All Forum Posts by: Jared DeValk

I am considering the wonderful world of tax lien investing in the Greater Nashville, TN Area. Since tax lien procedures vary state by state, I would like to hear some ideas as to how the process works in TN. Every time I try to find information, I can't, and when I call the tax assessor's office they sound like they know less than I do about tax liens. Below are my questions. Please help!

-Is it an auction? How exactly does the sale of the lien occur? (I know that they advertise it a month in advance and it only happens June-Jan in Davidson County)

-Are you required to pay taxes during the redemption period? If so, are the "redeemers" required to pay you the amount you paid for the lien, the 10% (TN is 10%) and the taxes you paid during the redemption period?

-Is there anyway to shorten the redemption period?

-What's the best (most affordable, most accurate and then best value) means for researching a tax lien property before you buy the property from the owner or buy the lien at the sale? (Wanting to make sure their are no other claims to the property and I do not want to have to pay a title company $150 for every property that needs to be researched if I do not have to)

-What happens to a property if the lien is not sold at tax lien sale?

-I saw a $1.3 Million property tax lien sell for $27,000.00, does that mean that the buyer could have just bought a $1.3 Million for $27,000?

I'm sure their are more questions, but those are the big ones that I have right now. Thank you!

I found that I received more calls with the printed font and it was definitely more efficient than actual writing. I never use printer paper, I use yellow essay paper that I would buy in packs of 500 on Amazon. When you first create your template for mail merge, you must painstakingly adjust the font size, line spacing and margins to make sure that the letters fall where they should on the lines on the paper. I ended up printing about 18 test pages, all the while making minor adjustments to get it just right. It's worth it to invest the 30 minutes upfront to save you hours in the long run.

Originally posted by Windie Gaytan:
So I want to take on doing yellow letters because I really believe I could get good response. So I am looking for some info. Should I start there or should I do postcards to start? How much does it normally cost per month because I want to be sending at least 100 a week? As far a a phone goes I want a seperate business phone, not my cell. How do you get a 1800 number?...any advice will be amazing and well apperciated.
Windie

If you're going to use yellow letters, please don't write the letters yourself. It's going to better for you to pay someone to write the letters, photocopy a form letter in your handwriting or to have your handwriting converted into the font. The last option is what I use. I ordered yellow, lined essay paper and printed my "handwriting" directly onto the page. You will need to adjust your margins and font to print directly onto the lines. Once you've done that you can easily print 100's of letters with the prospect's name and address in the letter. You can also print directly onto the envelopes as well. Be sure you're comfortable with using Mail Merge before you do this.

The site I use for creating the handwritten font is www.yourfonts.com and then I just order the essay paper from Amazon.

Hope this helps you!

You can purchase reams of yellow-lined notebook paper that's UNBOUNDED from Amazon. I paired that up with a computer font that was generated from my own handwriting. It takes some time and some trial-and-error to figure out the spacing. I have been getting great opening rates and the homeowners will leave messages thanking me for the handwritten letter. One even said, "I appreciate that you took the time to write me this letter, but I am satisfied with my home at this time. If my situation changes, I have your number on my fridge and you will be the first person I call." She may have been full of it, but it made me feel good.

Quiet title is where liens against a property are removed. It's called that because if money is owed on a property, lien holders will be yelling for their money and judge will essentially bang his gavel and shut them up. I agree with Tom, unless there's evidence that quiet title is probable and there's a big enough spread, it may not be worth it to proceed. Consult your RE attorney.

The only exception to that rule is if the wholesaler in the situation is a 501c3 non-profit organization.

I understand your point J. If the charity wants to purchase the property, do the rehab on the property, eat the cost and make the profit, we'll step out and let them take it over. However, they are not in the business of flipping houses, nor do most of them have the money to pay for such properties. With us, they can have no risk (contingencies int he contract to protect them), do no work (with a POA, our attorney handles the closing and we do all the legwork) and they get anywhere from $10,000-$100,000 on a deal (depends on the spread).

We also help the homeowner because the combination of our attorney and using the charity enables us to hasten the short sale process (we had one approved in 2 weeks).

We do tell the banks that this is a fundraiser for the charity, but we don't tell them the number. Good wholesalers disclose that they are wholesaling the property, but do they disclose numbers to homeowner? Probably not.

We may not be completely transparent with the banks, but we are not being blatantly deceptive either.