Home, Land, Property Buying and Selling - how to buy & sell houses without transffering the title to my name

I first wanted to thank you for this usefull web site. Below I explained my idea and my knowledge first, it will help you to determine what my needs are beside my questions.
My today issue is:
My intention is to buy and sell low cost houses in different states where I find good deals, foreclosures and REO's. They sometimes run around $500 to $5,000 and these are fixer uppers or they have short life left.
(By the way I do not have a real estate licence but I will use a local agent to bid on foreclosures and to take the property pictures.)
To begin with I will stay away from pre-foreclosures as it can be risky, the title may not be free and clear from all other liens. I read and got some good information about general deed and warranty deed on this website.
My first question is:
1- I would like to buy and sell these cheap houses fast (a few weeks) without having to own them. In another words how can I purchase and flip the houses without transfering the title to my name? How do other investors handle this part? Because if I cannot do this part right it will take too much time, unnecessary hassle and expense.

2- Since I need to cut the costs to be able to earn money, and since these are REO and HUD homes do I need to hire a title company, and or do I need to purchase title insurance policy?
3- Since these are foreclosure houses, what would be the process and minimum expenses for REO's and HUD houses? (I actually read online HUD house bidding process. Just do not know if there is other useful and practical information that I need to know. )
( For your information mostly I will be in a different state from where houses will be purchased and closed.)
4- One last question, are there any websites and realtors with good reputation to use for foreclosure houses and for additional help?

Again thank you so much for your help.

Nicky Sand

Welcome to the forums Nicky!

I'm no expert but the title/deed would have to go into someones name - yours, a partner or corporation. If for no other reason the IRS wants to know who made what so they can be sure to get their share :eek:

You should either have the tittle insured or atleast have an attorney research the tittle. The latter is cheaper but there's no garuntee.

Thank you for the reply, but do government foreclosures still need a title search? I appreciate for your help.

I will have a couple of more important questions. Can I sell US houses to a foreigner, meaning to a non US buyer? Because people in overseas like to invest in US houses then want to sell the houses back to US market or to other foreigners. How can they buy with no SSN and how can they sell to another foreigner buyer with no SSN? How can they pay taxes? I do not know this pasr of the process.
Thank you so much.

Nicky

You should always have either a title search or tittle insurance. Homes involve too much money to take a risk that there are no otherclaims on the property. Just because a property has be repossed/foreclosed, that is no garuntee that there aren't other legitimate claims against the property.

You don't have to be an US citizen to buy/sell US property. I don't know what is involved with a sale with foriegn buyers but that's part of what the real estate brokers and lawyers get paid for.

With the recent number of failures and bad reputation for flippers and get rich quick turns, the buyer may have trouble if there is not a clear record of the ownership (including you) if a loan is expected.

You might get lucky IF you have a very good attorney AND IF the buyers and have a bad attorney AND the financing company is sloppy with someone else's money (IF they can get it.

The unfortunate thing is that you will never know about the gamble until you get close to closing where you do not have a good negotiating position/option.

Dick

Thank you so much.
I find out that some investors give plain 'deed' to the buyer, and others give 'warranty deed' and rare cases 'special warranty deed' given to the buyer. I pretty much know the differences between those, I just would like to clarify a point.

I assume if an investor gives plain 'deed' to the buyer that means he did not do title search or he did and knows something wrong.
If a "warranty deed' promised then I assume title search came clean for any liens and there is a title insurance exist.

But if a 'special warranty deed' promised, I think seller will only take the responsibility as long as the buyer holds the ownership, or as long as seller himself hold the ownership! Whic one is correct?

I have this description but not sure who is second "they": A "special warranty" deed means that they will only defend the title against any claims only as long as they owned it.

Warranty Deed implies that the seller makes some guarantee that the title is unencumbered, except as stated in the deed, and guarantees the purchaser protection from any future loss that may arise from the deed.

Special Warranty Deed implies a guarantee that the grantor of the deed has done nothing during the time he held the title to the property which has or which might impair the title in the future. In other words, the grantee is protected from any claims which may have arisen during the time the grantor held the title. What a special warranty deed accomplishes is to protect the grantor from being responsible for any work done to the property when it was in the control of a previous owner. Your grantor warrantees that he is not aware of any structural problems during the time that he held title and is not responsible for any defects that occurred due to work done prior to his holding the title. For further clarification: What is a Special Warranty Deed? (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-special-warranty-deed.htm)

Quit Claim Deed offers no warranties. Purchaser would be wise to insist on Warranty Deed. Quit Claim Deeds are often used to transfer property to spouse, relative, or a trust.

Survivorship Deeds are Warranty Deeds and create joint tenancy with person(s) taking the title. Upon death, ownership transfers to the person(s) in joint tenancy.

Plain Deed (Deed Poll) is an old term used to differentiate from an Indenture. An Indenture was a deed between two parties, such as buyer and seller, where as Deed Poll (Plain Deed) was executed by usually one party. Indentures had torn edges that could be matched for authentication, but Deed Polls had shaved edges to make them look straight and distinguished as 'plain.' The idea was to distinguish between to two types of deeds by 'polling' or shaving the edges of the paper. Deed Polls were most commonly used for changing one's name, but were also used to subdivide a tract of land. Deed poll - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deed_poll)

www.businessdictionary.com (http://www.businessdictionary.com)

First , let me state that I am not an expert......This is a basic statement - you cannot transfer/sell property unless it is in your name....or you have power of attorney from owner to do so..the only way to do this is to have it deeded to you at purchase. (or a company you set up that you are the main signer for) Whose name were you thinking the property would be deeded to? Your buyer? Just thinking about the liability issues for this makes me cringe....

I know that to cut costs, some buyers do not have a title search done to issue a title policy to the owner, and many have had problems selling the property because of existing liens/title issues that they did not know about.

If you are flipping houses/real estate, is it not worth it to pay a small price for this compared to the return on investment you will get?

I have worked in closing loans for many years, and have seen numerous instances where an owner who did not originally do a title search prior to purchase has got burned when they went to sell.....

Thus, the need for title insurance when purchasing a property. When title researchers get involved, if there is a red flag, it's time to back off.

Sell it before it closes and have the contract read buyer or as assigned.