Young Central Texas Investor- Tax Sales and Trustee Sales

[Ryan Ohendalski]

Hello,
My name is Ryan and my wife and I are looking to real estate investing for our future. We are both 24, but we want to start as early as possible and replace her income so she can stay at home when we have kids,... and then replace mine down the road. We are not quite sure what aspect of REI we want to focus on to start, but we are looking at Tax Sales and Trustee Auctions. I went to my first one last month and it was very interesting. I have researched all listings for the Tax Sale and am going this month with a few in mind to bid on.
If anyone is doing this and would like to share success stories or horror stories I would appreciate it!
Also, if you got started in REI in a different aspect and would like to share how it worked for you I would appreciate it.
Love the site so far and am looking forward to learning as much as possible!

[Don Konipol]

There may be no area of real estate where knowledge and experience is more important than at tax and foreclosure sales. These sales are cash only and final. Your mistakes can not be rectified later as they can with the usual earnest money contract. The usual purchase is subject to many contingencies, these sales have no contingencies.

I have known investors that purchased properties when they thought they were buying other properties (legal descriptions can be incorrect), properties that did not have clear title, 1/2 interest in properties they thought they were buying whole, liens attached that were not notified and hence not wiped out, properties that had tenants that could not be removed for 2 years, and properties that had structural problems too costly to remedy. And some of these situations were by people with extensive experience and knowledge. One very experienced investor purchased a property at foreclosure auction that he had researched and found was in the flood plain. Unfortunately, after purchase he found out it was actually in the FLOOD WAY, and was worthless!

Start with an area in real estate thats more forgiving of mistakes. The way to accumulate a fortune is to begin by not losing money.