First off, regarding the pr (preliminary title report). Again, I would stress to you that you should go get an updated one. Go to a reputable title company, pay the money and get one now.
Second, the trustee is under no obligation at all to provide a title report. In fact I am very surprised they did that at all as I would think that by doing so they could incur some sort of liability. However I would not trust it even if they did.
Third, one of the real kickers are IRS liens. Finding them is much more difficult. I believe the right of redemption is 90 days depending on the state. I have forgotten alot of the knowledge I obtained when we were hot and heavy into this stuff. If you have owned the property over 90 days and have not been contacted then you are probably okay.
Fourth, as UCGAL suggested you can find tax liens by going to the assessors site for the county that the home is in. If the house is in Riverside County then that is where you will find any property tax liens. No other counties can levy taxes on the home.
Fifth, there are a myriad of other issues such as judgements and such that can affect the status of a home with respect to liens. I will not even start to get into those aspects.
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Now I cannot advise you strongly enough, and I am not trying to be harsh, just honest…. If you do not know how to determine a first from a second deed from the pr, then please, please, please do not go to a trustee sale and buy another home. Do yourself a large favor and take the time to learn about things first before plunging in.
I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about real estate and I had two very astute investors with me when we did this. We had the help of a great title officer and some of their staff. Even with that, we made a few dry runs and had a runner to help us scope properties and such. With all that in place we were all scared sh-tless when doing this stuff. We literally spent a few thousand hours between all the auctions, scoping out homes, studying liens, title information, trying to determine if tenants or owners were in the home, trying to determine if the home was in decent shape etc… and in all that time, all that research we did 14 homes.
To hear that you bought a home and are not sure about how to decipher a pr is chilling. I am glad you got the home and I hope you do alright. Do yourself a favor and think about hiring someone to help you guys out with this stuff or take the time to learn it… all it takes is one bad purchase at trustee sale and you are screwed.
