Posted by John Merchant on February 28, 2010 at 10:24:45:
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Title Insurance on a foreclosed property - Posted by Peter
Posted by Peter on February 23, 2010 at 10:03:02:
Hello,
I am thinking about bidding on a property (Sheriff’s auction, Bergen County, NJ)
How can I get title insurance on this property? Do I have to purchase insurance before I bid or after?
thank you,
Peter
Re: Title Insurance on a foreclosed property - Posted by Gary
Posted by Gary on February 28, 2010 at 01:13:59:
I’ve been a title officer for over 25 years. Generally, the rules may differ from state to state. You should be able to buy a commitment or preliminary report. You would not want to do this unless you were reasonably certain you were going to be the successful bidder. Some better options might be:
a) Look to see which title company recorded the Notice of Default/Notice of Sale. Generally this will be the same company that the Trustee used to get a Trustee’s Sale Guaranty or Litigation Guaranty. Call the title company and provide them w/ their order number (this is usually handwritten or typed on the recorded notices). Ask for the title officer for that file. Tell them what you are doing and ask if you can have a peek at the file in exchange for you committing to buy a policy when you are the successful bidder. Since some of the information in the file is not public information, you likely won’t be able to have unrestricted access to the file, but you might be able to get a verbal idea of the encumbrances against the property. Keep in mind that the title company would not have any liability at this point, but it is still better information than going into the sale blind. I would suggest that you develop a relationship with this title officer, as you will likely find them useful in the future.
b) The trustee may be able to give you some verbal information from the guarantee as well. Each company is different and each title officer/Trustee will have different levels of comfortability.