Active in buying Trustee and Tax Sales in CA bay area?

Question

Hi there CA investors. Anyone on BP from the CA bay area that are actively involved in buying at the courthouse auctions or bidding in the annual county tax (deed) sales? Would love to get your thoughts on:

a) What are some useful online resources? eg: PropertyRadar helps?

b) Do you come across a lot of retail buyers driving bids higher? In other words, do you make money?

c) What/who do you use for title search?

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

Tax sales in the bay area are really tight anything that would go to tax sale is probably has little or no value.. We used to dominate the Lake co. tax sale buying 100 plus properties a year.. All land maybe one house.. SO cal out in the High desert has a huge tax sale. there is a company in Redwood city that buys that stuff and sells to Chinese he is a Chinese guy  as well cant remember the company name but I ran into them at a realty 411 event a few years ago.. they make the Aussie spruiekers looks like little kids.

Troy Fisher · Answer

What I've found is that in most good areas there are 3-5 investors with all kinds of cash (probably passing those deals off to @Margo Roberts ) that will either bid you up and get you to pay too much, or simply lock you out of bidding.  It's rough out here.  I've been to the step in Santa Cruz, Watsonville, and San Jose.

Edit:  Corrected too Santa Cruz, Watsonville and San Jose.

Joo Park · Answer

@Margo Roberts  Hi Margo, do you still use that person to buy auction properties for you?  I'm looking for a service where someone will go to the auction for me and buy properties for me in bay area.

Ather Rizvi · Answer

Hi All,

Apologies in advance for reviving an old thread but this was the perfect topic for me. Please do let me know if I should start a new one.

I'm looking at buying Foreclosures via Trustee Sale auction in Santa Clara County and was wondering what its like there in today's market. I'm guessing stiff competition for small profits. I know I'm asking potential competitors so I understand if response would be limited ;-)

Are people looking further out or are there still some deals to be had within the Bay Area?

Kayla Elliott · Answer

I would try Tax Title Services here: http://taxtitleservices.com/

They insure titles received from tax sales for about 2k and I know they do cover CA titles. If you are doing the research yourself, Google the county recorders office and search the parcel numbers. That should give you a good indication of the history of the property that the county has paperwork for.

Also, don't be afraid of calling the county and asking them about it! If you are nice, they usually will talk all day about tax sales and whatnot. They do want to be repaid the lien/deed value so they are usually pretty easy going about questions. The Riverside county auction is actually going on online at bid4Assets this week so look into investing there! Good luck!

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

@Sean OToole

great part of the world you live in... I always enjoy when I fly into Truckee to meet my old bud's from Napa .. we play gold at Old Greenwood then go to Whitehawk .. for  few days. 2.5 hours down from PDX.  In the private time machine

But our great great grandfather settled in Sierra city at the time of the gold rush and the home had been in the family since 1890.... its a special place for us.

Sean OToole · Answer

@Jay Hinrichs

Yes, 718 was for CA. There were 45 in OR. Sierra City is in Sierra County, so you're all good. Only 1 sale in Sierra County the last 6 months, so yah, not much impact there. Really of the 50 counties only 20 are very active - and then there is LA County, which typically has more real estate activity (sales, foreclosures, whatever) then AZ, and NV combined.

Love Downieville, but haven't been yet this year. We really like going in September when everyone else stops going. Rode at "The Corral" in South Lake for the first time today. That is an unbelievably nice trail, super fun, and not very busy.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

@Sean OToole

brain fart  I mean Sierra City   LOL...

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

@Sean OToole

I have heard they are going to back to trustee sales. when you quote your figures are you talking about CA only ?  so 718 props sold 3p in CA in one month?

with 50 counties or so.. that's about 12 per county in any given month. with I am sure clusters.  Like Sierra county just north of you probably did not have 12.. We had a family cabin on Sierraville  just up from Downieville.  love that area

Sean OToole · Answer

Also note that while still very little since the move to judicial, Oregon has actually seen an uptick in non-judicial sales recently.

Active in buying Trustee and Tax Sales in CA bay area?

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