I am a Title attorney and have a lot of experience both abstracting and examining chains of title in several states and counties. For your own peace of mind I recommend you contact your realtor. All advice above is good, but may be incomplete depending upon your county. There are many types of liens and encumbrances which may affect title to your property: Federal tax liens, state tax liens, county liens, judgments, liens from bail, DEA seizures, UCC's, divorce judgments, EPA liens... These may not all be centrally indexed together. Some may be computerized, others may not be. Some may be more accessible than others. An experienced Realtor will have a good working relationship with your local title company(s) and should be able to get the information you need relatively quickly, probably at no cost to you. Yes, this information is all public record, but that doesn't mean it will necessarily be easy or intuitive for you to access it.

Not sure about whether a lien can be filed anywhere but with bank loans, the bank holds the title paper. In my state, no notary involvement is needed to sell a car. Notaries do little more than look at a driver's license and put their stamp next to a signature, hardly necessary when buyer and seller can each look at the other's license. If it's a friend and a small amount, why are you concerned with having a lien when you could make due with an enforceable signed secured note?

Wow, thank you for all of your comments. ncrealestateguy, the house was listed up front as a "notice of default opportunity". From my research I've gathered that her mortgage company issued the NOD in 2017 and there is an NOS that was issued in January 2018. I'm not sure if this means the foreclosure process has officially started or not. I'm assuming she is trying to get the home sold on the market before that happens. Denita, I am not aware that the seller is contesting the lien, but it was only disclosed to us on her counter offer, and all the line item said was "Electric solar system through the HERO program". It didn't ask us to do anything with it.

@denita yes the seller approval was really quick as expected, but the seller's bank which I assumed would take long only took 10 days to come to agreement on price with me and sent the updated contract awaiting the official approval letter (which they said I cant get until this is worked out). Since then I had very little communication until hearing about this HOA concern, now knowing that is allegedly all that is holding it up. @homechef59 Yes I will reach out to my realtor and potentially the HOA about the status. I do have a friend in the community who mentioned they did an assessment earlier in the year (per their terms only impacts current owners at that time). I deal with a lot of financial decisions within my company and best determinations on higher level write-offs/negotiations when it comes to collections. If I get get a principle, late fees and legal fees breakout it would help me determine it, as I know a balance can easily triple due to the latter two in a very short time frame. For the most part the HOA doesn't do much outside of mowing/street snow removal (all any any exterior home repairs are at the owners cost), there are very basic common areas that are essentially grass with minor plants around them. I can access the bylaws online and have read through those, on a base level it reads as though most things work in my favor and against the seller, but of course it doesn't have a short sale specific notation, so its a bit ambiguous and handled case-by-case. Also it does not mention what the board handles (likely not much) vs the company contracted for admin/collection duties (more likely involved here). I will certainly be pushing more on the HOA moving forward but may have my friend get the details. I may be a bit paranoid but don't want to be showing desperation in going to the HOA to the point they assume I want it bad enough to dish out serious cash in settling someone else's debt. From what I've read they rarely collect what's owed, ive seen 20k go down to 3K, ive seen 10K settled at 8K. I think they know they risk in foreclosure of only collecting 1,200 potentially so hopefully will work out, just dont know how hard they will push back as im not privy to the conversations. In an ideal world the seller would cover what he can and carry-over the rest, as debt normally goes; sadly these tend to prey on buyers interest and commitment to a home after the fact. One issue was the seller's lender required a specific Title Company, something fell through and we changed to another Title Company (also required by sellers lender). This new title company seems to have it together more, I believe they got working on the HOA issue more heavily. Unfortunately a lot is guessing and assumptions as the seller's agent is really not communicating much and we are locked out of contact with most others.