Tax lien certificates - Ohio

[Adam George]

Hey everyone,

This is my first post on the site and have been eating up as much bigger pockets advice as I can! Just a brief background, I work full time in the Dayton, OH area and my wife and I are expecting our first child in the next month--we don't have a lot in savings and my wife has a ton of student loan debt we're trying to pay off.

We make decent money and I want to know how to best allocate the few resources we have. In my market, my vision is to buy & hold with maybe a few flips along the way and be financially independent by age 50 (i'm 28 now).

I don't want to get into a ton of debt (if at all) and my real estate law professor said tax liens are a unique vehicle for that strategy, but I don't know how they work or if they're riskier than I think they are.

Anyone have any insight on how they work in Ohio, or success/horror stories in tax lien certificates in any other states? Any help or advice for starting out is appreciated!!