Selling a Home With a Lien, by Cornelius Jackson.

By Cornelius Jackson

Selling a Home with a Lien

At one point, you might have forgotten or purposefully failed to pay your property taxes, and as a result, your city or county government placed a tax lien or legal claim on your home. And like a shadow, that lien against your property will show up every time there is a title search. For that reason, you may feel that selling your home is an impossibility.

The good news is that you can sell your home even though there is a lien against it. In fact, by selling your home, you will have enough resources to cover your tax debts. And if your property sells for just the right price, you might be able to clear both your mortgage and tax lien. However, the process of selling a home with a lien is a lot more complicated than selling a regular house with title issues accounting for 11 percent of all delays. What are your options?

1. OPT TO PAY THE LIEN BEFORE LISTING YOUR

HOME

The easiest way to resolve and move on with your home sale is by paying the amount you owe to your local government or federal government. Depending on the lien you are working with, selling your home could be easy or difficult. Some types of liens are unusual and pose the risk of turning off potential buyers.

The Department of Revenue Lien or that of the IRS is one of the more complicated liens. This kind of lien will require you to involve a CPA or attorney to clear it. If you can’t pay this lien, your CPA or Attorney will negotiate that you pay a portion of the debt. In the worst scenario, the revenue department may ask you to substitute collateral; that is, the lien is moved to a secondary property you might also own.

In the case of materialman’s lien, consider

paying off your lien to maximize the chance of having a successful closing; that way, your creditor releases it.

2. USE YOUR HOME PROCEEDS TO COVER WHAT

YOU CAN AFFORD

If the amount is far too large for you to cover, there is an alternative. You can ask your realtor to include a clause in the closing agreement that stipulates that you will use part of the closing costs to clear the debt. Alternatively, the debt can be deducted from the profits you make on the sale of your home. An understanding buyer would be open to buying your home with this clause as it reduces the risk posed to them.

3. DISPUTE THE LIEN WITH THE HELP OF AN

ATTORNEY

You must do your due diligence first and search any lien attached to your property; otherwise, you will be in for a surprise when you are trying to close the sale of your property. Next, you will need to figure out whether the liens attached to your house are legitimate. Some liens may not be up to date, and it is upon you to confirm that they are. If you feel that fraud may be at play, you need to hire a lawyer to help you dispute liens that might be erroneous or fraudulent. The cost of an attorney might be high, but they will save you a ton of money, and you will be able to sell your home.

4. TAKE OUT A BOND

If the figure on your lien is too high and you can’t clear it, you can take out a bond to cover the cost. This option is one of the more expensive ones, but the bond acts as security for the lien, and you can, therefore, move ahead with the sale of your home.

All in all, it is possible to sell your home even though it has a lien on it. If you have done your due diligence and you have discovered discrepancies with your lien, it is wise to hire the services of a CPA or attorney. The two will help you prove that the liens that you have are erroneous, if indeed they are. If the liens are not serious, you can pay them off. But if the amount is too high for you, you can ask your realtor to include a clause into your closing agreement, where the closing costs or the profits you make from the home’s sale go towards clearing your debt. The Power is Now Media Inc. has realty experts that you can consult with on how to sell a home with a lien on it. It doesn’t have to be hard; go to www. thepowerisnow.com today and get started with our realty experts.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As a highly successful realtor, broker, credit repair expert, and former law enforcement officer, Cornelius Jackson uses his wealth of skills and experience to run his company, CLJ Enterprise Inc. Cornelius has worked in real estate for fifteen years and started his company, CLJ Realty Group, in Orange County, California, just five years ago. He created his business with the original intent to assist asset managers with selling REO properties (property that the lender has repossessed for nonpayment of the mortgage loan) – but he shifted his focus. So, in addition to selling these properties, he helps people that may be losing their homes. Cornelius also expanded his focus to assist people with bad credit and help them rebuild to become homeowners.

If you are homebuyer, looking to buy property and you need preapproval for your mortgage or if you are looking to refinance your home, contact Eric Lawrence Frazier, MBA, at 800-261-1634 ext. 703. He has decades of experience in the real estate industry and also as a mortgage advisor.

ABOUT THE POWER IS NOW MEDIA INC.

The Power Is Now Media is an online multimedia company founded in 2009 by Eric L. Frazier, MBA, and is headquartered in Riverside, California. We are advocates for homeownership, wealth building, and financial literacy for low to moderateincome and minority communities. The Power Is Now Media’s corporate office is located at 3739 6th Street Riverside, CA 92501. Ph: 800-401-8994 Website: www.thepowerisnow.com

Eric Lawrence Frazier, MBA. President and Founder, The Power Is Now Media

Works cited

https://www.homelight.com/blog/selling-a-house-with-a-lien/. https://kerishull.com/can-i-sell-my-house-with-a-lien/. https://ppshousebuyers.com/blog/can-you-sell-a-house-with-a-lien-on-it/.

2021