Q: If a house was sold that I put a lien on but i received no compensation, what would be my next steps?

A: Assuming your lien was perfected against the property and is still enforceable, hire an attorney that knows real property litigation to collect on it. Make a demand letter on the present owner which should get him stirred up. Hopefully there was title insurance, to pay you. Realtor has nothing to do with it. If no money file suit to execute the lien, which is going to be a fight. If there is no equity, you should still get paid first but it will be hard to get the Court to order sale.

A: The real estate broker is not the appropriate person to contact. You need to contact the escrow agent who handled the closing. Typically, this is an employee of a title company. Bonding around liens at closing is a common practice, so you may have a claim against a bond. The escrow agent also may have simply withheld a portion of the proceeds at closing to pay the lien.

Because you say it was a house, you should be alert to whether the house was someone's homestead. The requirements for perfecting a lien are a little more difficult for a homestead than for a rent house. You should consider contacting the attorney who prepared and recorded your lien originally to ensure that your lien was valid, was recorded properly, and has not lapsed through the passage of time.

In any event, the real estate broker has not potential liability and likely will not respond to your communications.