Posts Tagged ‘Lien’

Tax Lien Investing: From the Field

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

In April I went to a tax sale in New Jersey. Here?s what I noticed at this tax sale. There were more properties available than last year, but there were also more bidders. A couple of institutional buyers showed up who don?t normally come to this particular tax sale. At least they weren?t there in 2007 and 2008. And there were also a couple of new companies that I haven?t seen before, after talking to them I learned that one of these companies just started earlier this year and the other is into tax lien investing again after being away from it for a few years. There were also a couple of new investors just checking on what this tax lien investing thing is all about as well as the usual crowd.Most of the ?good? properties ? by good, I mean safe properties, properties that you know are going to redeem and have a decent looking structure on them, went at premium, except for one that went for 1%. There were a few parcels of vacant land and one trailer that went from 17% to 18% and there were a few pieces of undesirable vacant land that went to the township. There was one very large lien (over $60,000) that originally was struck off to the township, but one of the investors got it at 18% after the tax sale. It was a corner lot with some old barns on it.I went to this sale in order to pay the subsequent taxes on two of my liens to keep them out of the tax sale, and to see if I could pick up another lien. I was able to get a lien on a nice building lot for 18%. The lien was for around $2600.

Finding A Home for Your Family By Tax Lien Listings

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

All of us would like to provide shelter and protection for our family. For us to be able to do this, our first consideration is to find a good place that can be our family?s home or haven. We want to have our very own place where we can spend and cherish the happy moments with our families. Finding the home deserved by you and your family can be easily located through different tax lien listing websites. In these sites, you can find great lists of tax lien properties as well as government tax sale properties.

Buying tax lien properties as well as government tax sale properties is more advantageous to get. They are a lot cheaper compared to the regular properties for sale. This is really a great opportunity for everyone who wants to save when buying lots and houses. To maximize your search when buying properties, look for the best tax lien listings which gives complete coverage of various private and government deed sales, auctioned properties, tax lien and many more, you can surely have a good selection to pick the best.

Did you hear about the sub-prime foreclosure issues these days? It can give you more property selections for sure.

Tax Lien Investing Basics for the New Investor

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Are you stalled in your tax lien investing because you think you need to know more before you get started? Tax lien investing is really not that complex. You just need to follow these 5 basic steps.1.

Where To Find Tax Lien Auction

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

There are times when a property owner is unable to pay the obligation in property tax. When this happen, a property owner becomes a delinquent taxpayer and a governing authority is in charge of collecting the taxes. However, if the authority is not able to collect the required property taxes, they will opt to take the final step to collect the taxes. The public tax lien auction is the final step that will take the delinquent properties to be sold. Tax lien auction is an auction ordered by the court depending on the nature of sales in the form of tax lien certificates or tax deed sales.

Buying Tax Lien Basics

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

Buying tax liens can be difficult to say the least if you?re a beginner to real estate investing. Whether you are interested and buying tax lien properties for the huge returns on your investment or just investing for the great interest rates with certificates, tax liens sales are a great way to get started in real estate investing.

Before you start investing in tax liens there are a few things that you should know. Although tax liens are considered by many to be one of the safest forms of investing you must to 3 things before investing, and that is research, research and research.

The whole point of tax lien investing is to end up obtaining a return on your investment that would be greater than the estimated value of the property. With that being said it would be pointless to invest in a property that is worth less than the price of the tax lien certificate.

After you?ve found a tax lien certificate or property that you feel you are interested in and is worth your time, the next step is to find out if the property has any encumbrances that would prevent you from cashing in on your tax certificate or property.

For example, if you have a property that is sitting on an abandoned gas station and needs to have the old tanks dug out than that could prove to be a worthless investment. If you?ve done your research prior to making your investment you can prevent losing your investment by doing something as simple as researching the area that your property is located on.

Although there are some risks associated with buying tax liens, they can and still are by many to be one of the safest forms of investing. Many property tax lien certificates are government backed. So if you are not able to have to property owner pay the back taxes during the redemption period, you can be guaranteed a certain return on your investment.

