All Forum Posts by: Josh Carr

@Angel Perez If you are bidding at a tax auction in CA you are bidding up on the back taxes of 5 years for a structured or residential property, 3 years if it's agricultural, and 2 years if it's forest land.  You will need to put a deposit down of approximately 5K to bid at the auction.  If you are the highest bidder you will be the winning bidder and will acquire the property.  There is a litigation law in CA which allows the property owner a year's time to contest in court for an erroneous sale (just in case the taxes were paid but the sale had already been set, etc.).  The suggestion is to stay away from rehab or resell during this timeline.  

A foreclosure sale has a similar outcome with property acquisition but the reason for the sale is different.  A foreclosure auction is due to the lack of mortgage payments and the mortgage company has decided to put the property up for sale to recoup what is possible from the previous loan unpaid.  There will be a deposit required for the auction and there will be a mortgage involved unless you are paying cash.  Either way you will be the highest bidder to be the winning bidder for both auction types.  If you are the winning bidder of a mortgage foreclosure sale then you will be able to do what you want with the property once the sale has closed.  

@Juan Santos

1. The winning bid includes the price of the tax lien certificate.  There are smaller tax liens that only cost $50.00 because the property may not have that great of value.  Most of the time, the higher the taxes the greater the valued property.  

2.  You can sell secondary market liens and sell it to someone else if you choose to do so.  You must make sure you transfer the secondary certificate to the new buyer's name to make it official. 

3.  The first month's interest is included in the lien so unless it falls on the first day of the month you will have to wait until the next month to see any interest.  You may never see anything come back even after 3 years time which is why you need to be aware of the redemption period, once it's up, take action on a foreclosure to either force the owner to pay or take possession to the property.  If you don't want the property due to possibility of acquisition, you need to pay attention to the life of the lien.  If it hasn't redeemed in the allotted timeline you can either walk away and cut your losses or proceed with foreclosure to secure your investment.  

@Tereak Sims A tax sale usually means a tax deed sale.  You are usually looking at an amount of at least 5 years of back taxes plus fees for the opening bid, and then depending on the bid type (most common is premium bidding) if you are the winning bidder you get the house or property.  Over half of the United States sells tax deeds accompanied by tax sales which take place once a year.  There are tax lien certificate auctions that go with the sell of back taxes plus interest which gives you an interest in the property but not the property.  After the redemption period you can go through the foreclosure process.  If a property owner decides to redeem their tax bill they will pay you back plus interest within the allotted time.  

There are also redeemable deeds which are deeds sold with a redemption period.  A good way to put it would be a deed that acts like a lien.  

Michigan is a deed state which means if you are the winning bidder you will be acquiring the property.  What county will you be investing in?

@Bill Williams There is a penalty that kicks in for everything that is bid down to below 5% and above 0%.  It is a 5% penalty that gets paid.  Institutional investors will bid down to .025% in hope to get the 5% and when the stakes are a substantial, 5% is a pretty good return.  There is also the hopes of getting the property when the redemption period is up after going through the foreclosure process, and after the tax deed auction, they may just end up with several properties which getting their foot in the door was only .025%.  

Many people bid down to .025%, not just institutional investors, and along with others that bid the same amount on the same property, only one will win the bid by random selection which takes place in a situation like that.   It is a computerized selection when that happens.  

There are many delinquent taxes in all of the counties in FL that go up for auction that did not sell and are considered  over the counter tax liens.  You can select from these listings as soon as they come out.  This happens about 3-4 weeks after the auction where you will receive the full 18% per annum on the face value of the tax lien.  It is important to get to the listings as soon as they come out to get the best selections of tax liens tied to the greatest valued properties.  Many of them are online where you can look them over by filtering your criteria.  

@Janelle Fouquette Alabama has a redemption period of three years unless it is past the three year redemption delinquency.  You need to check on when the year it went delinquent was.  If you bid on one that was already past the redemption period then you need to make certain that you file your paperwork correctly.  You will be on title along with the current property owner- son or deceased whomever and then you will be able to file fore foreclosure once the timeline is past.  With that the owner or son has a time frame to pay you back with your interest.  

