2016 Yavapai County Arizona Tax Lien Auction Results

2016 Yavapai County Arizona Tax Lien Auction Results

Specialist · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2011 · 698 posts · 629 votes

The 2016 annual Tax Lien auction for Yavapai county Arizona ended last week. I have the raw results data. There may be some slight changes since the official counts come out after all certificates are paid.

Number of liens sold to investors:

2016 - 1,880 (1,600 bought by investors - 280 Struck to County as no bidders)

2015 - 2,039 (1,808 bought by investors - because 231 struck to county as no bidders)

2014 - 2,575

2013 - 2,382

Total dollar of liens sold:

2016 - $1,874,010.88  ( $1,694,277.89 bought by investors and $179,732.99 not sold)

2015 - $2,678,533.35 ($2,336,551.03 bought by investors - $341,982.32 not sold)

2014 - $3,015,871.87

2013 - $3,435,014.32

Average rate of return overall:

2016 - 6.28% (5.25% by investors when subtracting out struck to county liens which all get 16%)

2015 - 6.75% (5.40% by investors when subtracting out struck to county liens which all get 16%)

2014 - 5.86%

2013 - 6.55%

Number of Investors who won liens:

2016 - 74

2015 - 89

2014 - 116

2013 - 201

Total Number of bids for all liens:

2016 - 8,823

2015 - 10,525

2014 - 18,812

2013 - 99,073,789

You bid down the interest rate in 1% increments from 16% down to 0%. Percentage with the most number of bids overall:

2016 - 4% had 2,680 bids at that rate

2015 - 6% had 2,391 bids

2014 - 7% had 3,542 bids

2013 - 4% had 36,251,623 bids

Most bids per lien/parcel:

2016 - 3 liens had 20 bids 

2015 - 7 liens had 24 bids

2014 - One lien had 41 bids

2013 - One lien had 470,295 bids

Created an interesting Pivot table where I grouped the liens by "Property Use Description". The county had no Use Description (#N/A) on 22 parcels that did sell in the auction. This table is based only on the liens that were purchased by investors. I eliminated the Struck to County liens that all received 16%:

The Vacant land again had decent interest rates, had a large number of liens available, and had the least amount of competition (bids). Residential liens (Primary Residence and Residential Other) had the second most number of liens but had the lowest rates and the highest competition (bids).

I'll post more on my BP blog (link below in the signature line) in the coming weeks.

2Reply
37 views

9 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Flagstaff, AZ · Member since 2016 · 19 posts · 1 vote
    10y
    Hi Jerry! I'm wondering if you could help me out. I am new to tax liens and need a little guidance. I bought three just last week in coconino county in az. One of them said last tax payment was sept 15 2013... Does that mean I can for lose on the property this September? If I can, what are the steps I need to take? If you could answer I would be really grateful!! Thanks, Drew D
  • Real Estate Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2015 · 14 posts · 5 votes
    10y

    Interesting to see how the number of investors has plummeted in the last few years yet the average interest rate has remained remarkably stable. This would appear to indicate that the institutions are becoming a much larger share of the total bidders.  Do you have any stats for any other counties in AZ?  Thanks!

  • Specialist · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2011 · 698 posts · 629 votes
    10y
    Originally posted by @Drew Darlington:

    Hi Jerry! I'm wondering if you could help me out. I am new to tax liens and need a little guidance. I bought three just last week in coconino county in az. One of them said last tax payment was sept 15 2013... Does that mean I can for lose on the property this September? If I can, what are the steps I need to take? If you could answer I would be really grateful!!
    Thanks,
    Drew D

    Drew, I'm not an attorney but here is how it has worked for me in AZ in the past. The rules for beginning a tax lien foreclosure are that it is 3 years from the date the original tax lien was issued. You bought your lien on 2/9/2016. The owner paid the 2013 taxes according to your research. That means they did not pay 2014 taxes, which would have originally been sold in the February 2015 Coconino auction.

