Tax Sales & Title Clouds . . . an issue all too often blown out of proportion. In this video we discuss one of the resolutions: The quiet title lawsuit.
Transcript:
Hey, everybody! It’s Casey Denman here with TheTaxSaleAcademy.com. And today, we’ll be talking about clearing title on those tax sale properties. Now, a lot of investors, especially the beginning investors, hear “title cloud” and they want to run the opposite way. They just blow it way out of proportion. Folks, it’s not that big of a deal if you know what you’re doing. We use methods and procedures on a daily basis to help us deal with these title clouds.
Now, one of the methods that we use is called a “Suit to Quiet Title.” This is a court action that helps us get clear title. Now when I say “clear title,” I mean it allows us to get title insurance from a title company. When a title company sees that the property has been tax foreclosed, they aren’t going to issue you title insurance right off the bat. They’re first going to want to see that the property has gone through a Suit to Quiet Title before they’d issue that title insurance.
Now, the first step is to hire an attorney. Yes, some folks like to do it themselves. They think they can save a little bit of money here and there, and I guess that is true. But, when it comes down to it, an attorney, for this particular matter, knows a lot more about Suit to Quiet Titles than I do. They know the legal process. They know the paperwork and the most vital, they know the timelines and they know everything about Suit to Quiet Titles. They know much more than I know.
And folks, when it comes to me, I feel that time is money. My time is much better spent investing in tax sale properties than trying to appease a judge or a court system so my Suit to Quiet Title goes through properly. So again, I recommend you hire an attorney to take care of this process for you.
So once you have an attorney, they file the necessary paperwork. They prove that the tax sale foreclosure process was done properly and according to law. And they also prove that any former owner does not have a claim on that property. Now, if everything’s done as it should be, the judge will sign off on it. He will give you a Final Judgment. And once you have that Final Judgment, the title insurance company will again be able to issue you title insurance on that particular piece of property.
Now, when it comes to duration, it can take anywhere from 30 days up to a year or longer if there’s any issues. It depends on a variety of factors. Some attorneys move faster, some attorneys move slower. So what I would do is when you call around to get price quotes, you ask your attorney how long you would expect this process to take.
And speaking of price quotes, let’s talk about price for a minute. When it comes to tax sale properties and the Suit to Quiet Titles, the price can vary greatly. I’ve seen it as low as $600 to as high as $5,000 per Suit to Quiet Title. I’ve actually even heard of some people spending more than that. Now, do you need to spend $5,000? Of course not. I think it’s silly if you spend $5,000 on your Suit to Quiet Title. What I recommend you doing is calling around town, asking a few different attorneys that are involved in real estate how much it will cost for a Suit to Quiet Title. Maybe you can even get some references from other tax sale investors in your area. Ask them how much they pay.
Another trick that you can do is do multiple properties at one time. A lot of the expense and a lot of the time an attorney will spend with your Suit to Quiet Titles involve drafting different documents. And on these documents, he’s able to put more than one property so it could save you some money in the long run.
Now, in The Tax Sale Academy, we go into much more detail about a Suit to Quiet Title and the process to clear the title for properties so you’re able to get insurance. We also talk about different methods. And one of my favorite methods is absolutely doing nothing whatsoever. And in The Tax Sale Academy, we’ll discuss that a little bit further.
So for more information, go on over to TaxSaleAcademy.com. And while you’re there, download your free copy of the e-book, The Tax Sale Blueprint. Have a wonderful day!