foreclosure purchase questions

[DawnM]

I copied and pasted from another forum I posted the question to, but would like some ideas.

 

ok, help me out with some questions I have.

Here are the facts:

1. There is an easement/property between us and the neighbors. It was supposed to be made into a road to connect our side of the sub-division to the other, but there was an interruption in building, and the guy who owns the 15 or so acres in-between the two areas of our sub-division, but he never sold his property, so that land was never developed.

So now the area that was meant to be a road is going into foreclosure.....it is .27 of an acre.

2. When we looked into building for my dad to move in, one of the contractors suggested we look into purchasing that land, possibly through a quit claim deed, or find out who owned it and ask to buy it. We have been thinking about it ever since.

3. Today I received a letter from the county government office saying that the property has unpaid taxes and will go into foreclosure and it asked if we would be interested in purchasing the property.

4. I called the county office and they said it hasn't been processed yet but will go into auction when it is processed and asked us to call back in a few days to check. They said the owners were probably just given a letter and have the chance to pay it at this point.

5. I can't imagine anyone would want to buy it other than us or the neighbors. I personally wouldn't even mind splitting it with them, but I am hoping we dont' get into a bidding war.

Here are my questions:

1. Would you start buy contacting the actual owners of the property and seeing if you could buy it outright from them, and pay the taxes so you could do that? The tax value is listed as $3,000 but you can't do anything with it other than have more land, you can't build a new house or anything on it, so I can se why they don't want it. But if they have a few days to pay it, should I contact them and ask how much they owe and ask if they would sell it directly to us?

2. How can we find out if the property can be split? Who do we ask? I would like to talk to the neighbors about it and ask if they would be interested in splitting it or if they don't want any of it before we start bidding.

I am sure I am missing something as I have never been involved in anything like this before.

Any info is appreciated.

Thanks,

Dawn

[sbgrace]

I would definitely contact the owner.  What is there to lose (says the person who got into a bidding war in an auction like this for our current home...and we paid much more than we should have as a result)? 

You could call and ask if you can split a parcel and what is involved in that.

If the owner doesn't offer to sell to you, I would probably contact the neighbor before the auction, assuming they are reasonable people. Neither of you want to bid each other up on the property. 

[JustEm]

If the property is an easement  would you even be able to build on it?

[DawnM]

1 minute ago, hjffkj said:

If the property is an easement  would you even be able to build on it?

 

We don't really want to build on it, but it would allow us to put an addition on our house.   Right now, our house is 15' from our property line and that is the min. amount you can go, so we can't add anything.  If our property line extends an additional 100ft, we can add on to our existing house and it won't be an issue.

 

[JustEm]

2 minutes ago, DawnM said:

 

We don't really want to build on it, but it would allow us to put an addition on our house.   Right now, our house is 15' from our property line and that is the min. amount you can go, so we can't add anything.  If our property line extends an additional 100ft, we can add on to our existing house and it won't be an issue.

 

gotcha, then I contact the owner

[Annie G]

I’d call the neighbor first- if you guys agree to split it, that solves a few things. No bidding war, you only pay half the cost to acquire it, etc.   Splitting it might be a little costly if you have to get a survey and a lawyer to do the paperwork. Unless your area is laid back enough to let one of you quitclaim half to the other with a general description of the property, such as the west half of lot 25. 
Buying from the owner would be great, as long as you’re confident it could be done before foreclosure AND the taxes are paid at closing so you know that issue is solved.  
I’m so happy that this might happen-you could make a great place for your dad!  I’m just wary of land deals when back taxes are due...I’ve known several folks who have been burned. I hope it goes smoothly for you!!

[DawnM]

41 minutes ago, Annie G said:

I’d call the neighbor first- if you guys agree to split it, that solves a few things. No bidding war, you only pay half the cost to acquire it, etc.   Splitting it might be a little costly if you have to get a survey and a lawyer to do the paperwork. Unless your area is laid back enough to let one of you quitclaim half to the other with a general description of the property, such as the west half of lot 25. 
Buying from the owner would be great, as long as you’re confident it could be done before foreclosure AND the taxes are paid at closing so you know that issue is solved.  
I’m so happy that this might happen-you could make a great place for your dad!  I’m just wary of land deals when back taxes are due...I’ve known several folks who have been burned. I hope it goes smoothly for you!!

Burned how?

The county is the one who sent me the letter.   Wouldn't that show that the county is on board with the purchase and have to disclose any money owed?

[Annie G]

2 hours ago, DawnM said:

Burned how?

The county is the one who sent me the letter.   Wouldn't that show that the county is on board with the purchase and have to disclose any money owed?

