Tax Lien Investing in MD on a Budget

[Arin Akopian]

Hello to the forum community and anyone reading my first post.  I have been doing a ton of research on tax liens and deeds (reading, videos, 2017 tax lien sales records, county websites ect...)  My question is specific to the DMV area investors who have found success.  I do not want to waste anymore time researching as I was discourage by my findings for Montgomery, Frederick, and PG.  It seems that either everything is above 1K to play and or big shops are buying anything they can get hands on with no room for the individual.  If anyone can shed some insight on the the following question(s) I would greatly appreciate it....

-Is it even possible to start with 1K bank roll and possibly attack lands as residential seems out of reach?

-Are the OTC liens worth spending the money to obtain and/or research endless hours to find a deal or should I wait until May/June time frame when MD sales begin again?

Anyone who responds let me express my deep gratitude as I see this as unique opportunity to be successful in with minimal to no barrier to entry. Thank you in advance and sorry for the somewhat loaded questions. 

[Ned Carey]

@Arin Akopian welcome to BP

As @Russell Brazil says a $1K budget won't get you very far. There is a lot of competition for small liens. The big investors will take any small line and bid it up to a silly number on nice properties. Smaller investors bid on smaller liens because that is often all they can afford. 

Our average lien is probably about $2500. In Baltimore city liens start at $500. An attorney I work with bought one for even less than that when the rules were different. He was able to foreclose and get the property. Of course that is the exception not typical results. 

Even if you are able to buy some liens, most redeem and most within a few months. So while 18% interest sounds great it doesn't add up to that much money. That is especially true when you consider $100 just to register for the sale. 

Your guess is correct, in Montgomery, Howard, PG, Anne Arundle and Baltimore counties you are not likely to get very far with only $1K.  i have a much bigger pile to play with and I don't get much there. Usually I don't even bid except in Baltimore city.

That said I was able to make $35K on my first tax lien that was only about $1,800. That was a leftover lien in Mealtime city. The answer to your question is it worth going after over the counter liens - yes. However figure you are going to have to filter through 99.9% junk to find the rare lien worth buying.  Some years are better than others.