Real Estate Taxes And Acquiring Tax Lien Properties

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

The municipality that governs your property tax, in most instances this is the county, keeps records on your property.

Profiting From Tax Lien Certificate

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

Tax lien auctions create Excess Funds – that you can get for yourself!These Proceeds comes from foreclosures.These foreclosure sales can come from a substitute trustee foreclosure, a foreclosure from a home owner assoc, or a result of a county tax auction. If someone goes to foreclosure on real estate, they are collecting on a debt secured by the property, and are making a person or entity to sell their jproperty to pay that amount owed.The problem that occurs for the bank is that the home can get more than the debt that needs to get paid. For instance, say a bank forecloses on Joe Smith because he is way behind on his payment. Let’s say he has a mortgage for $200 Grandtwo hundred thousand dollars} to the mortgage company and that his home sells as a result of a foreclosure for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Where does the $ end up?The mortgage company – or usually the substitute trustee for the mortgage co – pays out the debt owed on the real estate, with the tax folks – meaning any unpaid property taxes get paid before others in line. After that the bank has a right to what’s left. But, the bank can’t keep any overage. Assume there were $5K in lawyer costs due to the foreclosure sale, &) there were still owed taxes to be paid to the tune of five thousand dollars.What we have is:$250K sales price-Five thousand $ taken out to pay the municipality for taxes owed.-Five thousand $ paid to the law firm running the foreclosure sale.-$200,000 paid out to the bank.There now surplus of forty thousand dollars.Who gets that?Good question:, in a perfect world, surplus funds is due to the person who was foreclosed on. Here’s the problem – the municipality where the foreclosure was filed does not have the timed needed, skills, nor staff to track down the owner of those funds. Also the mortgage company doesn’t have a reason to track down person owed either – their only focus is to prove that they don’t keep any overage from the foreclosure sale. As a result the surplus goes into an earnest $ account, referenced to the file residing in the county clerk’s files. There it will remain for a long time:for up to a decade, before it is transferred to the states escrow coffer.Listen Up! During the time the cash is deposited in an escrow account for the municipality and then for the state, it is make interest. The county and then the State can claim that interest due to the fact that they’re keeping it for the past owner. At this point the obvious question that hits people is–Does the person due can just call the State or hit the internet and claim the funds from the state – or from the county if its been a short time – Right?No sir. Most times the cash is out of the rightful owner’s name at the point where it becomes a part of the states escrow acct. Its found by a case number that references the foreclosure case file in the municipalitys courthouse. So inquiries directed to the state commonly go unanswered or hit a dead end due to the fact that the cash is not in the name of the person due.Then What you just drive to the clerks office, find the case file, & show youre id, correct? Too Easy.. First, identifying the file has it’s own unqique prob’s, becaues the records aren’t called, ‘woohoo – look here records’. In the rare event you miraculously get to the storage place of the records, you have to look through the files (one at a time to ascertain which of the files thatwhich actually have surplus funds in them. But, once you identify one such file, you can locate much more using a easy method.Now Assume you locate the records, and see big amounts of dough for the rightful owners. Can you pull out that cash?Not without a special form. At this writing, many States don’t let you get over a tiny slice of the money when you identify it, specially if you attempt to make a deal with the person owed for identifiying the surplus. They often call these folks as ‘finders’, and limit their commission to 10-15%, and some States also require a Private Investigator’s license to be allowed. Then is the chance gone at this pt?Nope. BUT you can get those surplus in your name, regardless:nevermind the person who should have it implementing a program called the ‘Gold Mine’ – go get it at http://www.surplusfundsriches.comThere are 2 additional considerations here…1. It doesn’t make any difference how long the surplus has been in the earnest money acct. There is overage dating back 40 years plus yrs – so it doesnt make any difference if property values have lately dropped- pull cash from files that came about when the real estate market was on the rise.2. The System also can be used for tax auctions.Tax lien sales are just foreclosures that are due togovernment going after:attempting to collect taxes due on a home and are foreclosing to get that debt. The differences in tax auctions are:1. There is a chance for a much larger cash amount. chew on that. Unpaid taxes of $20K on a home that has other debt and sells for 300 grand. Yes ma’am!2. There might be a ‘redemption period’ of a (few years where you are required to sell the home back to the ex-owneryour buy price plus improvements. You could lease the house, put a small amount of update money into it, and make that $ back, betting the owner does not come back in the middle of the redemption time. That works cuz you will recoup what you have in it, if the owner does come back, and return the rent. However, the Gold Mine Program teaches you a much better way to benefit from sales from a tax auction. You will literally, using the ebook, let the home to be auctioned at a tax auction, and then claim the surplus funds due to the rightful owner Yourself! Seriously! We trust this program cuz we designed it. Its available at http://www.surplusfundsriches.com

