New to Tax lien investing have questions about Crook County IL.

[Scott MacCabee]

I have questions about tax lien investing in IL and in general maybe someone can help:

1) When you win a tax cert, when is the interest paid out to you?  Does the interest incur per month, 6 months, daily? If someone pays you their back taxes the day after you buy the lien at 9% do they pay you 9% or is it calculated per day?

2) If you buy a tax lien on a condo with 400 per month HOA fees are those fees wiped out when you purchase the tax lien? Are you responsible for subsequent HOA fees after you purchase the tax lien? What if after 2 years no taxes and no HOA fees have been paid by the owner and you acquire the condo then what how does that work?

3) I have 17k to invest but as I understand it in IL cook county you need to have 2 separate piles of money.  You must have your collateral account which must hold within it 150% of amount you wish to bid on/with.   So if you want to use 10K to bid on tax liens you must also have 15k in your collateral account for a total of 25k? is this right?

4) everyone bids things down to 1-2% is it even worth my time and money to attempt cook county or would I be better off doing tax deeds in another state?  Are there states you suggest where a small amount of money like mine would be better put to use in tax lien or deeds?

5) would it be wise to hire a tax attorney to get information faster and use them as a sort of coach?  The information gain is painfully slow beyond the basics any suggestions how to get better info faster as in books, online courses, or coaches?