Please Share Your Opinion......
Hi, been reading thru the posts because I'm new to tax investing. Husband and I WERE all excited to attend auctions here in central Illinois UNTIL all feedback was NEGATIVE! Each time I called the courthouse for dates and general info, thye told me HUGE companies attend/business and buy everything and bid rediculously low (3-5%)! Illinois is a tax lien certificate state. Sooo, I'm wondering if we should bother? I want to do this sooo bad! Then someone emailed me and said they don't bother to attend auctions, they just send out offers with a quit claim deed on delinquent taxes??? I'm so frustrated because I dont know where to start???? :cry: :-(
mxmom--(IL)----------------
These days many counties are not good for those interested in tax lien or tax sales investing. The answer: find the few where things are good. That means checking most of the counties in a state or all even.
In May I prepared for the Oklahoma county tax resales by sending letters to 75 of the 77 counties there.
Eventually I went to bid at two counties. I bought one house for just under $355.
I know at another OK county that a brick house built in the 1930s was sold for between $900-$1000.
So, one answer these days is to be selective where you go to buy.
The other thing to do is to use other ways to make money with tax sales or tax liens than just going to the public bid auction, where there may be many other bidders. The idea of sending offers to delinquent tax payers is one such idea. Talking to the owners on the phone is probably more productive.
There are other techniquest to make money for the tax sale situations. Search them out. For instance, where there are too many people bidding and properties sell for more than market value, it is a good move to be on the other side of the deal, if owners get the excess proceeds.
Good Investing*************Ron Starr***********
Ron,
Pam
Thank you so much for your positive reply. I like your idea of actually talking with the owners on the phone. Can you please share a few details...do I wait until the list is published in the local paper and then do a title search? Guess I'm confused on what 'homework' entails when approaching owner of delinquent taxes. If I bought from the owner with a quit claim deed, what is the process? Just signing at the courthouse with owners? Thank you in advance for your time and patience!
Ron, I was wondering....you stated that you prepared for attending tax sales for Okalahoma by sending letters to most of the counties......what does the letter consist of ???
Thanks, Pam
mxmom--Pam--(IL)----------------
I send it to the treasurer's offices, where the sales are done. I request a copy of the list of properties, enclosing a stamped self-addressed envelop. Or for the name and phone number of the newspaper in which the list was published, including the dates of publication.
I also ask if they are having a sale at all, and the forms of payment they will accept. I ask a couple of questions about when they will record the deed.
Good Investing************Ron Starr*************
mxmom--Pam--(IL)----------------
Well, it probably would be best to call before there is a public list, if you can get together a list of properties with delinquent property taxes on your own without too much effort.
Why use a quit claim deed? Use the strongest deed that your state has.
Do a title search before putting out money, you don't want to find out that you have just bought a property with a mortgage on it that is greater than the value of the property.
Good Investing***********Ron Starr*************
Ron Starr...
I suspect that Oklahoma's tax sale process is different than in Illinois. In Missouri, my home state, the sale is based on bidding for the delinquent tax amount, not interest rate, and obtaining a deed is much different than Illinois.
I agree with the one forum suggestion that each topic should identify the state being discussed since laws are often unique to a particular state. Although some principles apply to all state tax sales, many do not. It would be interesting to see how each state handles their tax sales. There's probably a book out there that provides that.
See my Illinois experience message for mxxmom at topic "Illinois Tax Investor....can We Talk??"
Larry
Larry GS--------------------
John Beck's "Free and Clear" program has a discussion of the tax sales laws in every state, plus territories, and Canadian Provinces.
You can buy it at the site advertised on TV or at John's personal www.johnbeck.net site.
Good Investing and Good Posting************Ron Starr************
It's true, every state is different and I'm not familiar with Illinois, but I wouldn't be discouraged by what anyone says. I would check it out for myself. I got involved in tax lien investing in New Jersey, a very competitive state for tax liens. But the reason it's so competitive is because it can be very rewarding. Here in NJ not only are there some big companies bidding on liens, they bid into premium, not just low percentage. Once they get the lien they can then pay subsequent taxes and make 18% on the subs, so they get a blended return. Here in NJ sales are by municipality, not by county, so there are a lot more sales, though less properties available in the smaller municipalities. Every sale is different here and you just need to go to a lot of them to be able to purchase any liens. I meet a lot of people at these sales who like you were exited about taxl liens and are totally blown out of the water after their first sale. I kept going to sales and learning about how things worked until I was finally able to buy my first lien. Now I do tax lien consulting for a wealthy investor. I have about 4 consultants working for me doing due diligence and bidding at sales. None of this would have happened if I had listened to the nay-sayers and gotten discouraged in the beginning.
Happy and Prosperous Investing,
Joanne