    Coconino county only allows one holder of a tax lien on a property. That means that if somebody bought the lien in 2015, they did not pay the subsequent taxes for the next year. When you bought the lien in 2016, you assumed the first lien from 2015 as well. You paid the 2015 lien amount plus interest to the first investor. 

    Assuming all that is correct, you can't foreclose until February 2018. And you will have to pay the taxes each year until then (if the owner does not pay the taxes to redeem). It is 3 full years from the date of the lien - not the date of the last tax payment.

    I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong - that is the great thing about BP. I have begun tax lien foreclosures in AZ in the past and that is how it has worked for me to begin foreclosure.

    I'll be posting a similar stats post for Coconino soon. I do this every year for a few AZ counties that I invest in.

  • Specialist · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2011 · 698 posts · 629 votes
    10y

    @Ian Cox Institutions have actually fallen off a little bit in the past couple of years in AZ counties that have limited each bidder to one ID. But with low interest rates overall, getting anything above 2% for a year is better than a CD or Tbills. As rates rise, I think lien rates will rise too in states where you bid the interest rate down.

    The overall number of bidders fell, the number of bids fell and even the number of winners overall fell. Looks like the institutions are moving away even more.

    Here is a list of the top 15 winners in the acution based on the total dollars invested. Note "Struck to County" are those those liens that did not have any bidders. (Click on image to see a bigger view)

    I will be posting similar stats for Coconino county soon. Maybe Pinal once the auction closes.

  • Colorado Springs, CO · Member since 2015 · 31 posts · 10 votes
    10y

    @Jerry K. interesting info posted here. Thanks!

  • Wholesaler · Lehi, UT · Member since 2015 · 333 posts · 144 votes
    10y

    Anything that is "stuck to the county", or after the auction, has the whole amount of interest available to them at the time of purchase.  In AZ it is compounded interest at 16% per annum or 1.3% per month.  It is best to get to the listings as soon as they come out, usually 2-3 weeks past the auction date.  Maricopa will have three days of auction and then a clean up sale and then the stuck to the county listing comes out.  Although Yavapai may not have the same days in auction they still have the stuck to the county listing that comes out about 3 weeks after the auction takes place.  That's the best time to hit the listings unless you can find a secondary market that provides liens to you where there is no competition and still yields the higher interest rate.  Some times it is okay to take a lesser interest rate if the property has good value.  After the three years of redemption and remember that a lien does not go up for sale in AZ unless it is already two years delinquent, ie:  a 2014 lien is a current listing for 2016.  I hope that makes sense.  Let me know how it works for you.  The listings will cost 50.00 for the CD once they come out providing the county charges.  Yavapai does not.  

  • Wholesaler · Lehi, UT · Member since 2015 · 333 posts · 144 votes
    10y

    You can go onto the site for Maricopa and Yavapai and Coconino and also for Pinal and see what was purchased and who bought them and what is left over or struck to the county.  This is the time to jump on the stuck off or over the counter properties.

  • Ned CareyPro Member
    Moderator
    Investor · Baltimore, MD · Member since 2008 · 17k+ posts · 13k+ votes
    10y

    @Jerry K.it is interesting that this coincides with the other county you posted about. Similar trend so it is not a fluke. 

    I think institutional investors may be starting to realize the risks in tax sale that they didn't understand when they started. One lien written off, wipes out a lot of returns at only 4%.

    One of the big national bidders that we have talked about before (PTL Partners???) just gave some  2 year old liens to an attorney to foreclose and he had to tell them how much worthless junk they overbid on.

  • Specialist · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2011 · 698 posts · 629 votes
    10y

    @Ned CareyYeah old PTL. I tracked them down to an address in a home in California when we talked about them last. They used to bid on anything. Doesn't surprise me in the least that they have low value properties. I've made my mistakes in the past too, so I'm not going to completely degrade them. They just made mistakes with a lot more capital than I did!

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.