In the past we have found foreclosure firms to be a good source of business.Generally, you are dealing directly with a local law firm rather than a discount crazed VM at a title company. The law firms generally pay well and promptly. They recover the expense of the title search as part of the award of damages in the foreclosure. Consequently, the price of the search is less of a cut throat issue than with VM's so long as it is within the range of that which the court will reimburse.
In Connecticut it is an easy matter of locating these firms through the local court. There is generally a foreclosure motion calendar in each court house every week. You can pick up copy of a new calendar each week which discloses the identities of these firms. Those firms that appear most often on each weekly list are generally the ones that would have the most need of abstracting services.
A word of caution ... there is a difference in the amount of work required by a mortgage/lien foreclosure and a tax lien foreclosure, and you should price your services accordingly.
With respect to a mortgage/lien foreclosure it is critical that you track and report all assignments of the mortgage/lien because it is the current junior mortgage/lien holders that are named as the defendants in the foreclosure. If you miss an assignment, that assignee will not be included in the foreclosure, and his interest will not be foreclosed if he recorded prior to the Plaintiff's having recorded his lis pendens.
Tax liens generally require more work because these properties are usually more heavily encumbered. When a property owner is not paying his/her taxes he/she is usually not paying any other bills with resulting liens either.
I have found current owner tax lien searches to be as labor intensive as a full search.
A number of towns in Connecticut do not foreclose tax liens directly, but rather assign/sell these liens to third parties who perform the foreclosures.
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