St. Joseph County, Indiana

Sheriff's & Commissioner's Sale Title Searches

Quantum Title Research, LLC offers Sheriff's & Commissioner's Sale Title Search services in St. Joseph County, Indiana.  We provide convenient service for South Bend, Granger, Georgetown, Mishawaka, Osceola, Gilmer Park, North Liberty and Walkerton, Indiana.

Sheriff's & Commissioner's Sale Title Searches

We understand that when looking at foreclosure and tax certificate auction prices, most of the properties look like a bargain.  Investors must understand where the auction prices came from.

Initially, let's understand how the property happened to be in foreclosure.  A common reason is that a current owner did not pay mortgage or tax bills on-time, causing bank or municipal government to place a lien against the property, in other words, the lender or the government wants to get payment on the current owner's obligations by any means, even if they have to go through the foreclosure expense and auction the house to recover any owed amount or gain possession of the house to sell it via real estate agency (REO - real estate owned properties).

In the case of mortgage foreclosures, the amount you see at the foreclosure auction as a starting bid is a remaining pay-off amount on the mortgage note plus loan interest, attorney fees, penalties and costs associated with a single mortgage note.  Depending on the lien priority (showed by a Title Search), there may be IRS liens or Tax/Municipal liens that typical get attached to the property.  IRS Lien pay-off does not depend on lien priority at the auction as IRS has a right to go after the equity in the property within 120 days after the auction to redeem the property.  Tax Liens are always at the highest position to be paid off.  One of the simplest ways to find what liens, mortgages, judgments exist against the property and in which position is to order a Title Search.

Foreclosure auctions (sometimes called sheriff's sale or commissioner's sale) are typically held in the municipal (county) courts.  The County does not offer you any protection against additional liens on the property, nor do they guarantee you a clean title.  Lenders or government agencies are always represented by real estate lawyers that represent lender's interests and highly motivated to sell you the property at the auction.

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