Tax Liens Noob Questions (Neptune NJ)

[Steven Steiner]

Hi everyone. This might be a TLDR - but if you have the inclination...

So I have been researching Tax Lien Auctions pretty heavily recently and I had some questions which might be simple questions, but I haven't found on any websites or books yet, so I figured it was worth a shot to throw them out to the smarties at Bigger Pockets and see who could hit a single:

1. To be specific, I have been checking out Neptune NJ. I notice in the results from 2015 - ALL of the high bids except one, from what I can see, were big boys like Investment Firms, etc. I guess some of them, after research might turn out to be the mortgage holder protecting their investment - but in general, are people doing Tax Lien Auctions noticing that big banks, etc. are winning all the auctions? How does this go - do they just keep bidding things up until the "little guys" tire out?

2. I see where a thriving hotel had an unpaid tax bill. That hotel is still in business right now and getting 5 star ratings on Trip Advisor. I see why someone would want this debt - so that they can get paid the penalty - etc. Why would a thriving hotel be in a situation where they wouldn't pay their own tax bill? Are they maybe struggling behind the scenes? Can there really be an oversight this huge?

3. LASTLY... :-) So if there is a listing that has a house attached, and the house looks great, and you can see they have had the same owners since 1996 - why would this be popping up. Like maybe older people just missed their bill in the mail? Fell on hard times? I mean if I see like, for instance, land is worth $100,000 and house is worth $100,000 and there's a $2000 unpaid tax bill....what could be up here? Land is not in flood zone....I mean I just don't get what some of the downsides to some of these could be. I know I am missing something....

Thanks a lot for any help!

Steve