Buying land with DW, no title to DW

Im buying a 1.25 acre lot in Georgia, I think Greentree is the foreclosing lender, with a beat up 1995 DW.

The selling lender claims they do not have the title to the DW. The property deed is clean.

The sale price is less than the land alone is worth.

How is the easiest way to get a title to the DW?

Since the former owners left the trailer and the lender left the trailer, on what will be my property, can I file for an abandoned title?

I contacted the DMV and that procedure seems pretty simple.

What if the title shows a lien holder ?

Does following the abandoned title process (sending certified letter and newspaper ad for 2 consecutive weeks) wipe that out?

Otherwise my exit plan is to do minimal fix up and rent it, since I will not need a title to the DW to rent it.

Anyone had any experience in GA with this?

thanks

Hopefully some of the GA folks can jump in with specific info but just wanted to see if you had the title company check to verify that the title had not been “retired” to the land and included in the deed.

Many times they are not and the lender either has misplaced the title or bought the loan from a company that did. In either case if there is a lien holder, your state statutes should provide a path on how to notify the lienholder while seeking an abandonment title.

Since you plan on renting this property I would still go ahead and fix it and rent it in the meantime. This is a personal decision so don’t just do so without making sure it is something you are comfortable with. I would rather make something than nothing, even if I lose the home later.

The reality I find is that the property was foreclosed and the previous owners are long gone. If they come back and make some claim to the home then I could hand them the bill for lot rent and storage (if the state allows) of the home and then wish them luck in evicting the “squatters” now living in the home. I could also ban them from the property in writing.

The reality is that I do not expect them to come back. They are fleeing financial commitment, not seeking it. The title may turn up and if you were not buying the property for less than (or at) land value, I would be concerned about the lack of title.

Let’s say they did show up. You could play nice guy and say how glad you are that they are here (while handing them the bill for lot rent and any damages such as broken water lines and bills caused by their absence). Explain that you will be happy to take their cash and request when they are going to be moving the home off your property as you are anxious to move in a home of your own.

Faced with that reception, if they do have the title (and you want them to show it to you) then do you think you could probably buy it from them for next to nothing? Heck this is nothing more than a Lonnie deal purchase at this point.

Again, my risk tolerance is less than some, more than others. I would not tell you how to decide, I just wanted to point out some of the realities I have encountered for whatever its worth.

Tony

I buy property with mobiles with no title to the mobiles all the time. For renting I could care less. I can still get insurance and do every thing necessary to improve and rent the unit. Where you get in real trouble is removing home and selling apart from the ground. As a dealer, they will put me in jail for this.

I have bought several repos from greentree and titles were missing in the mail. they can do a replacement title request and issue new title every time. It voids the repo process if they can NOT provide viable title here in FL. In other words, they can not repo or sell a unit they don’t have a verifiable security interest in.

sounds like a great rental play. Post and tell us how it plays out for you,

greg

I dont expect them to come back, as they left plenty of dog poop and other nice gifts in the trailer. But according to the r/e agent, their parents still live across the road in a stick built home.

The title work has just begun, I dont know anything yet. I doubt the title has been attached to the land, I think Georgia has only been doing that for less than 5 years.

I do not have any plans of telling the parents that the MH was not re-po’ed properly. I dont think they could afford to have it moved anyway they couldnt make the payments, but geeze, in 1998 they paid 3X what I am paying for it now. No wonder they couldnt afford it.

The lender requested that I sign a document stating that I understand that they have no title.

Thats how I got the property, I was not the first contract to be submitted, but the people ahead of me would not sign the document. But the price was too cheap to worry about it. The list price was so cheap, that when I found out I was the backup contract I offered 10% over their list price just in case, and sure enough I out bid someone else by less than $500

It's been a weird sale so far, and the closing in in 2 weeks.

I had just about given up looking for foreclosed land/homes, and started looking at developing my own L/Hs in north Ga. Then began looking just across the border in NC, since the county I want to work in in GA has a min lot size and you cant bring a MH into the county thats more than 7 years old.

In the NC border counties the lot size is determined only by the septic field, and there is no age restriction on the mobiles.

I have plenty of vacation and comp time at my regular job, so doing the fix up wont be a problem timewise.

I will post up how it goes, and what I learn.

…Before closing or as soon as possible after…

We bought a repo in '96 that was a daughter’s & was sitting on Papa’s lot, they were some of the nicest folks you would want to meet… and stole the SxS fridge, the dish washer, the stove, all but one ceiling fan, window coverings, lights, and bulbs…

…they had keys.

FWIW

Rick