before the auctions and try to cut “backdoor” deals with each other. When hiring a bidding service, you run the risk that the bidder will reveal your maximum bid to other buyers beforehand or not submit your bid at all.

If you plan to buy regularly at foreclosure auctions, you really need to learn how to perform title searches and bid on your own. You can pay a title company a few hundred dollars to research title beforehand, but that cost will add up quickly if you are bidding on a regular basis.

All the information you need to perform a thorough title search is fairly easy to access online or at your county’s administrative offices. It is just a matter of learning what to look for and how to search efficiently.

There will always be agents who do not play by the rules. There are alternative methods of purchasing distressed properties that are more transparent than submitting offers through traditional REO or SS agents. Such methods include:

County Foreclosure / Sheriff / Trustee Auctions

- These auctions are, by law, open to the general public and 100% transparent. You can look your competition in the eye as you bid against them. The highest bidder wins.

HUD REOs

- As Mark Ferguson mentioned, the listing agent on HUD REOs does not even see your offer. You submit your offer on hudhomestore.com, and it is directly entered into HUD

Steve Babiak

Nosey neighbors can be valuable assets when scouting houses before a foreclosure sale.

After receiving the deed to my last foreclosure sale purchase, I immediately drove to the home to drill out the front door lock and gain entry. As I began to drill the lock out, the next door neighbor came running towards me.

I thought she was going to start screaming at me, but instead she handed me a set of keys and garage door openers for the house. She had been taking care of the home and cleaning up the yard for the past two years while it sat vacant.

Another time, I was walking around a vacant property that was coming up for sale that afternoon. The home appeared to be in fair condition and the opening bid was absurdly low, so I was set on bidding.

As I was driving away, a neighbor stopped me. He told me that both owners of the home were in jail for animal endangerment. They had been using a shed in the backyard as a dog fighting arena. They were also illegally breeding and boarding 10 plus pitbulls in the home itself.

After receiving that information, I decided to take a pass on the house.