How do I buy property from the City of Pittsburgh? (tax lien, for sale)

[kitcha]

A townhouse (in need of renovation) in my neighborhood was just purchased for $4,000 from the City of Pittsburgh. It was seemingly not purchased through a sheriff's sale. Could someone explain the process of buying incredibly cheap houses from the city to me?

[doo dah]

Here is some info:
Properties for Sale

I guess it depends on the property though, for the exact procedures. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will respond soon.

[Moby Hick]

The existing process can be found here.

Properties for Sale

I gather the process has proved too slow and there is a plan to make it easier.

Bill addresses vacated land - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by doo dah

Here is some info:
Properties for Sale

D'oh. I'm too slow.

[doo dah]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

D'oh. I'm too slow.

LOL Moby.

By the way, sheriff's sales would be through the county:
ACSO - Real Estate

(funny, the Allegheny County Sheriff's Office website is a .com, not a .us!)

[mportedflows]

Be extremely careful on sheriff sales. Its all fun and games to buy a house for $4,000

Until you find out youre now on the hook for; the $1,000 the previous owner owes for water/sewage, the $1,000 they owe the gas company, the $1,000 for electric, the $1,000 property tax lien, the $5,000 they owe in school taxes

You never know what youre getting unless you pay attorneys for a title search.

Then you have to realize that the disgruntled person losing his/her house MAY HaVE; poured concrete down the drains, stripped the piping and wiring for copper. Taken every cabinet from the walls

Now your $4,000 costs $50k to make livable, and what if the neighbors house is on the market for $40k!?

It can be done... If you do a ton of due diligence

[rockthecasbah121]

Originally Posted by kitcha

A townhouse (in need of renovation) in my neighborhood was just purchased for $4,000 from the City of Pittsburgh. It was seemingly not purchased through a sheriff's sale. Could someone explain the process of buying incredibly cheap houses from the city to me?

It was probably purchased through sheriff sale. If you have the address, I could probably figure it out for you. Most of the stuff at the sheriff's sale has a low price tag, but the purchaser assumes all the liens on the property, so how much the person ends up paying to actually acquire the title free and clear is much more than $4000.

[aw_now_what]

Purchasing property that the city owns because of unpaid real estate taxes is nothing like purchasing something at sheriff's sale. The title/lien issues have been cleared. See the "Properties for Sale" link above.

[eschaton]

I've never been able to understand why real estate liens transfer to the seller in situations like this.

I mean, it's one thing to put a lien on a property which ensures if it is sold, someone who owes money will get an amount of the proceeds equal to what they are owed. But it's another thing entirely to say, after it's sold, it's the responsibility of the buyer to pay it up. It doesn't make sense from a public policy perspective (it just depresses sales prices for these houses, and causes them to rot), and it doesn't make sense from a principle of fairness.

When a person buys a house, after all, they are buying, well, a house. They are not buying an incorporated company whose only asset is the house. In such a circumstance, a lien would make sense, as business acquisitions often include debt.

[kitcha]

Thank you doo dah and to a much lesser extent, Moby. I didn't think there would be a website. Not having to spend money or take off work to do a title search in order to buy a property sounds wonderful.
Eschaton, if I was a cynical person I would think that the system seems to benefit absentee developers and slumlords who have the resources in place to play the game.