@James Vasquez Thank you!

@Hunter Adams You can definitely make an offer as a pre tax sale deal.  Have the owner sign a quit claim deed and then pay them for doing it.  Pay off the taxes and you will own the house.  Make sure you know what you have to put into it where you can get some of that info from the neighbors.  You want to keep it in your pocket until you are able to take possession so keep some of the details to yourself.  Keep us posted as to how it turns out.  Good luck!

@Tamika Rue Even if the property owner plans on redeeming they still can ride out the redemption time frame as that is their grace period prior to foreclosure.  If they don't redeem does the property have to go up for sale again or how does the foreclosure process work after you have passed the redemption period?

@Chris Bingham Is this in Utah?

@Paul Martin The first sale on the first Tuesday of every month is the initial sale, then if they don't get sold they go through a resale, then if they don't get sold at the resale they become struck off.  Harris county (Houston area) will also sell the struck off's at an auction.  If you are at the struck off sale the prices may be much less.  Keep in mind that every sale in Texas still has a redemption period.  The 6 months is for those that do not have any exemptions tied to it and up to 2 years for those that do (homestead, military, disabled, etc.) .  

Most of the properties will not be on the list at the time of the sale even though they initially were on it.  The main reason is because the taxes get paid and many of them get paid by the mortgage companies and some borrow the money to pay off the taxes.   A good idea when you attend the auctions would be to have at least 15 or more properties you would be willing to bid on and then with luck you may end up with 1 or 2.  They go to the highest bidder and the opening bid price is whatever the taxes amount to after a 5 year period.  Although you are purchasing a deed it is a redeemable deed which means the owner still has a timeline to come up with the money you bid with your interest of 25%.  Since it is a penalty it does not matter when it gets paid.  If it is a homestead or exempted property after the 1st year it goes up to 50% interest.  Always a penalty so it does not matter when it gets paid.  

Usually when someone is that far behind on their taxes, and it will be the same amount in interest that they have to pay, it is a good chance they won't pay until right up to the end of the redemption period.  In the meantime make sure that you have all the notifications sent out from the date of the winning bid so your clock counts.  IE: mortgage company, property owner, any and all recorded interest holders of the property.  

My friend just got a couple of properties at auction and one was homesteaded which will be a two year window for the redemption period with the property value at almost a million dollars.  The bid was 105K and there is also an IRS lien against the property which when the time comes, and the two year window is up, will be something to address with the IRS.  That doesn't make it a bad investment when you consider what the amount of the IRS lien is, 150K at the end of the day if you have to pay it the value is still there.  It's good to know everything you are up against when bidding on a property.  All liens and encumbrances must be recorded against a property to make it a valid debt.  There are ways of getting around the IRS lien also.  I put a link to an IRS document on this website on an earlier date.  

Since there are several districts, taxes, municipal utilities, and the independent school districts as well as the tax trust properties to choose from in Texas there are many properties available.  Here is a website that has the struck off listing through the independent school districts:  www.pbfcm.com

Once there go to tax sales, then go to resales, then go to the independent school district listings.  You will see Harris county has several.  You can go through the listings to see if there is anything you are interested in.  Anything from the year 2000 or older you can pretty much name your price.   There will be instructions on the listings as to which lawyer you need to talk to in order to make a purchase.  You will see the outstanding value and also see the adjudged value and I would start there.  If the spread is big enough to peak your interest then you can research the property to see what it is on the central appraisal district of that county.  

Keep in mind that since the auctions are the first Tuesday of every month, in every county, providing they have one the auctions roll around quickly.  The listings come out after the 15th of every month and some of the counties will have their struck off listing available on the website under the treasurer-tax collector department.  Another website which sounds like you have already visited is  https://www.lgbs.com/ Here you will find all of the different types of sales available in many of the counties in Texas.  You will see the sale county and then the sale type where you can select and see all the properties available.