I assumed the county wanted to know if you were interested in buying it after they foreclosed, through them.
How my friends were burned-one bought from owner and the back taxes weren’t paid from proceeds like my friend assumed. So two days later the property was auctioned.  Turned out in that county the taxes had to be paid no later than three days prior to the auction, so buying it two days ahead was too late anyway. (He ended up going to small claims and getting his purchase price back from the seller but it took a while)  Another friend bought a lot- with a house, and there were three years of back taxes that had to be paid and again he thought it would be paid by the seller from purchase price. But he ended up having to pay them.  With a small unimproved lot you’re probably not looking at much tax money so maybe you won’t mind paying the back taxes.   
I’m sure it’ll be a lot easier for you- I’m just always cautious with land sales. Probably because we’ve dealt with odd things like shared driveways and  situations where someone cut an access into our family’s land and since nobody challenged it for years when we sold it there was an issue with having to grant access to the neighbor even though they knew it was over the line. Goofy stuff like that probably makes me overly cautious.  

[Sherry in OH]

Property tax records are public information.  You may be able to find the amount due on your county tax assessor's website.  Otherwise, you would have to visit the tax office.   A local newspaper might also have a section where tax-delinquent properties are listed.

What is the minimum lot size in your area?  I am curious because in my area, developers are subdividing existing 0.20+ lots and building two or more homes on them. There would be a lot of interest in a 0.27 lot with no existing buildings that had gone into foreclosure.

 

[Forget-Me-Not]

I don't think there's any harm in seeing if the owners want to sell before it goes into full foreclosure.  But this is definitely a situation where I'd pay for a good real-estate attorney and a survey.  Also check out codes/zones/permits type stuff to see if you could even build there before you buy. 

[DawnM]

12 hours ago, Annie G said:

I assumed the county wanted to know if you were interested in buying it after they foreclosed, through them.
How my friends were burned-one bought from owner and the back taxes weren’t paid from proceeds like my friend assumed. So two days later the property was auctioned.  Turned out in that county the taxes had to be paid no later than three days prior to the auction, so buying it two days ahead was too late anyway. (He ended up going to small claims and getting his purchase price back from the seller but it took a while)  Another friend bought a lot- with a house, and there were three years of back taxes that had to be paid and again he thought it would be paid by the seller from purchase price. But he ended up having to pay them.  With a small unimproved lot you’re probably not looking at much tax money so maybe you won’t mind paying the back taxes.   
I’m sure it’ll be a lot easier for you- I’m just always cautious with land sales. Probably because we’ve dealt with odd things like shared driveways and  situations where someone cut an access into our family’s land and since nobody challenged it for years when we sold it there was an issue with having to grant access to the neighbor even though they knew it was over the line. Goofy stuff like that probably makes me overly cautious.  

 

Gotcha.   Last night I went online and looked all of it up, they owe like $75 in taxes.   They are developers and have several similar properties that are just small strips of land that never got developed in a neighborhood and really are only of use to the people who are next to the property.

 

11 hours ago, Sherry in OH said:

Property tax records are public information.  You may be able to find the amount due on your county tax assessor's website.  Otherwise, you would have to visit the tax office.   A local newspaper might also have a section where tax-delinquent properties are listed.

What is the minimum lot size in your area?  I am curious because in my area, developers are subdividing existing 0.20+ lots and building two or more homes on them. There would be a lot of interest in a 0.27 lot with no existing buildings that had gone into foreclosure.

 

 

No one would be able to build on it, I am not sure what the min. is, our lot is .75 and that piece of property is a strip of land that was supposed to be a road, so it isn't wide enough to build anything like a house on.   Our neighborhood wouldn't allow it anyway.

 

11 hours ago, Forget-Me-Not said:

I don't think there's any harm in seeing if the owners want to sell before it goes into full foreclosure.  But this is definitely a situation where I'd pay for a good real-estate attorney and a survey.  Also check out codes/zones/permits type stuff to see if you could even build there before you buy. 

 

It is zoned as "unbuildable" according to tax records.   We don't want to build on it, we just want to possibly add to our own house, and we could if our property line were to expand out.   right now our house is 15' from our side property line and that is the min. distance for the house to be, and so the county said we can't add anything on that side, however, if we were to get this property, we could add on, possibly adding a bathroom and closet and patio for my dad (see my other thread about my dad moving in with us and having a separate space in our house.)

And expanding our backyard and fencing in the new area would be great for the dogs and for space.   

[DawnM]

I was able to call yesterday and got a hold of the county woman who I needed to talk to.   She said it will take months to go to auction, but that the neighbor was also sent a letter and has called and expressed interest.   

I asked if it can be split and she said she will look into it and get back to me, I explained that I didn't want to get into a bidding war or disagreement with our neighbors, and he wanted a dog run (I am pretty sure as that is what he uses it for) and we want to extend our property enough to add a 10' room, so neither of us really needs the entire space.

 

My husband went over to talk to them last night but they weren't home.   He talked to the husband through their ring doorbell and the husband said he could come over when he got off of work, but didn't,  so we will have to catch up with them later.

[Annie G]

That sounds promising- if you and neighbor can split it, that would be great! Hope it works out.