All Forum Posts by: Will Sifert

 I also used to be fearful of IRS liens. I have never heard of the IRS foreclosing on their lien. I have no problem buying a tax lien with an IRS lien.

I am much more concerned over a Life Estate titled property. I have one and I don’t think I will ever loose it. 

After talking to the few people that were bidding on these type properties and talking to them, I found out they do a quiet title and don't usually have any issues.

@Will Sifert    Don't know squat about LA, you're the expert here.  I bought one here in TX with IRS lien.  I think the property was worth $150,000, but doctor has over $1mil lien attached to several properties.   IRS was notified by the foreclosure attorney in the original suit.   Once it goes to sale I think IRS have 120 days to redeem.  Everyone i talked to kind of hemmed and hawed about it, but said basically if they want the property, IRS just pay you back, no interest or anything else extra.  Everyone said chances are we never hear from them and it is non-enforceable after the 120days.   The discussion always seemed to be if the property didn't really have a lot of value, probably not worth it for them to go after.  If it was big, nice, luxury property and they thought they could get some decent money out of it, they might come after it.  

I regularly look at the treasury action site for seizure auctions and all that sounds about right.  Not sure I've ever seen any property under $100K on there and most are a lot more.   Every one of those I've gone to, there are way too many people there, the prices are crazy high, often more than retail value, and here in Texas they provide quit claim only, which is a bit of a bear to resolve...more time and money.   I still look, but rarely go to those auctions any more.  I guess that is a whole other rabbit hole though.

I've also found some just regular homes I wanted to go after on owner occupied property with big IRS liens on them.  Masterminding with some investors and title people recently and they all said IRS does not normally go after them and force a sale, just keeps the lien on in case they ever do sell it.  That surprised me.   They all indicated it is not normal for IRS to release those just so person can sell to a non-interested party....they want their money at closing.

I seriously doubt you can settle someone else IRS lien.  I think you might negotiate to get it released earlier than 120 days, but for no fee since the original person with the lien no longer owns the property.

So I could be just full of BS today, I was in the room with a good bunch of experienced people, but not sure anyone had really dealt with IRS on these, more like stories of what they heard.  

Good luck.   Let us know what you learn.

By the way....another good story here....go to small county for June sale.  I mean small county.  Sheriff is home with the flu and does not show up to run the sale.  For whatever reason there are no current deputies or anyone deputized in the county, other than him.   About 5-6 bidders there and attorney and tax assessor there.  We're ready to bid and just standing around on 100F day kicking grass.   Basically we voted that it was ok to have the sale with the sheriff on speaker phone on the front lawn of the courthouse.  They only have 2 steps, and it is small porch, so NO sale "on the courthouse" steps.   We just do it under the one shade tree.   So that was fun. 4 properties originally in the sale, 2 pulled, I won the other two. First time I have ever seen that happen.    Opposite happened about 4 months ago close to you on the TX side of the Sabine River.  Sheriff sick, attorney sick. attorney's assistance shows up with tax assessor.  About 10 of us there.  I had driven about 3-4 hours, several other had drive 3-4 hours, one lady had driven in from MS.  The two authorities mess around until about 10:30am.  At least 1/2 of us were pretty experienced and started asking some good questions.  She couldn't answer anything, then announces she feels uncomfortable selling anything but one junk property no one wanted and basically cancels the sale.  Still hasn't been rescheduled.   2nd time that has happened to me in that county.   THESE are the awesome fun times and riches everyone talks about at tax sales.   Those are the days you convince yourself you love 1st Tuesday drive time looking at east Texas pine trees vs west Texas dust.

@Will Sifert    Don't know squat about LA, you're the expert here.  I bought one here in TX with IRS lien.  I think the property was worth $150,000, but doctor has over $1mil lien attached to several properties.   IRS was notified by the foreclosure attorney in the original suit.   Once it goes to sale I think IRS have 120 days to redeem.  Everyone i talked to kind of hemmed and hawed about it, but said basically if they want the property, IRS just pay you back, no interest or anything else extra.  Everyone said chances are we never hear from them and it is non-enforceable after the 120days.   The discussion always seemed to be if the property didn't really have a lot of value, probably not worth it for them to go after.  If it was big, nice, luxury property and they thought they could get some decent money out of it, they might come after it.  

