Title Search question

[Anonymous]

HI,

I have recently received my pre-approval for a home to buy in Ohio. Here is my delima while workign with a mortgage broker to get my credit cleaned up and my scores where they need to be, in which I did, I asked my mortgage broker about judgements in which I did disclose. Well I have a total of two, one which was not a default I am currently making payments to the attorney in which the balance will be paid before closing on Nov. 5 estimated date. The other I am also making payments on which this was a default judgement in which it is currently going through the appeals process to vacate because of me not receiving proper notice to show up for court, but in the meantime speaking with an attorney he said it would be better to start paying through a trustee which I have been doing. My question is I am worried though even though the mortgage broker said he is not sure, that it will come up in the title seach because either is showing up on my credit report. So I am worried that this will not pass title search. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions. Has anyone been through this before or had any success with getting through the process? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

I had a couple of friends go through that situation.  One was selling and one was buying.  Both situations came up on title searches when they were conducting real estate transactions.  As long as that judgment is valid, it will usually need to be paid before a lender will give you a loan against your house, to get a loan for a house, or to sell your house.  The lender could give you a chance (of course the seller has to agree to give you time) to satisfy the judgment or negotiate it to were you pay it off before the loan closes.  The buying friend of mine had to pay a 3k judgement against her before she could close.  The seller had to pay the judgement off to remove the lien before she could sell.  Most lenders don't want to lend you money and know an entity out there could immediately place a lien on their investment.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your advice. I am trying my best to get everything paid and done, this is my last hurtle and hopefully will own a home and be completely debt free (besides 2 student loans in deferment)

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

If you are on a payment plan, and have been for 12 months, with all payments made on time, most lenders will not require the judgments to be paid but will require the payments on the judgments to be included in your debt to income ratio.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your response Shane, I actually only have a total of 8 payments left (it didn't take a year to pay the one off)....well it will be a total of 7 here next week. Would that still matter? Plus the case is actually still on appeal has been since August 2009. I know I owe some amount but I do not believe the whole amount is legal thats what I am appealing about the case and the fact I was never served at my address but at a family members address I have never lived at all my life. I am just getting nervous they will deny me after I worked hard on cleaning my credit, getting my scores up to 705 in less than a year,  have stable income with the same job for three years, I also have low dti on credit cards, and car pymt I have less than 6 months left. Thanks again Shane for your advice.

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

It's an underwriters call at less than 12 months, close to 12 months should be OK but if it's only 2-3 months into things it'd be hard for an underwriter to allow that to remain unpaid.  If there are going to be a total of less than 12 months that is OK too, particularly if it is close to being paid off anyway.

[Anonymous]

Shane you are awesome, you have brightened my day a little more today, I will just keep working on trying to get this taken care of asap or hope the appeal goes through.

[IOBA]

Barnantoin -- someone else had posted (General Credit, I think) about a having a judgement reversed because they were not served within 30 days of the suit being filed.  

The creditor filed the judgement suit.  Then tried to locate the person...the person was eventually served two months later.  But the creditor failed to renew the suite every 30 days.

Something to check out...or use as a defense.  Your attny should know about the 30 day rule.  And it sounds like you were never served.

Someone else was served to the wrong address and a judgement was issued against the person.  The person took proof of address going back to the 80's and was able to get the judgement vacated.

Good luck! 

[Anonymous]

I have been a title officer in NJ for 24 years. In NJ, if a docketed judgment shows up on our search we will require it to be satisfied. Since you are purchasing, the "purchase money mortgage statute" protects the lender so while we would not require it be satisfied, it would remain as an exception on your owners title policy. Therefore, it is up to the lender and the advice you got from everyone else applies. I hope this background info helps a little.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much, I know this doesn't relieve this situation but but it relieves my vnerves somewhat that there posibly can be a light at the end of the tunnell maybe I great appreciate everyone's advice. Thank you so much jimkjr.

Is there a standard title search, or does it just depend on the company the lender uses? I was reading that sometimes a basic one is done in some instances where the house was bank owned, not sure if that is true or not.

Thanks again