Posted by George(OH) on March 24, 2000 at 17:41:27:
I purchased your “Ultimate L/O” course; I am eagerly waiting its arrival. Thanks in advance for what I’m sure is going to be the turning point in my infantile REI career.
God Bless,
George(OH)
Any ideas how I can find the owner of this house? - Posted by Mikeb(sc)
Posted by Mikeb(sc) on March 24, 2000 at 16:57:20:
I was driving the neighborhoods and found a duplex that is overgrown and looked vacant. Stopped to look at it and found all the doors open, front and back. Looks like its pretty much trashed inside. No realtor sign. The only sign was a small 8x11 piece of paper that gave some company name and said don’t call about buying or leasing, only call if the placed looked like it was broken into. I called the number and got a recording that the call could not be completed. I could tell this sign was old because it used an old area code that was changed 2 years ago. So that dates the place as vacant for 2 years.
I talked to a neighbor who was getting out of their car at the right time. They said they had never seen anybody at the house, and don?t know anything about it. They said their landlord had said he thinks the government owns it.
I didn’t go inside because number 1, there were bee’s nests, and number 2, the place was kind of creeping me out, quite frankly.
I went to the tax assessor?s office and got the name and address of the owner, went and looked up the deed, the place was purchased in '91 for $57,000. Called information and got owners number (in Shreveport LA). Owner was very short with me but said the bank owned the property and it had been 2 years since they owned it. They said it was P&C Mortgage or maybe PNC Mortgage, I’m not sure.
Called 1-800 information and got the number for the bank, finally got connected to their REO department only to be told that they don’t have this home in their portfolio.
I was doing so well playing investigator, now I’ve hit a dead end.
If the county doesn’t know who the owner is and the last owner of record doesn’t know who the owner is, how do I find out who the owner is?
The nice lady at the bank gave me the numbers for HUD and VA, so I’m going to try these on Monday.
Any of you wonderful people out there have any ideas where I can go from here?
Thanks,
Mike
Re: Any ideas how I can find the owner of this house? - Posted by ScottE
Posted by ScottE on March 25, 2000 at 06:06:45:
Mike,
If you were able to find the deed in the county records, you should be able to find the mortgage associated with that property as well. If that fails, go back to the deed and look for the name of the title company stamped on the deed. Of course, at some pont, as David pointed out, it would be easiest to just have the owner/previous owner quit claim his interest in the property to you (make sure and get his wife or whomever else is on the deed to sign you quit claim deed as well).
Second, the notice you saw posted in probably from a company that winterizes and secures property. You may try to hunt down the company name. They usually have a local person that handles their assigned properties.
Third, there is a lender in California called PNC mortgage. I got them to discount a $35,000 second mortgage down to $5,000 on a nice little property in foreclosure. They were SLOW, but ended up being flexible.
As one of the previous posters below pointed out, the taxes should have been paid by somebody. Find out who and that may lead you to the mortgagee.
Good luck and let us know what turns up!
Scott
What about the tax COLLECTOR? - Posted by Ben (NJ)
Posted by Ben (NJ) on March 24, 2000 at 19:32:19:
I know you spoke to the assessor but if your town is anything like mine, the left hand has no idea what the right is doing. If no one has paid the taxes for years
then there might be a tax lien on the property and the lienholder cannot yet foreclose. May be worth looking into.
Re: Any ideas how I can find the owner of this house? - Posted by David
Posted by David on March 24, 2000 at 18:21:36:
If the assessment office has the shreveport gentleman as the owner and the last recorded deed is to the shreveport gentleman, then I would think he’s the owner. He may think the bank owns it but they never foreclosed. Get the shreveport gentleman to give you
a “Quit Claim Deed” and you will be the owner. A title search would seem to be in order. Usually a house left open for two years is in sad shape and missing anything of value including furnace, hot water heater, copper plumbing etc.
There was a post earlier today about a rehabber in the Detroit Free Press, you should read.
David