Posts Tagged ‘Tax Lien Sales’
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
Frequently I get asked this question: “I really want to start investing in tax liens, but I live in a deed state. Should I look into investing in tax liens in another state, or try to invest in tax deeds in my own state.” In this article I’ll give you what I recommend for investors want to invest in tax liens, but find that in their state they only sell tax deeds. It’s not a one-size fits all answer, it really depends on what your goals are and on your particular state.You really have two options, either find a way to invest profitably in your state, or look at some of the online tax lien sales; you may even want to do both. First, find out what goes on in your state. Are there many deed sales? How often are the tax sales? How many properties are available and how competitive are they? You will actually have to go to some tax sales and see what they are like.Some states just don’t have very much available, if that’s the case; you may want to try the online tax lien sales. Other states may be very competitive and properties may get bid close to market value. If that’s the case there is still a way that you may be able to profit from tax deed sales in your state. Some counties give the excess proceeds – that’s the amount that’s bid in excess of the minimum bid amount, back to the owner of the property. Here’s how the excess proceeds strategy works in a nutshell. Instead of waiting for the tax sale you contact the owner of the property before the sale and see if they are going to let their property go for back taxes. If they have already decided to walk away from the property, perhaps they would be willing to give you a quitclaim deed to their property for a small fee. You record the deed with the county clerk a few weeks before the tax sale. Let the property go to tax sale and after it is sold you apply for the excess proceeds. This strategy only works in a few deed states that give the excess proceeds back to the owner of the property – not all deed states do this. So before you try this strategy check with the county tax collector or county treasurer and make sure that the owner of record of the tax delinquent property can apply for the excess proceeds from the sale. Also you do have to check for any other liens, since you are buying the property from the owner and not purchasing the deed at the tax sale, you will be held responsible for any other liens on the property.
Joanne Musa is a tax lien and tax deed investing expert who helps investors buy profitable tax lien certificates and tax deeds. You can find out more about the excess proceeds strategy of tax deed investing and get a Free mini-course at http://www.TaxForeclosureFortunes.com.
Tags: Back Taxes, Bid, Contact, Deed, Excess Proceeds, Goals, I’m, Invest, Investing, Investing In Tax Liens, Investors, Liens, Nutshell, Options, Ow, Property Tax, Quitclaim Deed, Start Investing, State, Strategy Works, Tax Deed Sales, Tax Deeds, Tax Lien Sales
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Sunday, January 3rd, 2010
What if you are really interested in buying tax liens, but you don?t live in a state that has tax lien sales, and you don?t live within driving distance of a state that does sell tax liens? One alternative to buying tax liens at a physical auction is to participate in the online tax sales. Only a few states have tax lien sales online, but fortunately each state that does have online tax sales conducts their sale at a different time of the year. So you can participate in an online tax lien sale somewhere in the United States in almost any season of the year.There are only 5 states that have tax sales online; they are Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, and Maryland. Even in those states, not all counties have online tax sales. You can find a list of these counties with links to the tax sale websites, and other details about their tax sales in my ?Guide to Buying Tax Liens Online? on the members area of TaxLienLady.com. The online tax sales are very different in each state, but they do have a few things in common.You need to register for online tax sales days or in some counties weeks ahead of the actual sale. You register for the tax sale and bid on the properties online. You are not actually bidding on the property, but on the tax lien certificate that is being auctioned. These sales usually require a deposit, and some of them have a non-refundable registration fee. Payment for the liens that you are successful bidding on is required within a day or two of the close of the tax sale for tax sales that use wire transfers as the method of payment. For tax sales that use ACH Debit as the method of payment for tax liens, you usually have to pay the day of the close of the tax sale. For these tax sales, you agree before hand to allow the county treasurer to debit your account for the tax liens that you purchase.These counties make it easy for you to register and bid online. The hardest part of buying tax liens online is doing your due diligence for the tax sale properties. Unless you purchase a tax sale list from a tax sale list provider, or in some cases from the county, you don?t always get to see the list of properties that are in the tax sale. Instead the properties are listed individually or in batches by an id number and you have to click on the property number to get the rest of the information on the property. For some counties there is very little information given about the property. This is where buying a detailed or enhanced list, with all of the assessment information for the property can me very helpful.
