New Member from Washington State

[Susan Franklin]

I'm a new investor learning about tax liens, tax deeds, and notes. I can see there is lots of great experience and information here.

[Ryland Taniguchi]

I am from Seattle and buy a lot of tax liens out-of-state. I am sure you have read this but for the most part Washingon state is a tax deed state and not a tax lien state.

Tax liens are nice for liquidity as there are secondary markets to sell them and relatively safe as they are issued by the local governments. They are not 100% safe because you can buy a sidewalk or a piece of land completely useless.

The problem with tax liens is that you have to buy hundreds for the travel costs to make it worthwhile. This is why tax liens are discussed by everyone but no one does them actually.

Tax deed auctions happen around November and December here. Next year you should check it out. Lots of opportunities if you have a solid grasp of land development. 

I personally do a lot of land development and my favorite use of tax deed auctions is to pick up pieces of land (usually 1/4 to 1 acre) that I use to dump off dirt from my development projects. You can buy pieces of land for less than $2000.