Can someone talk "Tax Delinquent Real Estate Auction" to me?

[Laurie Falk]

There are some tax delinquent real estate auctions going on nearby within the next week or two and I'm curious how they work. There's a list of the properties that are going to be auctioned, some are land and some are SFRs. Do these have a reserve the same way someting online would? What kind of % to market value are they looking for? What questions am I missing? 

Is there a good podcast that covers these? I'm trying to listen to them all but I'm not very far and it's a lot of info!

[Bruce Lynn]

#1 question for you to answer is are you in a tax lien or tax deed state.

Get the list, or maybe you already have.

Pick out some properties you think are  a good fit for you.

Do your due diligence.  Drive by the location.  Know what you can sell it for.  Know how long you have to hold it and what the holding costs are.

Then go to the auction, but you are not ready to bid yet.  Watch-Observe-Network.  See who buys the properties you're interested in.  Talk to them after the auction and ask them why they bought it, what they plan to do with it, what they think it is worth.   Keep track of it.  See if you were right or they were right.

Talk to the organizer or organizers of the sale.  That might be the tax assessor, central appraisal district, or a law firm or firms.   See what advice if any they give you.

Get to the sale early and plan to stay late.  Some are very quick.  I've gone to a sale that lasted 10 minutes and all was wrapped up within another 15-20 minutes after the sale.  If you got there 30 minutes late, you would never know there was even a sale.  No one around.   When you get there early talk to the people there.  Are they there to watch, are they there to bid, are they there to buy.  Will they buy anything and everything or just interested in a specific property.  Talk to people after the sale while they are waiting to pay or finish paperwork.

Then you might bid at the next auction or for some people it may take 2-3 auctions or more before they are ready and knowledgable about what they want to do.  Never buy without seeing the property in person.  Google Streets is maybe a way to elminate property, but not a confirmation of what to buy.   Plenty of stories here and including my own this month where Google Streets shows a house, but in person it is a vacant lot.

Good luck and best wishes.