“Why would we want to find the tax assessor records for a property?” you may ask. ANSWER: To prepare the HUD-1 before sending it to the short-sale lender. For example, a homeowner may be 2 years past due on their property taxes, but you fail to list the past-due taxes on the HUD-1. Then the short-sale lender approves the HUD-1 as WRITTEN. So you go to escrow, the title company runs a preliminary title report (AKA “prelim”) and you find out that $10,000 is owed in property taxes.