I have a tax delinquent list for 2016 California / what's next?

[Javier Feria]

I have recently bought a data cd from my county. In it, it is composed as a spreadsheet on excel and broken down by owner, address, value , and delinquencies. How do I weed out the the right from wrong and go from there?

[Kyle J.]

California counties don’t sell tax liens. California is a tax deed state. However, a home owner has to be delinquent 5 consecutive years before the county can auction their property at a tax sale. 

You might find some home owners who are in distress by looking at lists of property owners who are a couple years delinquent on their taxes, but the real motivation doesn’t set in until they get closer to that 5 year mark and they get closer to the auction date and they start getting the notices from the county about the impending auction.