I don't care for it since you have to be there in person, but it does seem to reduce the opportunity for steering the best underlying parcels to "a few friends" of the treasurer.Ryan, my quick read of the rules indicated you have to give a $500 deposit, the list will cost you $250.00, and each certificate will have $104.00 in fees added to the tax amount! 

I don't market to absentee's at this moment so I dont wanna steer you the wrong way.

I've always tried to steer myself towards the second category. 

Once you have a team established, they should be able to steer you away from bad areas.

Once you know those two things we can steer you in the direction of where to invest that time/money.  

Id steer you towards re-evaluating the strategy and what your ultimately trying to do.

Any referrals or companies to steer clear of?

Hi Wen,  My best advice would be to steer clear of the Quickbooks / Quicken product line as they just aren't designed for property managers or landlords at all.  

Happy to walk through that process in more detail if that would help but a rockstar real estate agent like @Eudith Vacio, Account Closed can definitely steer you in the right direction!

Hopefully others see this and steer clear.