Seeking to use abandoned Tax Delinquent properties for privacy & tax avoidance

[Davido Davido]

Hello friends in the BP community.Can you help me to develop this plan for investing in abandoned Washington State real estate with emphasis high on ethics and to maximize my business privacy while minimizing my entanglements with government regulation and taxes.This plan should create reliable income under

current economic conditions as well as in the event severe economic downturn. I suspect that during the years ahead abandoned real estate is destined to be a growth industry.

http://www.forbes.com/2011/03/23/abandoned-mansions-luxury-real-estate-forbeslife_slide_2.html

Owners of abandoned property, who can be found, would be offered a token cash payment for quit claiming property that they have already abandoned or intend to abandon. Alternatively, a lien holder’s interest would be purchased for a small fraction of what is owed.Once acquired, the lien can either be held to secure my investment against a junior lien holder and/or the owner of record, or the lien can be foreclosed to force a trustee or sheriff’s sale of the property with the goal of collecting a fuller value of the lien from the sale, as note buyers frequently do.

In the event that the owner of abandoned property cannot be found my company would assume control of the property, pay the taxes as necessary to avoid property tax foreclosure, and manage the properties for the income they can produce.If a previously lost/unfound owner eventually shows up, then we’ve done him/her the services of saving their property from tax foreclosure, of preserving the property from waste and theft, and of managing the property in their absence. A previously absent owner is of course entitled to their property and all rents received.My company, on the other hand, would be entitled to be repaid for all property taxes paid and for the normal costs of collecting rents (in effect a management fee). Absent owners are NOT required to pay for unnecessary improvements made on the property in their absence.

If lien holder on the abandoned property fail to enforce their liens within the 6 year statute of limitations, and if the absent owner does not show up within the 7 year period of adverse possession, my company could either simply continue to quietly collect rent without taking ownership or could quiet the title and sell the property.Eventual acquisition of clear title and sale of the property should not be necessary to make this plan succeed.My idea is that sufficient income would be achieved through managing the various abandoned properties for rents and resources.

My company would be serving the community by providing needed low cost housing alternatives –often the opportunity to place or rent an RV on the vacant lots, we’d also provide rentals that tenants can pay for by using their own labor to improve the existing housing.Jobs would be created.And, I believe, the general community will be served by our company maintaining and improving a number of properties which would otherwise become waste.

Governmental interaction would be avoided by indefinitely collecting rents on property abandoned by others or at least by not owning the properties until the very end.I would keep the visible business footprint as small as possible.Doubtless this plan involves more work than simpler forms of real estate investing.And working abandoned real estate will require creativity to improve and/or capitalize these properties which are considered undesirable even to their owners.I am attracted to working with abandoned real estate because it provides tremendous privacy.My company can control and collect rent on multiple properties where there is no public record of our interest.

Abandoned real estate can usually be identified by reviewing a county’s list of delinquent property tax parcels for parcels nobody has paid the taxes on for at least 2 years and then further analyzing those properties.In the abandoned real estate arena the typical property is abandoned because it is of little or no value –as in too small, or odd shaped, or wet, or steep or otherwise unsuitable to build upon.Income can still be derived from a significant number of such properties by renting them for RV use, cutting and selling trees, creating gardens, renting pasture, harvesting crops, creating storage capacity, or by (ad your idea). A small percentage of abandoned parcels can be sold at profit to adjoining property owners or other investors.

Though small unbuildable lots are the typical abandoned property, there are also occasional abandoned single and multifamily residences –usually in a state of significant disrepair and neglect, usually because the owner(s) has been hospitalized, committed, imprisoned or simply mysteriously disappeared.At times timber and farm properties or even a mansion are abandoned.

Another reason valuable property is abandoned is often that the parcel is loaded with debt owed to multiple lien holders and/or has assorted problems too difficult for the owner or any lien holder to want to take on.To profit from these properties will require becoming an expert problem solver. However, for an experienced investor other people’s problems can become the investor’s opportunity.For example very often lienholder debt can be handled with the mere passage of time. Washington has a six year statute of limitations for enforcing unpaid debt. Liens on abandoned property frequently remain uncollected.By the time a property is abandoned, liens are often already close to the age at which they become unenforceable.

