Tax Sale Questions (Tarrant County)

[Dylan Hargrove]

Hello All,

I've been looking through some online resources that show some tax sale properties and I have a few questions I was hoping some of you may know, that I wasn't able to gather from the website.

1. What is the "Adjudged Value"? It differs from the minimum bid and I'm not sure why that number is there/where it comes from.

2. Are all tax sales in Texas (or at least Tarrant County), only executed with cash?

3. Say I purchase a property only to find out later that there were some additional liens against it non-tax related, how would this be resolved since the deed is transferred soon after the auction?

I'm still a newbie and the Tax Sales seem like some great opportunities, but with a lot more paperwork and possible complications so I want to be as informed as possible.

Thanks all! 

Dylan

[Ryan Blake]

@Dylan Hargrove

Dylan, full disclosure, I have not purchased from a tax auction/bidding process but have done quite a bit of research on the matter for Tarrant County.

@Andrew Postell is right about it being a sealed bid. This is for City of Fort Worth properties only. After the county auction, any properties not bid on are reverted back to the city or other taxing entity. The city of Fort Worth will also foreclose on homes with high outstanding balances for city fees. You may be able to avoid the bid process completely if you send written notice to the city requesting purchase of a property that you know they own. You send if a laundry list of info about the property including the amount you would like to pay. I hear it can take over a month to hear back on the city about your request.

Tarrant County tax liens are handled by an auction on the court house steps at the same time as the foreclosure auction (first Tuesday of the month). They are ran by Linebarger, Goggan, Blair, & Sampson (the law firm that represents the county for the sale). You can access Tarrant County sales here. To bid on properties, you will need to first fill out an application here requesting written approval that you aren't delinquent on any properties currently or formerly own in Tarrant County. These will all be Constable Deeds and will have a right of redemption per Texas state code.

I am not sure if you are able to buy the properties before auction by paying off delinquent amounts. That is something I have been trying to look into. I think it could be a great play if you could get in contact with the owner and complete a sale before it goes to auction. But for it to go to county auction there has already been a court approval of the sale and may be too late to stop it. I am not sure on this as many properties still get struck off before the sale.

Hope this helps clear up the process just a little more.