All Forum Posts by: Angie B.

@Reuben Stewart and @Ned Carey - well I called the only number I could find for Vesta Holdings and emailed them as well. I haven't heard anything. I could send a letter to the PO box I guess. I will keep you posted if I hear something, and plan to bid on the lien if they don't pay it off.

One of the other properties that is also deeded under that LLC now, is a much nicer house, not abandoned (I think they rent it to the original owners), but they also haven't paid the taxes on it either. I guess they could at the last minute, but they will owe all the interest on it (which is 18% up to the point it is sold in a tax sale which is when it becomes 10%). Why would they do that? Do you think it is possible this particular LLC is going bankrupt?

I will update this post as I find out more...

Okay, so they actually own four properties in our county- and it appears that they purchased the lien, became the owner at some point, and SINCE that point they stopped paying the taxes on it. I'm thinking that since perhaps they do not want to own the properties, they just want the taxes paid plus interest, they are going to let someone else purchase the lien at the next tax sale.

If all I have to pay are the taxes owed plus interest from the last two years, depending on the house location and condition of course, this could be a great deal.

Do you think this could be a good way to buy property cheap? Does anyone do this strategically?

We drove by a house (driving for dollars) that appears to be abandoned, and it is in a decent neighborhood where we were looking at other properties. I looked up the owner, and after searching online, traced the LLC name and address back to Vesta Properties. http://vestaholdings.com/vesta/index.asp It appears they purchased the tax lien, but they were also listed as the property owner (I'm not sure if that is what automatically happens when you purchase a tax lien?).

Anyway, we were interested in contacting the owner to see if they want to sell, but now knowing this is a major company that invests in tax liens, what do you think? Do they typically want to sell the properties? I don't know enough about tax liens to know what the next move is.

Great question! One that I have been thinking about as well- maybe @Account Closed knows of someone?

@Andrew Syrios I was going to post that same link. However that map also has to be taken with a grain of salt, since it is just applying a formula using median sales prices and rental prices and not looking at vacancy statistics or other economic factors associated with the area. Likewise, trulia heat maps are fun to look at as well to get a general idea, with the same caveats I just mentioned. I like to zoom in on an area and click back and forth on listing price and rental price to see which areas might be worth looking into. http://www.trulia.com/home_prices/

My husband and I have bought 11 properties over the last ten years, mostly bank-owned, HUD, Fannie or Freddie properties. We are interested in learning more about buying off the courthouse steps, specifically in Kansas City North - Clay & Platte counties. We are going to go to a local courthouse auction this Friday to get an idea of what it looks like before we're ready to bid. I know you have to be a cash buyer and do your research in advance to know what liens are on the property, because you are responsible for the those liens, correct? Even the first and second mortgages? You have to completely pay those off, yes? Do you usually pay for title searches on properties or do them yourselves? Our recorder's office recently allowed that information to go online if you fill out the necessary form, but I'm not sure what everything means? I would love to have a "cheat sheet" of what all of the various deeds and other lien language mean.

Any other courthouse bidding tips or warnings?

@Brant Vaught Welcome! There are lot of entry points- I love the idea of being an owner occupant of a 2-4 family property as @Aaron Montague suggested. My brother-in-law started out that way- live for free and learn as you go! We started by accident- bought the cheapest SFH in our area that wasn't a TOTAL rehab (just a partial)- really it was all we could afford at the time and once we got it fixed up we thought, hey we could sell this and make some money. Like most newbies, we were a bit optimistic and after dropping the price, realtor's fees and taxes, we made only $5K. By this time we both had better salaries, so we were able to buy our 2nd property before selling the first. It forced us to buy cheap again, but we continued to live in & flip our houses that way, moving up to bigger and nicer houses as we went, until we were able to use our equity to flip some one the side, and now we do buy and hold. You could also start out just by rehabbing- find a partner who will finance it and split the profit.

@Geoff Miller We picked up a lot of deals through the MLS through the years because I set up searches that would email me as soon as they posted, and my realtor was really good about making time for us to go see it that day. That being said, I didn't use my realtor's company website- it was always behind in posting new properties compared to one of their competitor's. You might try searching a few of your local real estate website's- see if you can sort by "date listed" and compare to each other. Then see if it will let you set up a profile where you can save searches so it will email you quickly when new houses are added.

@Engelo Rumora We are sticking up north for now- Clay & Platte counties. Wow, 33! What parts of KC do you focus on?

@Mike D'Arrigo Thanks! We are lucky to be in a good market.

Thanks for the welcome @J. Martin ! Buy & hold was not part of our original plan, but now that we're doing it- I definitely see the benefits.

@Rayanna Scott I am also in the northland and that's where we invest. If you ever want to meet up, let me know- I would be happy to exchange ideas.