This is a labor intensive plan.I believe it will work in the current economic environment, but it is even better suited to a (coming?) economic environment where labor will be more available than money.Capital costs for property acquisition are very low –typically less than 10% of assessed value. An owner who can be found and is willing to formally abandon his property via a quit claim deed, the owner would be paid no more than 5 to 10% of the assessed value. The same 5 to 10% would sometimes be paid to a lien holder whose interest could be needed to secure our investment.It is surprising how often mortgage holders consider it cheaper to write off significant unpaid loans rather than taking the steps necessary to foreclose, and to pay up past due taxes and to deal with problems from wells, to septic, to access, to waste. Property taxes would be paid only as necessary to not become three years delinquent so as to avoid property tax foreclosure. (The typical annual tax is less than 1. % of assessed value).

What problems does the Bigger Pockets community see with this plan?Your wisdom and insight is valued and appreciated –even if not immediately followed.

[Bill Gulley]

Originally posted by @Davido Davido:

@Wayne Brooks -

agent

n. a person who is authorized to act for another (the agent's principal) through employment, by contract or apparent authority.

What term would you use to describe someone who rents a property where the owner can not be found.  It would be fraud to call yourself the owner.  I understand that "agent" is generally used when authorized by the owner.  And I will indeed be looking for a more accurate term to use in future rentals.  However, in the instance when I applied the term agent, I did have an unrecorded "Quit Claim" deed from the owner and was thereby authorized to rent the property.   I doubt that I was in any legal jeopardy.

I'll address this in a moment. I only got this far in this thread and my BS Meter was blaring, that's an inside "joke" understood by longer term members.

Read your profile, first sentence of your RE goals stated that you would like to change "mindsets".  You also mentioned your plan, past tense as it seems you have already begun "working" your plan.

You have received comments, well founded, and have rebutted each pulling definitions (excerpts of complete definitions) as your basis for arguing against those comments in favor of your interpretations. Doesn't seem to me that you're seeking advice at all, but attempting to "sell" your plan. It's what I call "under the radar" marketing.

What is also suspect to me, having the nose of an investigator, is that your first post on BP came right after I brought reality to another author's post of guru predatory and illegal dealings. That post was complimentary to both that author and me, thank you, but your post seemed to imply acceptance as to the creativeness of dangerous ideas. 

We on BP are well aware of the "tag team" approach used by gurus that spawn bad advice, not saying that author brought you in as a substitute hitter, but there is that possibility. 

So, I've filed this in my guru file, I trust my BS Meter, it's been right too many times over my 40+ years.

In my area we have abandoned properties down at the lakes. I can tell you that going on those properties is a great way to get shot! Squatters may have some rights, but down there they can be dead right and no one will be left to plead their case!

Adverse possession laws vary state to state, in Missouri, your use will need to cure for 10 years before taking action, not 6 or 7.  

Now, claiming to be an agent of an owner as you mentioned above is fraud as well. There is no agency established without the knowledge of the principle. And, an unrecorded deed is not effective to give possession or ownership rights as the interest has not been perfected. 

As others mentioned, paying the taxes does not grant possession, you are trespassing. 

Making any repair is not a right of a tax lien holder as it is a mortgagee, to safeguard property, at least not here. In the 7 states around me, the owner can simply say than you for fixing my property, you don't get a dime. All you are entitled to is the lawful rate of interest until you obtain title after a sale. 

What you propose is simply theft. Your mention of other liens and mortgagees writing off a loan. What you suggest is mortgage stripping, trespassing gaining possession, renting it out and keeping the rents. Lenders are entitled to the rents as an offset to the mortgage or the unsecured debt if that becomes the case. 

Now, you're entering the bank fraud arena. 

BTW, the fraud of claiming to be an agent or other types of fraud, the statute of limitations clock begins when the fraud is discovered, not when it was perpetrated.  

Federal laws also cover interference with an insured institution's operations, your occupancy of their collateral is certainly an interference. A simple squatter they will kick out, a planed and executed system as you proposed is an entirely different matter. The result is that you're taking money derived from the property from the lender and clouding title with your ploy. In this case, I suggest you not act pro se and hire a very good defense attorney.

I'd also say cutting timber from another's property will land you in jail here, probably in all states, that's grand theft. You have no rights at all from the position of holding any tax lien to possession or in taking the fruits of ownership.

Seems you mentioned the business model offering "privacy" most thieves usually don't want to make known their escapades, perhaps a money laundering scheme might keep the rents paid under wraps too, but I don't see anything addressing the privacy side nor can it be to the point that this method can't be discovered.

Well, again, I spent time addressing guru type matters keeping newbies out of harm's way. But, that's my job here. However, I did have an idea from this, it's to write a blog on guru tactics, the psychology used, the mention of great profits, everything being perfectly legal, a community asset, social acceptance, and the missing ingredients to implement the plan.  Not saying we have a new guru here, just saying all the parts seem to fit. :)   

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