All Forum Posts by: Julie Dawn tapia

Hi Brooks, it's Denise. We know each other.  You came to one of my tax sale investing classes several years ago. Yes, you are entitled to possession and can rent the property out. If the owner redeems, you can keep all the rents up until redemption. If the property contains a residential structure, you can do any necessary repairs to make the property habitable (but not upgrades) and the VALUE (not the cost) of those repairs is an additional charge if there is a redemption. If the property is located in an official urban redevelopment or urban renewal district, you can recover the value of ALL improvements, not just repairs.  If in one of those districts, the property does not have to contain a residential structure. I think Mobile has several districts.   I have an 18 minute video about tax sales and possession on my website. Send me an email, and I'll send you a coupon code so you can watch it without charge, since you've already been to one of my classes.

Beware of a void tax sale, though. In that case, you are not entitled to possession, or rents, or value of your repairs or improvements. The most common reason for a void tax sale is the name called off at the auction was not the current owner of the property. Usually that is because the assessed owner died, or sold the property, or it was foreclosed on.