One of the three business ventures I have is Tax properties, currently in two states and 5 locations. Typically (97%) you get your investment back with interest... As said in other posts, do your research, look to stay away from junk lands, improvements only, etc. Try it small, I did 7 liens for 3k first year, made 300 and have now moved up to holding over 300 liens and certificates. Go to the local tax office, ask a few questions and dig in, don't rely on others experiences, it can be very easy. Can be very profitable too however the research is labor intensive. Lets just say, for two weeks work per year, can make more than many make in a full year. Downside, have to have money upfront but I look at it as a CD, you just don't know when it will mature, 2 months - 3 years! My goal is to have all of the interest I have earned from previous years tax sales to be invested in future sales so in theory will have none of my money at risk, will be all their money invested. How will that work you ask, well lets say you put in 10k, if you earn 12% and reinvest everything, in just 6 years, based on the rule of 72, you should have approx 20k, therefore you could take the original 10k out and have no risk and then every 6 years double that money. Or, raise of eyebrows, leave it all in, yr 6 - 20, 12 - 40, 18 - 80, 24 - 160, 30 - 320, 36 - 640, 42 - 1.28 million, if I started with 10k at 20/yo at 62/yo would have over 1 million. For the numbers geeks, 72 is used to figure out how quick you can double money, etc. so 72/12(rate)=6(years)... To prove, year 0 10k, year 1 11.2, year 2 12.544, year 3 14.05, year 4 15.74, year 5 17.62, and year 6 19.74k. But the only problem is as the $'s go up you must buy more and possibly expand into new areas, so we are in more than the local area now and adding another county this year. To ease the minds of some, there are taxes sold at $0.02 and into $100,000+, the cheap one was a trailer on one acre the larger a multi-million dollar strip mall.