Realtor since 1993
1,000+ Sales
Father of 3
Married 19 Years
Author
Deed Flip Specialist
Foreclosure/Short Sale Specialist
Surplus Funds ‘Guru’

Update to Tax Lien Investing Book Review: “New Edition of The 16% Solution”

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Just after I wrote a review of three of my favorite books about tax lien investing, I got a call asking me if I?d like to review a brand new edition of one of them. A second edition of The 16% Solution, by Joel S. Moskowitz, is now in bookstores and I?ve just finished reading it. It?s been a while (more than 6 years) since I read the original version of this book ? which was somewhat outdated then, so I wasn?t sure just how different the second edition would be from the first. I was pleasantly surprised! With all of the hype and recent infomercials lately touting tax lien investing as a way to get rich quick, this book is very refreshing. Right from the beginning Mr. Moskowitz sets the reader straight, giving honest and straightforward information. I was really impressed with the forward to this second edition where he likened the chances of someone getting a property for pennies on the dollar from a tax lien to someone winning one million dollars from a one-dollar lottery ticket. Yeah it happens every now and then, but it?s not likely. And then he tells you what you can expect from tax lien investing ? ?super-high interest combined with safety.?This book is divided into four sections. In the first section Mr. Moskowitz explains what tax liens are, why they are such a safe investment, and why now, more than ever before you need to include them in your investment plan. At the end of the section he has a chart that shows how tax lien certificates compare to other investments in terms of income and growth potential, risk avoidance, safety, and liquidity. Section 2 talks about how to buy tax lien certificates; how to choose a state and county to invest in and how to choose the properties to buy tax liens on. It also covers bidding at the auction and buying over-the-counter and assignment liens. There is even a chapter on how to get local officials to help you do your due diligence (This doesn?t always work in every county, but it?s certainly worth a try).Section 3 of The 16% Solution talks about how you get paid on a tax lien certificate and how to foreclose on the property. Mr. Moskowitz explains how a tax lien certificate is redeemed, how to foreclose on a tax lien, and what to do with the property once you foreclose on it. Section 4 talks about avoiding and managing risks. Mr. Moskowitz explains just what the risks of tax lien investing are and how to avoid them. That?s something that most tax lien investing ?gurus? never tell you until you give them thousands of dollars for coaching. I recommend that anyone interested in tax lien investing read this book for this section alone. Buy this book and save your thousands for investing in tax liens!Also included in the book are a couple of appendixes with helpful information. In Appendix I there is a chart of state laws for all of the tax lien states. Georgia is included even though it?s technically a redeemable deed state. This chart is a good tool, but remember, just because a state has laws that allow it to have tax lien sales doesn?t mean that they actually have any. There are at least a couple of states on this list that either have only a couple of counties or municipalities that have tax lien sales, or have hardly any properties available in their sales.Appendix II has some more detailed information for 14 of the tax lien states (these are the states that have an interest rate of 16% or higher). Some of these states are covered more thoroughly than others. My guess is that the states that are covered well are the ones that Mr. Moskowitz personally invests in. The states that are covered thoroughly are: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, and Iowa. Detailed information on the other states is lacking. If you are investing in one of the above-mentioned states or planning to invest in one of these states I recommend that you purchase this book. Also if you are planning to invest in tax liens on commercial or industrial properties there are helpful forms for avoiding environmental problems in Appendix III.This book is great for beginner investors in tax liens, it does not have information about tax deed investing, but it does have detailed information for 4 of the more popular tax lien states, and one redeemable deed state, plus general information for the other tax lien states. It also discusses investing online and purchasing leftover liens. You can purchase this book at a discount on Amazon at http://budurl.com/vdns.

