Question about Memphis Land Bank

[Sylvia Castellanos]

I have a few questions about how the Memphis Land Bank operates in practice.  Yes, I have read all the rules, but that doesn't always give you the whole picture of how the institution operates in practice.  I would appreciate it very much if someone who is involved in real estate in Memphis, either as a realtor or as an investor, would private message me so I could have a text conversation and ask my questions.

[Tyler Tapley]

I would be very careful of buying properties via the land bank. You can do it but they don't offer title insurance and therefore the lots are very affordable (and worthless). There is a reason they are being sold via the Land Bank. I have several of vacant lots listed bought from the land bank and they are worthless. Those are properties/parcels that didn't sell via the regular tax sale. Many of the good tax sale properties are getting bid up online. I used to have several out of state investors who would buy houses in Memphis via the online tax sale auction, then hold them for a year so the redemption period ended, then they would hire an attorney to "quiet" the title which would take 4-6 months and cost roughly $5000 but then they had clear title and would sell it "as-is" to other investors or hire me and list it on the MLS and get higher offers. It was incredibly lucrative...but got competitive and they couldn't buy them online anymore because the prices got too high.