Arizona tax liens to foreclose with foreign owner question & more

[Dennis K.]

Howdy everyone,

I'm new to the forum and just beginning my journey into buying delinquent back tax parcels as well as some tax liens in several counties in Arizona.  I've done a lot of research here and in other places trying to answer questions that I've had.  Some I was able to answer and some I still can't get a definitive answer and I've asked one of the AZ counties treasurers office.

My initial strategy is fairly simple.  I'm getting ~20 lots in one area where subdivision has a lot of vacant land.  My guess is that many years ago there was heavy marketing in promoting this area and many people jumped on it thinking that they will become millionaires.  Most of the lots in this subdivision are still undeveloped and there is more development closer to town and further you go away its almost ghost land. I've located several parcels away from town but with direct dirt road access that have nice views and no neighbors at all.  I've also found few closer to center of town with 2-3 being near power (hard to identify with Google Earth) and there are other developments nearby and another 2 on the other side of town - one with electricity right at the lot level on the road (but it seems that lot has a lot of junk on the property from previous owner) and another lot on the same road has power 2 lots away and the lot is clear.  I have lots of photographer friends that expressed interest in purchasing remote lots with good views from me to use for camping / RV / etc and location has proximity to other areas of interest for photographers.  In other county I'm finding tax liens which are cheaper to acquire and I believe most of them will end up in foreclosure. As stated before I believe many of those parcels are abandoned investments that people made in the past and stopped paying taxes.  I'm seeing plenty of parcels that belong to owners that have 3+ tax liens on them which would instantly qualify them for foreclosure process.  I know how the process works but there are few nuances that I had analyzing all possible scenarios and was wondering if someone had similar experiences and answer some of my questions:

1) Foreign owner address & Certified Mail letter of intent to foreclose - since there is no way to send Certified Mail to another country I wanted to know if another trackable / signature required service can be used in lieu of it (Fedex) and while still sending Certified Mail to county.  I'm fairly certain this owner would not be reachable and next step of action would be to post notice in local newspaper.

2) I see some liens with one 2018 tax lien listed but the owner hasn't paid 2019 / 2020 taxes but there are no liens created for 2019 / 2020.  If I buy 2018 tax lien and pay 2019 / 2020 taxes would that cover requirement of 3 years since first lien was created (whenever the actual date is in the near future)

3) I'm trying to avoid picking up unnecessary parcels during my first round.  One lot has direct access to power but seems to have junk of the property.  I know that lot with utilities are worth more and I'm curious what people's opinion would be if power outweighs having junk of the property left by previous owner.  So far I'm thinking of avoiding it.

4) I found an interesting sub division where it appears developer built a bunch of single / multi-family vacation homes.  I found a lien on what appears to be common areas of part of this subdivision.  It would be driveway that leads into small part of the sub division as well as parking in front of large / small vacation homes.  It would be totally awesome if I can somehow luck out and foreclose on them but chances of that are slim.  What I found strange doing my research is that the owner address for larger homes appears to be the developer of this community and lists private home.  I found several individually owned cabins in the area that are delinquent and they belong to a trusts which are registered to the same private home of the developer.  I find it very strange that someone would purchase vacation home, put it into a trust and for some reason continue to use developer's home address to receive official notices.  It also weird that if developer was / is acting in some sort of managing agent role that he would not paying taxes on parcels that belong to development company as well as parcels of vacation homes that were sold to others.  Delinquent taxes on individual vacation homes are for several thousand dollars and in my estimate are 4+ years behind. From research I found out that foreclosure process on trusts is different and I will be avoiding dealing with them early on into this journey.

I would love to get feedback / comments on the nuances of scenarios that I've described.  Few of the people that I have to initially flip it too are not RE investors but they suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out).  One friend told me yesterday that friend of his bought land in FL (10+ years ago) when it was heavily marketed in my area for $1k / acre.  It was a bit of swamp land and he put some sand in few areas and flipped it for $2k / acre.  Now my friend wants to do the same and buy from me and find someone to flip within his own community of friends and family.  There are many people that never owned land and purchasing it will be reason to brag about it to others.  I'm fairly certain I can flip most of the parcels within my community without even advertising online.  Whatever remains I can easily list on free / paid websites where land is sold as well as create my own website with lots of good photos / videos / maps / etc.  All profit I will reinvest into buying more parcels to flip as well as some tax liens for good return with a chance of foreclosure.