Thanks for your input. According to the lender’s title company, the seller still owns the other half of the property. I talked to my title company (that drew up the papers and sold me the title insurance when I purchased the property) on friday, but didn’t get much information because they said they’d have to pull my file and get back to me on Monday.
Anyway, I’m planning to get in touch with an attorney in the morning. I’ll post what he says in case it helps someone else.
I bought a property for cash eight months ago. I waited until it was rehabbed and leased out before trying to refinance. (Property was worth 120k after repairs. I bought it from a bird dog for $92k.)
When I tried to refinance, the lender’s title search revealed that I only own 1/2 interest in the property. I went back and looked at the general warranty deed, and it turns out that there is wording that says that I was buying 1/2 interest in the property.
I believed I was buying the property outright (I certainly wouldn’t have paid 92k for half of a property worth 120k,) but I didn’t see this clause during closing. Plus it took me 8 months to discover this.
I’m planning to try to track down the seller/middleman on Monday to straighten this out, but I’m not sure if I have any recourse. I did buy title insurance of course, but this doesn’t exactly seem like a hidden cloud on the title.
Posted by colvegas on January 29, 2006 at 11:51:45:
The question is who has the title on the other half of this property. Check with a good R/E attorney on this.
If you contact this person they can grant or warranty deed the property over to you but they probably will not do that. t.
As to being screwed I am not a legal person but these people evidently took advantage of you in this deal…
I have an idea so email me at colvegas07@hotmail.com but see what the attorney says first…
At this point, it looks like my title company is taking responsibility for the problem. They informed me that they drew up the papers incorrectly, and we’d have to re-execute the deed with me and the seller. The issue now is that no one seems to know how to reach the seller.