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Thread: Buy a house from underneath someone's feet?

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    Veteran Member Damia's Avatar
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    Default Buy a house from underneath someone's feet?

    I was told by my grandmother (during a rant she was having) that if you go to the building in which you pay taxes for your house, you can pay the taxes on someone else's and the house is automatically yours.

    Is this true? I really want to know. Afterall, with taxes in to 500s to 700s I might take advantage of that.
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    God/dess Emily's Avatar
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    Default Re: Buy a house from underneath someone's feet?

    um, NO!

    But think about it, if someone would rather lose their house that they paid off (otherwise you'd inhereit their mortgage too) instead of pay the taxes owed, they aren't owing just $500 in taxes. If the bank owns it, they are not giving it up that easily. that's why banks make you pay your property taxes with escrow accounts.

    And if houses were available for $500, you wouldn't be able to get them anyway. Someone with conenctions better than yours will scoop them up befor eyou had the chance.

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    God/dess Deogol's Avatar
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    Default Re: Buy a house from underneath someone's feet?

    Of course it is not that easy.

    Usually the taxes need to be two or more years late.

    When you pay the taxes on a house, you are usually issued a lien of sorts - which basically means they need to pay you. This goes on for another year or so.

    Only then you can have a court case before a judge issue a judgment to your lien.

    Each state has it's own process for handling this so you definitely need more research. No politician is going to make it easy for voters to lose their home.


    Now the TV will show these luxury houses with tax problems. Usually it is a vacant home the owner died and the family doesn't know what to do with the thing. Or it is some piece of crap filled with rats.

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    Default Re: Buy a house from underneath someone's feet?

    Yes. I'm going to go pay the taxes on a mansion in LA and get it for 7 percent of its value. Awesome! I wish it was that easy, until someone paid the taxes for me.

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    God/dess Bridgette's Avatar
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    Default Re: Buy a house from underneath someone's feet?

    What Deogol said. The exact regulations are different in every state but what you're talking about is a tax lien. Generally, the county will have a "tax sale" every few months or so (which they advertise on their websites and/or in newspaper, etc). Buyers can go and basically pay the taxes owed (2 years or more overdue) and they get a lien placed on the property. Usually, if an owner is that behind on their taxes, they are ALSO behind on the mortgage, which means the bank has a lien on it too.

    Once you have paid the taxes and got your lien, the homeone still has a year or two, depending on the local regs, to pay you back, with a set amount of interest. If they don't pay you back, you can go to court and ask for a judgement on the property. But the regulations state that you can't take ownership unless you ALSO pay whatever mortgages/liens that other creditors might have on the property. I think I recall that in Texas at least, you could also get the bank who had a lien on the property to pay you for the tax bill you paid, with interest. However, if a bank has a lien on a house that's also going up for tax sale, you better BET that bank will be there first to pay the tax before you. They won't just let something like that slide...

    So in short, NO, you can't really buy someone's house our from under them like that. Especially not for a few hundred dollars.

    But, buying a tax lien could just be a nice little investment. You pay the hundreds or few thousand now, and you're pretty much guaranteed to get a return on your investment within the allowed timeframe.

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
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    Default Re: Buy a house from underneath someone's feet?

    In most states:

    If you find an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere, like a farmhouse. Squat there, pay the taxes, get some to issue you a quit claim deed; you can cloud a title enough to get the property in a couple of years.

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    Veteran Member Damia's Avatar
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    Default Re: Buy a house from underneath someone's feet?

    Well, I don't really know about hings like this. MY grandmother is from the country and doesn't really know much. I just thought I would get better feedback here.
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    God/dess Bridgette's Avatar
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    Default Re: Buy a house from underneath someone's feet?

    Well, the tax lien thing is designed to ultimately help the gov't collect the back taxes owed on a property. But no one can just buy a house out from under anyone if the bills are being paid. If someone hasn't been paying the mortgage/taxes though, the house doesn't really belong to the "owner" and it's only a matter of time before they'll be kicked out.

    As far as the squatting in an abandoned house thing, I'm pretty sure most folks don't wanna live in a house like that. It'll be a broken down, rat-infested hellhole.

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
    When you lead a nontraditional life don't try to measure it with traditional milestones.

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    God/dess FrustratedBunny's Avatar
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    Default Re: Buy a house from underneath someone's feet?

    I had someone tell me that you can call banks and tell them you want to get in touch with motivated sellers, i.e., people whose homes are about to be repo'd and want to sell asap and would sell it cheap.

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    God/dess Bridgette's Avatar
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    Default Re: Buy a house from underneath someone's feet?

    ^^I suppose that's possible, but 1) the sellers won't want to sell for less than the remaining mortgage balance so it won't be NEARLY as cheap as the stuff we're talking about on this thread - good deals nonetheless; and 2) I'm thinking there's a law or regulation against banks givng out that type of private info to just any schmoe who calls and asks...?

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
    When you lead a nontraditional life don't try to measure it with traditional milestones.

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    Default Re: Buy a house from underneath someone's feet?

    Actually, when someone is pre-foreclosure, there are public documents that need to be filed showing the banks intention to foreclose on the property. It is during this time that the homebuyer can opt to sell off to another person or go through with the foreclosure. I don't know if you can call the bank, but you can definitely go to the courthouse and pull pre-foreclosure information in your area. Yes, its time consuming. There are also companies out there that do the digging for you for a small fee and you pick and choose which properties you want to check out.

    On a side note: few things in life are "this" easy. Most people who have gone into foreclosure, or even pre-foreclosure have not taken care of the house...so unless you can get the house for a really great deal...its sometimes not worth the money to pay off the mortgage, taxes, etc...and then spend the money to fix up the house. These things always take lots of research and knowledge of local market trends, area values, etc. I've seen plenty of people go in buy houses, fix them up and they are too expensive, now, for the area in which they did so.

    Do your research and don't think that just because someone is going into pre-foreclosure/foreclosure that you can get a great house for little money. Some of these houses are also OVER-MORTGAGED. Research, research, research.

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    Default Re: Buy a house from underneath someone's feet?

    in a nutshell, there is only one way that a private party can wind up acquiring title to property owned by another private party at a total cost which is far below the 'fair value' of that property. That method is called 'eminent domain', where the gov't uses its authority to force a property sale by the unwilling first party at a 'predetermined' price, with the second party always being a property developer who promises to better utilize the property thus providing higher tax revenue to the gov't !!!

    In every other case i.e. tax leins, foreclosure auctions, distressed sellers etc. you ultimately wind up paying pretty much exactly what the property is 'really worth' - otherwise a 'professional' would have been the successful buyer.

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    God/dess Deogol's Avatar
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    Default Re: Buy a house from underneath someone's feet?

    Luckily in this last election a few states passed laws against using eminent domain in that manner. I don't remember which ones they were - but they weren't the liberal states if I remember right.

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    Veteran Member Damia's Avatar
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    Default Re: Buy a house from underneath someone's feet?

    Okay I see, thanks for the help?
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