Tax Deed Sale Flip - How to fund?

[Stefan K.]

First, let me say this is not a solicitation for funding. I'm seeking advice.

My business partner has brought forward an opportunity related to a house going to a tax deed sale. In our state, after the sale you don't receive a warranty or QC deed, you get a tax deed, there is no redemption period, and the title is clouded. So for a flip we are building in a 6-month period to quiet the title, plus selling time after that - so let's say a 9-month holding period.

We believe there could end up being a sizeable amount of money to be made on the property if it does make it to auction and we have information that leads us to believe it will. Both of us have been investing in tax liens for a number of years but have no property deal experience, nor do we have the amount of money it would take to purchase at auction. Going in, we have a firm maximum auction bid amount that makes sense to us.

The question is, how would you fund/structure this deal? We've thought about the hard money route, the equity partner route, and the private loan route. I do have one potential prospect to pitch the equity partner or private loan route to, but I'm not sure how best to structure it with them. If that doesn't work out I'm not sure where we go from there.

As far as our part in the deal, we found the deal, would go to auction to bid or advise, would be willing to cover the quiet title action and take care of the selling process. At most we could put in 5% of our maximum bid amount if necessary.

Thoughts?