Lee R. Schroeder is an Ohio licensed attorney with Schroeder Law LLC in Ottawa. He limits his practice to business, real estate, estate planning and agriculture issues in northwest Ohio. He can be reached at lee@leeschroeder.com or at (419) 523-5523. This article is not intended to serve as legal advice, and specific advice should be sought from the licensed attorney of your choice based upon the specific facts and circumstances that you face.
You may have seen late-night infomercials that mention tricks to obtain property with little or no money. Ohio law provides for an upfront method of acquiring real estate without money or any “secret deals” or other tools mentioned in these late-night television offerings.
Real estate ownership is governed by deeds that are filed within the recorder’s office. Recorded deeds that are valid usually determine the ownership of property. But if a non-owner of property meets several important requirements for 21 years in a row, they may become owner for the portion of the property that satisfied those requirements. While this method of acquiring property is disfavored in Ohio, it has been used successfully. This type of change of ownership is called “adverse possession.”
If you watch TV late at night, you may see infomercials that talk about “magic tools” to obtain ownership of property by paying little or no money. Most of these infomercials discuss real estate “deals” at foreclosure sales, property “flips” or certain “secret” government grants.
However, Ohio law provides for a more upfront method of acquiring ownership of real estate without buying that real estate with money.
Read Lee’s full article on acquiring real estate without money in the Lima News here: Legal-Ease: How people acquire real estate without money
Source: LimaOhio.com, Legal-Ease: How people acquire real estate without money by Lee R. Schroeder, August 9, 2014