My son wants to purchase a house that is for sale by owner. He does not want to pay for a lawyer. Should I worry about any leins that might be on the house

yes and you should worry about your son being cheated most of his life being too cheap to protect hisself properly.

He has to at a min have a title company do a complete title search and purchase title insurance. But who is going to make up the sale documents, who is going to do the 1000 pages of closing documents, will there be the proper inspections required by law. And so much more.

To save a few hundred dollars to risk our home value is just asking for trouble

Yeah... I got to say, some people try to skimp out on small fees here and there, and at times, it's worked out great... but a lot of the times, it's turned out real tragic.

Need an appraiser to come take a look... get an inspector to come take a look... need a lawyer and licensed real estate salesperson to prep/look over paperwork. He may be out a few bucks, but it'll end up saving him a whole lot of heartache later on.

my son wants to purchase a house that is for sale by owner. He does not want to pay for a lawyer. Should I worry about any leins that might be on the house
Your son needs a lawyer!! Yes, lawyer checks title for any leins. Tell your son to ask seller to pay closing cost which is usually around 3% and that covers attorney fees which normaly run $400-500 on purchases.

Definitely your son should have a lawyer. The seller could contribute to his closing costs, but the lawyer would be able to look over the contract, check for liens, review title and also review the mortgage which unless it is a cash purchase... he would need. It is never a good idea to use the sellers attorney... he needs someone to protect his interests.

Retain a title company to do the title search and the closing. We use title companies all the time and they do a very good job of closings for us. Attorneys just add another layer of protection on top of the title company. Title insurance is very cheap considering the alternative.