When taxes aren't paid the county sells Tax Certificates, which is basically a loan made by an investor to the county for interest.

The success or failure of this type of investment is largely determined by WHO you are doing business with.In summary, I like the strategy but you have to do homework on the deal AND the sponsor, talk to references, obtain and verify track record information, and be prepared to NOT invest if things just aren't adding up.Good luck!

No drama and it's just about the numbers and the hours aren't crazy.Oh what you will go through to help out family!!

My family has a number of properties but they aren't protected properly and we really need some help creating the right entities and structures.

To give you some perspective, you aren't going to get much better on the rate for an investment property, maybe 4.125% with no points.

So like if you bought a rental property with the money, the interest would cut into the amount you pocket each month in cash flow, but that money is just being paid back into your retirement account, so you actually aren't losing any money.

Its not like selling a house where the list price and eventual sales price are rarely the same. ...That usually works, but I've seen ridiculous asking rents that no tenant would be willing to pay; for example, in a roughly $1200 neighborhood for "fair" rent (+/- $50 or $100), and somebody asking $1600 - tenants aren't willing to pay that kind of money way over the "fair" rent in that area.

It might be good for you to discuss the deal with a few people, and be sure you want to cancel the escrow, and aren't just afraid to go forward.

I agree that properties in L.A are expensive, but I know that there are people flipping in L.A I think it is probably harder now since there aren't many fixer REO properties on the market.It seems like people in L.A will have to resort to doing direct marketing to buy homes directly from homeowners.

They get "screwed," yes, but aren't they complicit in the screwing?