Tax/Trustee Sale
If you successfully get a deed to a property in a tax sale and the property still has a mortgage/IRS lien/other liens outstanding on it, do you have to pay off these liens in order to take possession/sell the property, do these liens get erased or are these liens still the original owner's problem/obligation and not yours?
What happens if within the first 2 years, the original owner comes back and protests your ownership? Is it easy to win the case because since you paid for his delinquent taxes and the county issued you the deed, it is really yours now and not his? 
Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I think each state has a different redemption time period. Once you obtain a property in a tax sale, the Original owner has a certain time period (depending on location) to reclaim thier property. They do, however, have to pay the interest that that county requires and the total amount you bought it for to reclaim it. This all has to be done at the same(the whole total).
All other leins and mortgages are cleared when this property is auctioned off and you purchased it. You would receive a tax Deed, which superseeds anything prior to the tax sale.
Check with your county tax collector to find out what that time period would be.
So in other words, you are saying the original owner can still claim it within the redemption period if he pays the taxes owed on it plus your purchase price plus interest? And when you have successfuly gotten the deed to the property, all the other liens - like mortgages are all erased and you don't have to pay them? Wow, so you get the property without having to pay the mortgage anymore?
eSucces is generally correct. If you get a Deed you own the property----except some jurisdictions have a redemption period, Also, itf the previous owner can defend his assertions that the process was not followed according to law, she was denied "due process", www.etc.etc. the sale can be undone.
Therefore, the lender loses all the future loan payments because you purchased the property and the original owner no longer has the obligation to pay off his mortgage? You also have no obligation to pay off the mortgage and all other liens on the property, right?
I am just so scared that if I get the deed that I am still responsible for paying all the liens, especially the mortgage. That no longer makes it a bargain in that case.
Serena999-------------
Every state has different laws about the collection of delinquent properties. You have to study the law for the state in which you are going to invest.
In some states, other obligations secured against the property REMAIN on the the property after the tax deed and YOU are responsible, as the owner, to pay them. I know this is so in NM and ME anyway.
Yes, in most states, if a lender lets a property against which the mortgage is secured go to tax deed, the lender has no more obligation against the property. You as the tax sales investor do not owe that money.
I have bought three properties in Oklahoma State at County Tax Resales where I was told there had been a loan against the property and the lenders did not protect their situations. Usually lenders will pay the taxes with an "advance" and then demand repayment from the property owner. If they are not repaid, they will be able to do a foreclosure on their lien.
I recommend reading your state statutes on the collection of delinquent property taxes. And the "Annotated" version, not just the bare black letter law.
Good Investing********Ron Starr*************