If some experienced tax defaulted property investor would consider providing me some of their tricks of the trade, I would like some help knowing how best to sort and filter the tax defaulted properties from county tax agencies. And more specifically Florida counties.

Florida is a tax lien state, which means several years can pass by before the county may offer the property for sale to a potential buyer. How to know what strategy to apply to be most efficient at contacting tax delinquent owners who truly have no desire to keep their properties and who have property that does have value exceeding the tax liability. Should I approach owners who will at the last minute pay their liens and penalties (possibly those with liens younger than 2 years) or avoid this potential waste on direct mail costs? Should I look for properties that have low interest rates on their liens, since obviously their property must have held good value for the investors who bought those liens were willing to receive so little return on their investment, unless they saw a chance to own the property after a couple years. Do I have to look at each property individually to know the value of the property, outside the assessed value given it by the county. Will all delinquent property over 4-5 years old all be simply vacant land?

My current plan is to connect with a motivated delinquent property owner who will accept a small payment to sign their property over to me and then market the property for a discount below current market value or allow the county to sell the property and collect the excess proceeds. I understand the basics. It's just that a 10,000-20,000 item list from the county is so intimidating when I only want to mail to the 500-1000 best prospects to benefit from my investing strategy. Will people who live in the property (homestead properties) be a poor bet that they will allow it to be lost at the county tax sale? Are properties that are scheduled to be sold shortly at an upcoming tax sale, better to focus on, even though I have very limited time in which to make an effective direct mail response connection? Any input would be appreciated if you have experience in this arena.