Occupied Tax Lien Properties

[Jamie Watson]

I'm a newbie to tax lien auctions.  In my county (in Indiana) they have over 1000 properties going up for sale on Wednesday.  I drove around doing my due diligence on them and most of them are occupied.  I'm really not interested in going through the fore closure process so I think I'll stick to the ones that seem vacant.  However, I'm just curious...do most of these properties have to be paid off in order for the tax bills not to have been paid.  Most mortgage companies force you into escrow for property taxes.  Also, any other thoughts you have on the tax lien process would be welcome.  Thanks!

[Matt Schelberg]

@Jamie Watson Welcome to tax liens!  You're actually more likely to foreclose on properties that are vacant, so if your goal is to produce interest income, I would recommend that you focus on occupied properties that you expect will be redeemed by the owners/bank.

Now if you're talking about wanting to avoid evictions, that's a different story.

To answer your question about mortgage companies paying the delinquent property taxes on behalf of the owners:  if the borrower is underwater on their mortgage and not making payments, they bank may decide to walk away rather than throw good money after bad.    In some cases it is also possible that the mortgage has been sold, and the new mortgagee may not even realize the taxes are delinquent.

@Ned Carey is the resident expert on tax liens and may want to weigh in here.