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My 2 week flip turned into a 6 week nightmare over a title issue
I found a house in Toledo that looked like an easy fix and flip. Quick inspection, basic repairs, should have been in and out in 14 days. But the seller didn't have a clear title because of an old unpaid contractor lien from 2018. It took me 6 weeks total to get the title company to sort it out with the county. I had already lined up my buyer too, and they walked when the closing kept getting pushed back. Has anyone else ran into surprise title problems that completely killed your timeline?
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jesse_fisher4mo ago
Yeah title issues are probably the most underrated killer of quick flips. I had one in Cleveland where a previous owner never satisfied a mechanics lien from 2002 and it took us two months to get it cleared. The county clerk just shrugged and said it was in the system. What I learned is you gotta start the title search before you even put in an offer. Send the contract to the title company on day one and have them run the full history. If they find anything stale you can either walk or bake a longer timeline into your deal from the start. That 14 day flip dream is usually just that, a dream, unless you're buying from a wholesaler who already cleared everything.
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rubyschmidt4mo ago
Hold on, let me push back on this a little. I've done plenty of flips myself and if you're spending weeks on a title search before every offer you're gonna miss half the good deals out there. Half the time the seller will take a better cash offer while you're waiting on some title report. You can usually get a quick look at the county website yourself in an hour and spot the big red flags. If something's buried that deep, it's on your title company to sort it out, that's what you're paying them for. And honestly if your buyer can't wait an extra few weeks they probably weren't serious enough to get through a real closing anyway.
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