My discussion was entirely focusing on property taxes. Frequently the IRS liens are a different beast and much harder to identify and find. In fact I can honestly say I have NEVER seen any money in a sale of any type, short or otherwise have any proceeds at all paid to the IRS. Nor is there ANY obligation by ANY seller to disclose to the buyer or realtor that they are in trouble with the IRS. If there is a lien that has been placed on the home THEN they have to disclose that.
Of course the IRS can put a lien on your home for unpaid federal taxes if they want. The IRS can go ahead and does have the right of redemption and in the state of California that is 90 days after the recorded sale regardless of the type of sale. Furthermore a lender CANNOT (I believe) file a NOD on you if you have fallen behind and are in trouble with the IRS. I am pretty sure that is only applicable to property taxes. Your tactic to interrogate someone thoroughly especially about sensitive information such as tax history is laughably out of line. It is up to the title company to find out all of the needed information about any liens. Any decent listing agent would already have found out about any former spouses simply for the need to have a quit claim needed. Similarly that is also asked by escrow when the initial escrow package is delivered. So these gaping holes that you seem to think exist in reality do not.
Property tax liens are easily identified and never are they found out in the 11th hour. If there are other liens discovered in the 11th hour then that is a tough break but happens. If the buyer wants to deal with it and get the home then the buyer will deal with it. It has absolutely nothing to do with helping the credit score of the seller. It has to do with releasing the lien. This is how it is with short sales but I feel your posts on this and many other posts here are distorting the majority of short sales.
Similarly you make it sound as if no agents talk to clients before taking the listing which is inappropriate. Once more, the majority of them indeed do have conversations with the sellers. What tends to happen more is that sellers don’t tell the listing agent all of the information that is needed. They either minimize it, or gloss over it, and then when a pr is run and you show it to them and ask what this or that lien is about they may magically remember.
At any rate, once the pr is ready, then all should be identified. Conversely, if you are the buyer and your agent does not ask the listing agent for a copy of the estimated HUD and the PR from which it was derived then shame on your agent, not the listing agent.