Joanne Musa works with people who want to build an extremely profitable portfolio of tax lien certificates or tax deeds FAST. You can find out more about buying tax liens online in my Guide to Buying Tax Liens Online. It?s a free bonus for you when you try the members area of TaxLienLady.com. To find out more about the extra bonuses that you get when you try the members area of TaxLienLady.com go to www.TaxLienLady.com/Membership.htm.
Tags: Auction, Bid Online, Buying, Buying Tax Liens, Colorado Florida, County Treasurer, Different Time, Driving Distance, Due Diligence, Florida Indiana, Liens, Members Area, Online, Refundable, Register, Registration Fee, State Tax, Tax Lien Certificate, Tax Lien Sale, Tax Lien Sales, Tax Sale Properties, Wire Transfers
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Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
I am a newbie investor in Chicago. The Cook County annual tax sale is in progress and I would like to look on only this year. Can anyone give the basics as above, and also anyone made any money from buying these?
Tags: Anyone, Cook County, Deed, Investor, Lien, Money, Rundown, Sales, Sales Tax, Tax Deed Sales, Tax Lien Sales
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Friday, January 1st, 2010
are these tax lien sales worth investing in and can i make some good money doing it?
Tags: Invest, Investing, Lien, Money, Sales, Sales Tax, Should, Tax Lien Sales
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Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
Tax lien sales have many different variations. The statutes vary by state. In many areas, the rules will also vary at the county level.
One of the most important things that you need to remember when buying tax lien certificates at a tax auction is understanding the method by which the county determines who is going to buy the tax lien certificate. In some areas, this is determined by the investor bidding down the interest rate for the lien. In many other areas the county will sell the liens on a percentage of ownership basis. In other jurisdictions, the county uses a round robin procedure to determine the winner of the auction. In this article, I will explain the differences between the methods and the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
The most common type of auction is the bid down auction. The auctioneer simply starts the bidding at the top rate for that jurisdiction and then the rate is bid down until the lien is sold. In certain areas, investors can make up for a low rate by paying subsequent taxes and through minimum rate guarantee statutes.
The advantage of the bid down method is you can easily bid on the exact lien that meets your needs. You also don’t have any possible co-ownership scenarios that can make it difficult to file foreclosure and take full possession of the property.
In other states, it is on a percentage of ownership basis. What this means is that the interest rate remains flat, but in the event of foreclosure, the investor and the property owner become co-owners of the property. The initial bid is with the investor at 100% and it goes down until the lien is sold.
This method is great for high interest rates. Iowa uses this method, which means that you are guaranteed a very nice 24% rate. The problem with this is that if you end up as a co-owner with the taxpayer, you may have an expensive legal hassle on your hands to actually take possession of the property.
In other states, the bidding is on a round robin basis. In these areas, the auctioneer offers the lien around the room until someone buys it. They are always at the maximum rate allowed by statute.
In round robin states, you get a nice guaranteed rate of return on your tax lien certificate, and don’t have to mess with the co-ownership issue. However, in round robin states, it is much more difficult to actually get the liens that meet your needs. If you decline during your turn, then you have to wait for luck of the draw to see if you get the lien that you want. If you are a big money investor, then it’s not that big of a deal because you can buy a lot of different liens. But as a smaller investor who can only afford a couple of the liens on the book, this restriction can be very limiting.
As you can tell, the bidding procedure is something that is very important in the tax lien research process. With proper planning, you can wade through the minefield and reap great rewards!
Carlos Scarpero is an experienced real estate investor who specializes in land. On his blog at
http://www.scarpero.com/real_estate, he discusses innovative and creative real estate strategies to make your real estate investing more profitable.
Tags: Auctioneer, Bidding, Bidding Methods, Buying, Certificates, Co Owner, Co Ownership, Foreclosure, Hassle, High Interest Rates, Important Things, Interest Rate, Jurisdictions, Lien, Methods, Possession, Property Owner, Rate Guarantee, Scenarios, Tax Auction, Tax Lien Certificate, Tax Lien Certificates, Tax Lien Sales, That Meets Your Needs, Understaning, What This Means
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Monday, December 28th, 2009
Reason#1-Internet Tax Lien Sales:
Tags: 21st, 21st Century, Century, Internet Sales, Internet Tax, Investing, Investingfour, Lien, Part, Reason, Reasons, Start, Tax Lien Sales, Today
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Thursday, December 24th, 2009
There are four reasons why any savvy 21st century investor would want to learn as much as possible about tax lien investing. They are as follows.
