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

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

Deepak P.
Investor · Chicago, MI · Member since 2013 · 17 posts · 3 votes

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?

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Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
12y

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.

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  • Margo Roberts
    Investor · Pleasanton, CA · Member since 2013 · 59 posts · 13 votes
    12y

    Hi Deepak P,

    I do have someone who buys at the courthouse steps in Oakland or the Peninsula. He bought a duplex for me and it was profitable. He has all the resources to check title, liens, etc and will even go and talk to tenants and look over the property before the sale. He usually charges about $10K to get a house on the courthouse steps. You can do it yourself, but it can also be risky if you don't have all the resources. Be sure you are not bidding on a second lien position. I do use ForeclosureRadar, which is now PropertyRadar. Good luck!

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  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    12y

    bidding services in AZ GA and other areas are usually 2 to 3k per. Oh Vegas as well. I would suspect Alameda county and contra costa have some activity I would say santa clara san mateo and SF Marin are pretty far and few between.. then Solano had a ton.. Sonoma was active for a while little bit in Napa.. Lake had a bunch one of the highest % in N Ca. Same with Sac and the central valley. Oakland used to be pretty tough in my day.. Al Florida and Shep ( he owned Shepard Cadiallac..) those guys took cash in suit cases had loaded pistols drove Rolls and intimidated the hell out of the competition but that was then and now is now.. They had an office next to mine in Oakland and I remember looking through there window and the big table had the kids cutting the NOD's out of the Trib. and pasting them on sheets of paper OH the good ole days right

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  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    12y

    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.

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  • Troy Fisher
    Specialist · Kirkland, WA · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 817 votes
    12y

    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.

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  • Deepak P.
    OP
    Investor · Chicago, MI · Member since 2013 · 17 posts · 3 votes
    12y

    Thank you @Margo Roberts @Troy Fisher and @Jay Hinrichs for chiming in. Any other courthouse/tax sales insights from other bay area investors welcome

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  • Franklin Romine
    Visalia-Fresno, CA · Member since 2009 · 1k+ posts · 863 votes
    12y

    @Deepak P. I do most of my due diligence through property radar.  A local title company will do the lien search.  Give me a call if you want to talk about auctions.  I'm not in your area but I'm sure we can relate.

    Frank

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  • Sean OToole
    Investor · Truckee, CA · Member since 2013 · 546 posts · 445 votes
    12y

    On trustee sales I can hook you up with a title company team that will research title for you in exchange for opening your escrows with them. This team does it for most of the major trustee sale investors in CA. PM me for the contact.

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  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    11y

    @Sean OToole

      out of Sheer curiosity were is the volume of trustee's sales in CA these days  at least from the Peak  ... Here in Oregon they went judicial and that buggered it up something fierce. but sales are down of course... however when I was very active 2000 to 2006 at court house that was a hot market and we still bought 50 plus houses a year in our market..

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  • Sean OToole
    Investor · Truckee, CA · Member since 2013 · 546 posts · 445 votes
    11y

    Hi @Jay Hinrichs - we update the foreclosure stats (non-judicial only) for every state, county, city and zip we cover each month here: http://trends.propertyradar.com. It's free. Statewide there were 718 properties sold to 3rd parties in June. That is 3-4 times higher than it was back in 2005, and has been fairly stable at around that level for the last year.

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  • Sean OToole
    Investor · Truckee, CA · Member since 2013 · 546 posts · 445 votes
    11y

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

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  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    11y

    @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

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  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
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    @Sean OToole

      brain fart  I mean Sierra City   LOL...

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  • Sean OToole
    Investor · Truckee, CA · Member since 2013 · 546 posts · 445 votes
    11y

    @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.

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  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    11y

    @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.

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  • Kayla Elliott
    Foothill Ranch, CA · Member since 2016 · 34 posts · 8 votes
    10y

    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 ********** this week so look into investing there! Good luck! 

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  • Ather Rizvi
    Cupertino, CA · Member since 2016 · 8 posts · 1 vote
    9y

    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?

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  • Joo Park
    Member since 2018 · 20 posts · 7 votes
    8y

    @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.

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