IRS lien/short sale

I am working on a short sale; the owner owes $97, the house is only worth $90. The problem is a $17,000 IRS lien on the house. I have heard that the IRS will often take a deep discount, but how deep, and where do I start? Also, how much of a headache is this IRS lien going to be? Can I use it to my advantage while negotiating the short sale, but then not actually pay off the full lien?

Thanks in advance!
Kary

I will tell you my one experience with the IRS. I bought a duplex at 1410 Walnut here in Austin for $ 7500 cash. The IRS had a $ 500,000 judgement or whatever against the owner and the IRS also filed a lien against the property. Because the property was free and clear except for the IRS, the IRS got the proceeds of the sale and released the lien against the Walnut property.

I am not sure here what would happen. I would think that the IRS would release their lien is the seller got 0 proceeds. I do not believe they have a superior claim to the mortgage company ?

Hope my opinion helps. I wish it were worth something, Good luck on it

Thank you,

Ted P. Stokely Jr
11505 Sw Oaks
Austin, Texas 78737

512-301-9171 home
512-587-6177 mobile

If you can get the authorization to release information from the homeowner, then I would negotiate a short sale on the property first. If the lender won’t cooperate then walk away, because the rest won’t matter. If you’ve negotaited a satisfactory price with the lender, then use the materials you used with the bank to short sale with the IRS. I haven’t dealt with the IRS so I’m not sure what is involved, but show them some bad comps, bad pictures of the house and I’m sure they would settle for less. Just realize that it will be in addtion to the price you negotiated with the lender (similar to negotiating a junior). So make sure the two added together still give you plenty of room to dance. :dance Good luck!

Win-WIn Investing to you, Shawn

Kbird,

could you please check your pm