Reason#1-Internet Tax Lien Sales:
The Tax lien market has seen considerable change over the last couple years.
It seems like only yesterday that a few of us would gather on the courthouse steps of what county in whatever state we were bidding for.
You would have the pick of the litter and watch the face of the county assessor drop as we all got our fill and stopped bidding.
In the bad old days the assessor would rarely, if ever sell off all of the liens that they had available. That would mean that the county would incur the wraith of an unfunded municipal coffer.
When a person does not pay their property taxes that county is left with an ever expanding deficit of funding for such things as road maintenance.
The bane of the tax assessor was the best kept secret in American investing vehicles, the tax lien. The word just never seemed to get out sufficiently about this amazing investment, thus a lack of sales of tax liens was a problem that needed solving.
The savior of the county came with the advent of the internet. Some of the more savvy assessors grasped the theory that folk just do not always want to travel, even for the BEST investment that money could buy.
The obvious solution was to bring the auction to bidder!
You can now sit in the comfort of your own home or office and make a fortune from GOVERMENTALLY SECURED investments!!! Several states such as Florida and Indiana are truly on the cutting edge of internet technology in the way they handle their auctions.
I, for one am more than happy to have the option to NEVER stand in the rain with my hand up again! While there are still a few of my PLATINUM level states that I heavily invest in and still have to travel to, I now can built my fortune ever higher by merely clicking my mouse!
Reason #2-Ease of Research:
Back in the good old days researching the properties that I wanted to bid on was tedious at best, impossible at worst.
Please do yourself the favor of NEVER bidding on a tax lien for a property that you have done no research on.
Sometimes a tax lien may seem too good to be true nine times out of ten it is exactly that TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.
5 acres of land for pennies on the dollar sound great right? What if it is landlocked on all sides?? What if you need to drill a 1000 foot deep well??? What if it is an environmental waste dumping ground???? Get the picture?
The research phase of your tax lien purchase is going to be the difference between hitting a home run-redemption with full interest paid, possibility even a grand slam-getting a property for pennies on the dollar OR owning a piece of environment disaster history, made a parcel of useless land that YOU now get to pay taxes on.
Utilize all the tools that are now available to you at your finger tips. I say again GOD BLESS THE INTERNET!!!
Satellite photography has brought to us the power to look at any house in the nation within a few seconds. Like the old saying goes good fences make good neighbors.
Do not bid on a parcel that sits next to a junkyard; noise, dust, stench, environment waste, etc. will all be waiting for you if you win this gem! Good luck selling it!!!
A neighbors yard can look like a junkyard. A Satellite photo can show you if the neighbor has a messy back yard, or a shed that caught on fire and was never demolished.
The curb appeal of your neighbors house is just as important as the curb appeal of your house when you are trying to entice a buyer, especially if the market is hot and they have many homes to choose from.
Another essential tool for research, most importantly if you are going to concentrate of residential tax lien investing, is the deluge of real estate site available at a mouse click.
Now you can find out everything you would ever want to know about a neighborhood or even a whole city by just surfing the enormous number of real estate site that have comparables, resent sales number, noise and light level, and just general gossip. Never forget knowledge is power!
Reason #3 Information about Foreclosures and Failing Markets
Whether you deem it to be a blessing or a curse; we no longer have any privacy.
The internet has given us the ability to find mortgages that are in or close to default. It should be fairly obvious to you by this point in the book that if someone is not paying their mortgage, they are not paying their taxes.
This information is invaluable when you are making your desicion as to whether to buy tax liens for the interest or the property acquistion.
Banks and lending institution become heavy with foreclosed properties when the housing market crashes. They are not nearly as apt to pay off the back taxes on a property that is going to fill their books with more unwanted inventory. It is much easier for them to write it off the books as being seized for tax evasion.
As I mentioned above, so markets are MUCH more likely to redeem than others. Use the knowledge you accrue from your internet research on a given market to make an educated guess as to the outcome of your investment.
If you are only worried about getting an amazing interest rate, look towards investing in an area with a strong economy. You still maybe hit the jackpot, but it will be rare.
If you are looking to expand your real estate portfolio, look toward an area with a weaker economy. A lot of foreclosures and massive real estate sell-off are the indicators of choice. You will acquire your new property so cheap that you will be able to ask half the cost of your competition and still make a killing!