I regularly look at the treasury action site for seizure auctions and all that sounds about right.  Not sure I've ever seen any property under $100K on there and most are a lot more.   Every one of those I've gone to, there are way too many people there, the prices are crazy high, often more than retail value, and here in Texas they provide quit claim only, which is a bit of a bear to resolve...more time and money.   I still look, but rarely go to those auctions any more.  I guess that is a whole other rabbit hole though.

I've also found some just regular homes I wanted to go after on owner occupied property with big IRS liens on them.  Masterminding with some investors and title people recently and they all said IRS does not normally go after them and force a sale, just keeps the lien on in case they ever do sell it.  That surprised me.   They all indicated it is not normal for IRS to release those just so person can sell to a non-interested party....they want their money at closing.

I seriously doubt you can settle someone else IRS lien.  I think you might negotiate to get it released earlier than 120 days, but for no fee since the original person with the lien no longer owns the property.

So I could be just full of BS today, I was in the room with a good bunch of experienced people, but not sure anyone had really dealt with IRS on these, more like stories of what they heard.  

Good luck.   Let us know what you learn.

By the way....another good story here....go to small county for June sale.  I mean small county.  Sheriff is home with the flu and does not show up to run the sale.  For whatever reason there are no current deputies or anyone deputized in the county, other than him.   About 5-6 bidders there and attorney and tax assessor there.  We're ready to bid and just standing around on 100F day kicking grass.   Basically we voted that it was ok to have the sale with the sheriff on speaker phone on the front lawn of the courthouse.  They only have 2 steps, and it is small porch, so NO sale "on the courthouse" steps.   We just do it under the one shade tree.   So that was fun. 4 properties originally in the sale, 2 pulled, I won the other two. First time I have ever seen that happen.    Opposite happened about 4 months ago close to you on the TX side of the Sabine River.  Sheriff sick, attorney sick. attorney's assistance shows up with tax assessor.  About 10 of us there.  I had driven about 3-4 hours, several other had drive 3-4 hours, one lady had driven in from MS.  The two authorities mess around until about 10:30am.  At least 1/2 of us were pretty experienced and started asking some good questions.  She couldn't answer anything, then announces she feels uncomfortable selling anything but one junk property no one wanted and basically cancels the sale.  Still hasn't been rescheduled.   2nd time that has happened to me in that county.   THESE are the awesome fun times and riches everyone talks about at tax sales.   Those are the days you convince yourself you love 1st Tuesday drive time looking at east Texas pine trees vs west Texas dust.

@Will Sifert as you know I am not a lawyer. But it is pretty clear state law cannot circuvent Federal law. State statues cannot wipe out a federal lien. There are ways to get a federal lien released but I don't think that is one of them. 

I haven't seen you post in a while - welcome back. 

I have been buying tax liens certificates in Arizona for several years, with the hope of acquiring one good property every couple of years at a very good price, with no success so far. 

For relatively large counties that list over 10,000 liens two weeks before the auction, by the time I have narrowed down the list, I have at most a couple of days left before the bidding deadline.

I suspect I would have more success if, let's say among the 100 properties I am considering, there was a way of determining which owners died recently. I did a Google search, but the methods I found were designed to find out whether some specific John Doe has died, and it seems like it would take more time than I have before the bidding deadline to determine who, among a list of 100 homeowners (or former, now dead, homeowners) is dead, and who is alive.

What's the most efficient way of determining who died recently in Arizona? Something that, if I had a 100 names, I could, within a couple of days, determine which one, two or three of them died recently. The method doesn't have to be fool proof. Let's say that, among the 100, 5 had actually died. If the method you suggest will help me figure out that ONE of the 5 had died recently, that would be great. The method doesn't have to lead to all 5.

Also, I don't want to rely on notices to administer the estate of so and so to determine who is dead. For those situations, there will be an estate administrator who is motivated to get close to market value for the house. I am interested in those who die without close relatives getting involved in selling the assets through probate.

Thank @David McAlister for the suggestion. Actually, after I initially asked my question in this forum, I found a company that does perform the initial half of Phase 1. Everything except a walkthrough. So, I ordered one of their packages, which came with several reports, none of which showed a red flag.

What I don't know yet is whether or not, having ordered those reports, I satisfy EPA's "All Appropriate Inquiries" rule. Since the property is fenced, the above is really the best I can do without breaking and entering. But I suspect EPA didn't design a special rule for tax lien and foreclosure investors, who are limited in the due diligence they can legally perform.