Title and Execution Searches

[Antonio]

Hello Everybody,

This is my first time posting on this site.

From what I can see many of you have a vast amount of knowledge in this game. Over the last year or two I have been bidding on and viewing tax sales for but have so far been unsuccessful in securing a property.  I was wondering when considering a property, does everyone travel to the municipality to do a title and execution search or just pay someone else to to the necessary leg work? I am asking because it can save a lot of time but will get very expensive when using sites like ontariotaxsales etc...

Any feedback would be appreciated.     

[worldjohn]

Everyone has their own style of doing things.  Everytime I've ever done title searches before the sale I've never won.  strangely its only when I dont bother with title searches that I have won (I wouldnt recommend this as I have gotten got with a crown lien)
 I take into consideration the cost of gas before deciding whether to go do the search myself or call the registry office and try to get a local searcher to do it for me. either way is always cheaper than ontario tax sales I find.

[Pfm1011]

 I take into consideration the cost of gas before deciding whether to go do the search myself or call the registry office and try to get a local searcher to do it for me. either way is always cheaper than Ontario tax sales I find.

 You also  have to take your time into account. Many of these road trips  can easily be a whole day. $100 for a search is not that expensive when it saves you an entire day.   Most good properties redeem so wait until only a few days before the sale before doing the searches.

Do not even consider "taking your chances" and bidding without a search.   

[cityhunter]

This game is not for the frugal or lazy.. i know of a couple guys that wish they never started playing this game.

Do your homework, then do it again to be sure

[Bidder]

Perhaps those who are regulars would save money by purchasing the Teraview software??

[nihama]

Hello Everybody,

This is my first time posting on this site.

From what I can see many of you have a vast amount of knowledge in this game. Over the last year or two I have been bidding on and viewing tax sales for but have so far been unsuccessful in securing a property.  I was wondering when considering a property, does everyone travel to the municipality to do a title and execution search or just pay someone else to to the necessary leg work? I am asking because it can save a lot of time but will get very expensive when using sites like ontariotaxsales etc...

Any feedback would be appreciated.     

[nihama]

Just a question about executions.  If you end up with a property that has an execution.  How do you pay it off?

[Pfm1011]

Perhaps those who are regulars would save money by purchasing the Teraview software??

That is 3400 a year and then  each title search is around 35 and then 20 or thirty more for attachments , surveys etc.    you dont save money with it, you just have lots of info at your disposal

You have to be very serious to fork out for that or have a use for it outside of taxsales.

[Bidder]

$3400!? Teraview site shows price as one time of $595. Perhaps that price is not for the general public..I haven't contacted them.

[Pfm1011]

that is for agents then there is a cost per inquiry,  You will use up several thousand inquirys . IE a piece for sale,  you will look at all the local sales for the last year or longer and pull all the adjacent owners info. easy to run several thousand inquirys and a hundred or two titles searches a year. I think I run about 6K a year on the system just related to tax sales

[stillsleepy]

that is for agents then there is a cost per inquiry,  You will use up several thousand inquirys . IE a piece for sale,  you will look at all the local sales for the last year or longer and pull all the adjacent owners info. easy to run several thousand inquirys and a hundred or two titles searches a year. I think I run about 6K a year on the system just related to tax sales

Out of curiosity, do you work in real estate or some other industry that justifies the costs? Or at the very least, do you have a business structured in such a way that all (or almost all) of these costs can be written off?

If you were using this for nothing but tax sales you'd have to move quite a bit of property to cover $6K plus a year... I'd imagine.

[Antonio]

How important is it to do a title and execution search the day of the tax sale?  In your experience, do many properties accumulate crown liens the day of the sale?

[netpred]

How important is it to do a title and execution search the day of the tax sale?  In your experience, do many properties accumulate crown liens the day of the sale?

This would be rare, but it does happen. Maybe Worldjohn can chime in here.

[Frank]

How important is it to do a title and execution search the day of the tax sale?  In your experience, do many properties accumulate crown liens the day of the sale?

This would be rare, but it does happen. Maybe Worldjohn can chime in here.

Don't know that rare is the correct word...nor have I ever heard of it happening...however, it is possible and therefore the probability (although very remote) cannot be discounted....kinda like the probability of me winning a fifty million Lotto Max jackpot.   I'd have better luck on pfm's boat.

[worldjohn]

netpred is refering to me.  I got caught with a crown lien.  I checked the statutory declaration which was clear, but that search was done almost a year before the tax sale and the lien was placed on a few months before the sale.   Im not a good person to advise people on title and execution searches as Im a gambler.  On cheap properties I dont bother doing my own searches (just use the saturtory declaration) and dont even bother looking at the land sometimes.  I just put in a low bid and hope for the best.  So far I've been lucky, as I managed to get the crown lien removed on the one property that had one. (but it took over a year).  I do not reccommend anyone following this strategy. And, just to be clear, If I am going to put a bid of significant value I do all the proper searches.