All Forum Posts by: Will Sifert

Thank you all for chiming in.

@Will Sifert, here is a brief description of the foreclosure process in Arizona:

@Chris Brevik, I am not going to ask the county treasurer's staff as I suspect they know the generic stuff (such as waiting three years after the lien on the property was first brought to sale), but not the nuances about whether or not one is allowed to mail notices 6 to 7 weeks before the expiration of the 3 years redemption period.

I have read once in an internet forum than one investor got fined $200 per contact after he sent mass mailing to many owners before the expiration of the redemption period. If I remember correctly, the state was Missouri. Hence my concern and the original question in the forum. But I am only going to contact two homeowners. So, even if that ends up being a seminar for me, it won't be an expensive one.

@Jerry K., I have never actually foreclosed on a tax lien in Arizona. Not on my own. Not using an attorney. But I did follow, in 2020, what you recommended: I had an attorney send out the mailings for two property owners. His assistant sent me copies of the mailings. And I have mastered the Monkey See Monkey Do technique.

I plan to do the mailings for two homeowners ASAP after January 1, 2024. I will update the thread if I find out anything about whether:

A) There is any penalty for contacting the homeowners before the expiration of the redemption period.

B) My lawyer accepts to use my mailing(s) as a starting point.

C) If my lawyer decides to re-do the mailings himself, whether that's because I sent them before the expiration of the redemption period, for another reason, or for both reasons.

I own two tax lien certificates in an Arizona county for which the three year redemption period will end in February 2024. My plan is the following:

1) Send the the 30 day Notice to Foreclose on my own.

2) Try to locate and contact the owners on my own to remind them to redeem the property or, in the alternative, deed it to me for dirt cheap, subject to the tax lien.

3) If either property remains unredeemed and not deeded to me after some TBD date in the first half of 2024, ask my lawyer to start the foreclosure on it.

What happens if I send the 30 day Notices on January 1, 2024, notifying them of my intent to start foreclosure "on or after March 1, 2024"? Would that enable my lawyer to start the foreclosure process, if need be, any time between March 1, 2024 and July 1, 2024? Or does the 30 day notice need to be sent AFTER the expiration of the redemption period in order to be effective?

Lots of good info in this post - thanks guys! Still in learning curve experimenting with a few of these in Louisiana (@Will Sifert). A few related questions:

1) If I do pay subsequent years taxes and the owner does end up redeeming in <3 years, I do get that subsequent years “investments” back with interest, right? In other words, I’m not just paying it to protect my original investment - I’m paying it to invest more $ at a good interest rate in the event of redemption. It only makes sense, but I haven’t found that written clearly anywhere official. I see that I’m now listed as the “Taxpayer” on the sheriff’s website, but there’s nothing on the tax lien certificate itself that says I’ll get interest on subsequent years taxes/investments in the event of owner redemption. 

2) Anything special that I’m supposed to do when I go to pay the subsequent taxes to make sure it’s clear that I’m paying it as a part of a tax lien investment? I could pay all of the 2023 taxes online right now, but there’s nothing online that makes any distinction between the taxes I owe on my personal home and the “taxes I owe” on my tax lien investments. 

3) After paying the taxes each year, should I expect any kind of document confirming my new “lien balance” now that I’ve paid another years taxes?  I’m assuming that the owner now has to pay more to redeem now that I have paid more taxes on their property but trying to confirm that. 

For example, I bought a 2022 tax lien. I do want to protect my interest but I would hate to pay the 2023 and 2024 taxes, then learn in 2025 that the owner redeeemed and I get the 2022 investment +5% +1%/month, but lose my 2023 and 2024 tax payments because I did something wrong or misunderstood my investment when a I paid those subsequent taxes. 

Thanks for taking the time to read this far, and thanks in advanced for any replies. 

Check this out:

 https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/111-Albion-St-Savannah-GA...

The majority of the structure is on the lot, 111 Albion, but it spans into the adjacent lot. This is up for Tax auction this week. How much of a headache is this?

So, fun update: GIS also makes it pretty clear that the property line "definitely" through the adjacent lot's structure - one might even say the majority of the "adjacent" lots structure is on 111 albion lot. I did drive it, the notice sign was placed in the appropriate lot. So you would definitely be purchasing the deed to a disputed property - I'd feel confident saying, at the very least, a buyer intending to clear the title would eventually be conceding a large portion (if you consider set backs etc) to the property owner of the structure - I am 100% talking out of my *** with that statement though, I'm not a real estate lawyer and only the most vanilla/conventional of real estate investors (that is to say green/inexperienced).  

Here's the fun part! I stuck around at the auction to see this property's bid. The owner occupants of the adjacent property showed up to the auction to buy the deed. The county allowed them to make an announcement requesting that no one bid against them as they have tried to buy the property for many years simply to clear up the property dispute. Auctioneer followed up with "this is not a chill on your auction. Everyone here has the legal right to bid on it. But everyone ought to know the property line goes through their living room". No one bid against them.


The rest of the auction was pretty wild. Probably 100+ paddles, bids that seemed pretty exorbitant for most properties, and I got to see the "land bank shenanigans" first hand - even spoke to the commissioner about it who was vocally opposed to their presence; she apparently attends the bank's board meetings to protest their operation.

 I did not. I just looked at lot line overlays. It's not "close" its pretty egregious.

....can "anyone" get a survey done of a parcel? This is a tax sale. 

For the dirt-cheap price of $4.9 million, McMachen bought all 645 tax-foreclosed properties in the county, including 403 residential properties in 2012.   What did he do with all those?   Did he make any money?   Does he still have them or the land/lots?   Spent $4.9million at the tax sale, so average $7600 per property.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bill-mcmachen-macomb-county_n_1739062

Tax Deeds in Connecticut are often overpriced and a newbie will lose their shirt pursuing them.

@Will Sifert Thanks Will.  I'm open to buying tax liens in CO, but I understand there is a significant amount of state by state nuance, so I guess the full answer is that I'm not sure yet - I have more work to do to fully understand whether CO is a good or bad state to buy them in.  My understanding is that CO is basically middle of the road.  

Would it be possible to paste a link to your post?  I looked through your posts, but I'm not exactly sure which one you're talking about.

Hi - Hoping to connect with a few people that are experienced in investing in Tax Liens.  I'm considering getting into that realm, and looking for some guidance on the best way to start out.  

Please reach out to connect and chat!

Thanks, 

Bryan