How to get delinquent tax list in California

[Calvin Rankin]

Hi everyone,

I'm right at the border of Los Angeles and Orange counties. I want to get a list of properties in both counties that are a year or two away from being in default due to delinquent property taxes (in other words they are a year or two away from going to auction for delinquent property taxes). I contacted the property tax assessor's office for Los Angeles County and they gave me the number to "Bid 4 Assets" which is the company that handles property auctions for many of the counties in California. Bid 4 Assets said that they could only give me a listing of the properties that were already in default and listed to be auctioned, and didn't know where I could get a pre-default list. Is there a way to get such a list? I'm a new wholesaler and I want to try to send yellow letters to property owners who are in the position of possibly losing their homes because of not paying their taxes but still have some time to work a wholesaling deal.

[Johnny Rhee]

A few friends and I run analysis on the tax default lists in the 5 major SoCal counties. If you're are talking about improved properties, it's quite difficult to get them in LA and especially OC market. The way the market is appreciating, if they are in a bind they end up listing the property or coming up with the money somehow. Because even crap houses are worth 400k in LA, even if they owe 30-75k in back taxes, they figure it out or end up listing it traditionally. The ones that make it to auction have a story behind them. Most of the time, the owners have simply vanished or gone to jail or some weird circumstance. On the other hand, we've had some luck with vacant properties and getting people to sell significantly below market value before auction. However, it's much harder to wholesale land. If you do decide to try, I would look at people right at the 5 year mark. 3 or 4 years is too early. Also, you'll have better luck in San Bernardino and Riverside county.