Tax Sale Foreclosure In DC-please Help!
I am purchasing some property in DC from a tax sale that I can begin foreclosure on immediately. Can someone outline the process for me and the must-do's now? Legal actions, insurance, etc. This will be my 1st property, so any guidance or mentoring is appreciated. Thank you.
If you bought a lien from the tax sale this week, you can't foreclose on it until six months have passed from the last day of the sale which is tomorrow the 16th of July. When the six months have passed you can then start the foreclosure procedure which can take anywhere from 1 year to 18 months to complete, during that time the property owner or basically anyone can pay off the taxes and interest and stop the foreclosure.
It's my understanding that the Bid off properties (which are actually on sale tomorrow) have no waiting period, in which case I can start after I get my cert. of sale, correct? I should have said "will purchase".
Also, why does the foreclosure process take a year?
You have to get an attorney, they have to notify every single person that may have an interest in the property and then give them time to redeem the property, each court date to see Judge Grae, who is the only judge who deals with tax lien's only schedules cases on friday mornings, but with the huge backlog of cases your first court date might not happen for a few months, with continuances and making sure all steps are followed to the letter of the law, this process usually takes at least a year if you happen to become successful in your foreclosure, I've bought thousands of leins from the dc sale over the years and have never had a foreclosure take less than a year. You also would do yourself a favor and check out the leins that you are thinking of purchasing tomorrow, there is a reason that nobody bids on the bidoff properties, the debt to value ratio is out of control on those, you can't just assume that whatever the taxes due for this year is what you will have to pay off to complete a successfull foreclosure of the lien, you need to do your due diligence on the lien before bidding on it. I'll be sitting with my group at the sale tomorrow, bidder number 503, come by and I can answer any questions you have, ask for George.
OK. Thanks. Ill be there tomorrow afternoon. They provide the back taxes on the properties. Isn't that all that I'd need to pay?
back taxes could be for one year or it could be for 5 years or more, but the opening bid will just be for the last year, also if you are successful in obtaining a tax deed, after going through the foreclosure process you will have to pay every thing that is owed to the district, which includes bringing all taxes current to the date the tax deed is issued, any water sewer bills, which may also have leins, and any other fines on the property. When bidding on any type of multi unit you have to check to see how much the wasa bill may be, sometimes the bill may be over a hundred thousand, DC law states that the water can not be shut off on multi units for failure to pay, so some owners never pay.
Thanks. I asked for you this morning, but the group said there was no George. I'll continue to research this (I won 4 properties). How do I determine what liens are on the properties? I'll come back to the sale around noon.