Tax Auction in Texas

[Felipe Lois Affini]

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to participate in the next (March 6th) tax sale auction in Texas and I would like to have your thoughts about my strategy. I would also like to find anyone that would be planning to participate in any of these counties (mentioned below) auctions, so we could share ideas, experiences, strategies and so on.

I don’t have much experience (I have been to two auctions: in Dekalb County-GA last June, and December in Harris County-TX). For a few reasons (that I could explain in detail anytime) I didn’t buy a property in both auctions.

The counties that I´m interested in are Tarrant, Denton, Colin, Travis, and Bexar.

I still couldn’t leverage the amount of money necessary to invest in bigger properties, so I would participate with 30k.

My first plan would be to buy a small single-family property, fix, rent (i´m thinking for somewhere between 3 to 5 months) sell and reinvest (using 1031).

My idea is to (if I buy any property at the auction) partner with someone that could fund the repairs and manage the work, or I would get (with some local small investor in my area) the money and pay for the fix (although I think it would take longer to complete the process).

Anyway, I’ll need the assistance of a Realtor, Contractor, Property Manager through this path as I won't be there to personally manage all the work related to the property.

As a newbie, any help and considerations would be great.

Thank you