What I think I know about tax liens (am I right?)

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This Thanksgiving I met a new in-law who is a Realtor. She and I had a long conversation about tax lien investing and she sang it's praises to no end. It all sounded too good (and too easy) to be true.

Here's what I came away from that conversation with. Please correct me if I am mistaken on any of these points.

- When you buy a tax lien, you are paying off what is owed, by the property owner or mortgage payer, in back taxes to the city/county/state/feds/etc., in exchange for owning the debt.

- Owning the debt of the lien means owning the rights to receiving all payoff of that debt. The property owner or mortgage payer still owes for that debt that used to be back taxes, but they now owe it to you, the lien holder, rather than to the taxing agency of the government.

- Any late fees or accrued interest on that tax debt after the sale of the lien gets compounded to that debt owed to the new lien holder.

- If the property owner does, after the sale of the lien, pay off that debt, the money (plus any fees and interest) goes to you, the lien holder, and not to the government. The property owner is now in the clear, and remains the property owner. The lien is released and the transaction is complete.

- If the property owner does not pay off the lien right away, the lien debt, still having first priority over all other debts, must be paid off before any more mortgage payments can be made. Because of this, the property is likely to go into foreclosure.

- If the property goes into forclosure, the new buyer of the property must pay off the total of the lien, including any accrued interest and fees. This would mean that whoever buys the property would pay you, the lien holder, the total of the original investment (purchase price of the lien) plus interest.

- If the lien is held for successive years (four years?) the lien holder becomes the property owner by default. Can this be?

- Because the lien has priority over all other debts, it WILL always be paid off, either buy the property owner or the next buyer of the property, meaning that buying a lien guarantees AT LEAST a complete return of the full investment, and likely a substantial chunk of interest and fees.

- The reason that governments sell liens like this is because they want their tax money right away, regardless of who pays it. They need to fund their essential services (fire, police, schools, etc) and do not want to be in the collections business.

- The funds used to purchase a lien can come from a Roth IRA because those accounts allow for discretionary investment, and purchasing a lien is considered an investment.

Is it true that this is a very safe investment because you are guaranteed to, at the very least, get back what you put in... very likely to get a substantial return through the accrued tax debt interest... and also possibly becoming the owner of the property simply by being the lien holder for a number of years.

It looks like, from what I was told, this kind of investment is more about money than property. You don't necessarily do it to become the owner of the property, but more to buy the debt owed and wait for it to be paid off, to you, plus interest.

I've tried to do a little research, but it looks like what I've been told is rather different from the other information online. Am I even close to reality here?

Thanks!