Reason #4 International availability
The internet has opened the doors to the international buyers market for goods and services around the world. Tax lien certificates are a perfect example of this 21st century investing arena.
I do not think you will see too many people flying in from Australia to stand on a county court room steps to bid for tax liens or deeds. While the hope of getting a home in America for pennies on the dollar is a huge draw to any savvy investor, now it can be done with your mouse, not a plane ticket.
Americans will always have the advantage of being able to easily travel throughout the country going to their favorite tax lien auction sites, but the advent of internet tax lien auction site has enpowered the world.
The great part is the county is getting their tax money to provide us with roads, fire and police departments, etc. Whether they use domestic or foreign investor dollars, we all win!
Melford Bibens is an ACE certified personal trainer. He lost 150lbs in 1996 through a self-engineered fitness and nutritional program and has kept the weight off for more than ten years.
He is the author of
, THE comprehensive guide to Tax Lien Investing in the 21st Century.
Tags: 21st, 21st Century, Advent Of The Internet, Bane, Best Kept Secret, Century, Coffer, Courthouse Steps, Cutting Edge, Fortune, Internet Tax, Internet Technology, Investing, Investments, Lien, Pick Of The Litter, Platinum Level, Propertie, Property Taxes, Reason 2, Road Maintenance, Savior, Tax Lien Sales, Tax Liens
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Monday, December 21st, 2009
In KY the laws regarding tax lien sales to favor the institutional investors. I went to a sale on Tuesday and they cancelled it before it started due to an institution submitting a pre-auction bid to buy all of the tax liens. I was furious.
Tags: Auction Bid, Good, Good Luck, Institutional Investors, Investors, Lien, Luck, Sales, Small, Tax Lien Sales, Tax Liens
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Sunday, December 13th, 2009
Tax sale jargon can be extremely confusing. There are tax lien sales and tax deed sales. As if that wasn’t confusing enough, there are also hybrid sales called redeemable deed sales. Once you understand the differences, you can wade through this goldmine and make huge profits!
Tax liens are simply a lien on the property. From the homeowner’s perspective, you are simply a creditor, much like the mortgage company. Mortgages and liens are in what are called “positions.” The big loan that you got when you bought your house is the first mortgage, and usually has a very low interest rate. If you did an equity line or borrowed additional funds, then you also have a second mortgage. Second mortgages are always at a higher rate than the first mortgage because the lender takes more risk. In the event of foreclosure, the lienholders are paid off in the order of position, which means that the first mortgage holder is paid before the second mortgage holder.
So, what does this have to do with tax liens? The position of tax liens is even higher than mortgages. If the homeowner refinances, the tax lien must be paid. If the homeowner sells, the tax lien must be paid.
If you foreclose on your tax lien and the mortgage company does not pay off your lien, then you could wipe out the mortgage and own the property free and clear! Isn’t that great! On top of that, you are making an interest rate that is much higher (as much as 24%) than what the mortgage company is collecting.
Now that you understand the basics of tax liens, let’s review tax deeds. In the case of the tax deed, the county simply holds the lien for several years and does its own foreclosure. Then, they hold an auction and you buy the property. It’s very similar to a traditional mortgage foreclosure auction.
The third type of tax sale is called a redeemable deed sale. The most notorious redeemable deed state is Texas. In Texas, the investor buys the property at the tax sale, but the homeowner has a specified period of time (six months to two years, depending on the type of property) to buy back, or “redeem” their property. In the meantime, the investor can take possession of the property and even rent it out. In the event of a redemption, the investor gets a very nice 25% annual rate on their investment in Texas.
As you can see, tax liens and deeds vary greatly by state. Before making any kind of investment like this, proper research of state and local regulations is essential. With the proper tools, a massive goldmine awaits.
Carlos Scarpero is an experienced real estate investor who specializes in land. On his blog at
http://www.scarpero.com/real_estate, he discusses innovative and creative real estate strategies to make your real estate investing more profitable.
Tags: Creditor, Deeds, Equity Line, First Mortgage, Foreclosure Auction, Goldmine, Interest Rate, Investor, Jargon, Liens, Mortgage Company, Mortgage Foreclosure, Mortgage Holder, Period Of Time, Profits Tax, Second Mortgage, Second Mortgages, Tax Deed Sales, Tax Deeds, Tax Lien Sales, Tax Liens, Traditional Mortgage
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