Joanne Musa works with people who want to build an extremely profitable portfolio of tax lien certificates or tax deeds FAST. She is the author of the Tax Lien Investing Basics system for learning how to invest in tax lien certificates and tax deeds for maximum profit, and founder of Tax Lien Consulting LLC, a consulting company specializing in tax lien investing coaching and education. Go to www.taxlienlady.com for more information about tax lien investing.

What You Need To Know About Purchasing Government Tax Lien Foreclosure Homes

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

A tax lien is the lien placed on a homeowner’s property by the county or municipality in the intent to collect a debt. Specifically, it is the action taken by the government to satisfy delinquent real property taxes on real estate. The governmental agency authorizes the tax lien to collect any lien which consists of delinquent taxes, accrued interest, and the cost associated with the sales. In many jurisdictions, the tax lien is the initial lien on the property; thereby granting it permissible to be sold at a tax lien auction as a tax lien certificate.

After placing a successful bid, prospective investors at a tax lien auction would have purchased a governmental- issued tax lien certificate. Subsequently, a tax lien certificate allows the investor to obtain two (2) things; a state- mandated yield from the lien or title to the property. The yield from the lien commands that the delinquent taxpayer pays in order to release the lien. After a certain amount of time (set by the jurisdiction), the certificate guarantees you the title of the property if the delinquent taxes aren?t paid. As a tax lien certificate holder, your investment is generally safe. Occasionally, investors have lost money in such procedures; therefore it is wise to fully comprehend the rules and laws of the area that you are bidding in, and be cautious not to pay too much for the tax lien itself.

There are five (5) basic methods to invest in tax liens in the event that more than one investor seeks the same lien. The winner is dependant upon each state’s laws, of course. Firstly, the prospective investor can bid down the interest. With this method, a buyer can accept lower rates of return. The winner of the tax lien certificate is the buyer that has accepted the lower rates. The premium buying procedure suggests that the investor who is willing to pay the highest “premium” (or excess beyond the lien amount) is declared the winner. Unfortunately, the premium may or may not earn interest and the investor may or may not be reimbursed upon redemption of the lien. Some states awards tax lien certificates randomly by selecting bidder numbers for each of the real estate properties that are up for auction. This is significant in that the concept of public auctions is becoming more and more mainstream and popular with the general public. In fact, within large counties, there are substantially developed internet- based auctions allowing outside bidders to participate. Yet, another tax lien buying procedure is the rotational selection. The rotational selection gives the investor holding bidder number one the first lien offer, whom actually has the right of first refusal. However, if bidder number one chooses to refuse, he will not be offered another bid until his number appears again in rotation. The final method for purchasing tax lien certificates is to bid down the ownership. In most instances, the investor will avoid bidding on liens for less than full right to the property or sale proceeds. None-of- the- less, the bid down the ownership method allows the investor to purchase the lien for the lowest percentage of encumbrance on the property. If the investor is willing to accept that the original owner will own the remaining percentage, then he/she will be awarded the lien.

It is important that you conduct your due diligence prior to making a final decision as tax lien sales aren?t for everyone. Furthermore, there are prominent benefits as well as risk to tax lien investing. One particular benefit is that the maximum rate of return in a tax lien is much higher than other investments. Unfortunately, the payment is required at purchase and failure to pay the full amount results in the cancellation of all lien certificate purchases.

The wealthy have been buying tax lien certificatess for years and banks have also been very active in this market It’s realistically one of the most recession-proof investments out there because the returns(15-50%!) are guaranteed by the government. Visit http://www.NewHotBizOpportunity.com to get a free 7 day online course that will teach you exactly what you need to know about investing in this lucrative industry.

Buying A Tax Lien Certificate

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

There are two sorts of property tax sales.

In a tax lien sale, the tax authority, usually the county, offers its right to the lien on the property for sale.