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Getting Started with Your Tax Lien Certificate and Tax Deed Investment Business

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By: Ted Thomas


Investing in tax lien certificates and tax deeds is a business that almost anyone can start. It doesn’t require any more than motivation, a small amount of money, and knowledge of how the system works. While I can’t help you with the first two requirements, my successful students and I can help you with the third one.

The Basics of Any Good Business

As the old saying goes, knowledge is power. The more you know, the better your investments will be – whether you are creating wealth through the stock market, by opening your own storefront, or by purchasing tax lien certificates and tax deeds.

Think of your investment business as an office building. Before the walls goes up, there has to be a foundation in place. Not only is the foundation the most important part of constructing the building, it’s the hardest part to do. It takes careful planning, using the blueprints (knowledge) to create a foundation that will support the subsequent structure.

Although its importance can’t be overstated, one day the foundation will be covered up. No one will be able to see it and it will become a forgotten part of the building. Nevertheless, the building must stand firmly on the foundation or it will crumble.

The same is true of a business. Your profits will speak for themselves, but no one will realize the time, research, and effort you put into creating a foundation of success. Just remember that without those ingredients, your road to profitable investments will be a rough one.

Understand the Process

The more comfortable you are with the process of bidding on tax lien certificates and tax deeds, the better your chances of making good buying decisions. One of my successful students, Craig Talkington, puts it this way, “You do it once and it gets easier every time you do it. It’s guaranteed. The worst that happens is you get your money back.”

Not only that, it gets more profitable! Recently, Craig bought a 10-acre tract of land at a Tax Lien certificate sale. It was next to a school in a bad part of town and everyone thought he was crazy. But Craig was crazy like a fox – he figured the school would eventually want to use it for expansion. He bought the certificate for $1,500 and later sold the property to the school system for $34,000. Craig kept investing part time and it didn’t take long for his profits to snowball.

Know the Rules

Each county is different when it comes to auctioning tax lien certificates and tax deeds. They have specific rules and particular bidding procedures. There are many bidding processes, I’m only mentioning two in this tutorial.

The bidding process at a tax lien certificate or tax deed auction varies. Two types are a reverse auction and rotational bidding.

At a traditional auction, bidding starts with a minimum amount and each subsequent bid goes up; in a reverse auction, it starts at the high point and then goes lower. This type of auction is used in the states of Arizona and Florida. In Florida, the bidding is on an interest rate that starts at 18 percent. The interest rate gets progressively lower as the bidding continues and may go down to less than one percent.

The state of Colorado, on the other hand, uses a rotational bidding process. This means the bidders are all given a card with a number; the auctioneer will go around the room in order from lowest to highest number asking for bids. At some rotational bid auctions, the numbers are printed on ping pong balls and put into a big drum, much like you might see at a bingo game.

Dates and times vary widely amongst tax districts, too. For instance, the state of Texas sells tax defaulted properties every month. Texas counties sell tax deeds; however the deed has an encumbrance. Texas allows the property owners to pay the investor directly and redeem the tax-defaulted property anytime within 180 days. The owner must pay the amount of the defaulting taxes on the deed plus 25%, no matter the amount of days the debt has been outstanding. You could easily make a tidy profit in less than 30 days and that is why Texas is a popular state when it comes to tax deed investing.

Obviously, there is a lot to learn about the particular rules imposed by each county and municipality – but learning them forms the foundation of your business.

Get Started Now

The most important thing is that you get started on your investment business. You don’t have to quit your day job; you need to make small changes and begin to control your destiny so you have money in the future.

Ask yourself, “Is this in my best interests?” The more you learn the better your investment business will be and the more you will like it. Tax lien certificate and tax deed investing is as safe an investment as you can imagine since it is secured by real estate, your money protected by tax code, and certificates pay one of the highest rates of interest in the market.

Ted Thomas is famous for showing newcomers and investors how to earn 6 figure incomes within 1 year of completing his training program. Conservative investors love tax lien certificates because they are predictable, certain and secure and sold by local government. Tax defaulted properties are sold at oral big auctions and online. Starting bid, only the back taxes…. More information at www.TedThomas.com

 

Real Estate Investors, If You Could Buy Single Family Homes With No Mortgage For 20 Cents On The Dollar, How Many Would You Buy?

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By Ted Thomas

Here’s the secrets of a little known but highly lucrative business of purchasing tax defaulted properties at auction for 10-20 cents on the dollar.

For many, the question is, what’s the difference between a tax lien certificate and a tax defaulted property (tax deed)? Before you begin investing, it is vital that you understand how a tax deed works, once you know you can purchase tax-defaulted real estate for pennies on the dollar but it’s only profitable if you know what you are getting when you bid.

What is Tax Defaulted Property (Tax Deeds)?

In a very basic sense, every piece of land in the United States is owned by the federal government. The government allows you the right to own the property as long as you pay taxes on it.

Many years ago, the U.S. Congress enacted laws that allowed individual states to handle governmental duties and obligations at the local level. The states further designated counties to handle the property taxation part of those duties and obligations. When you pay property taxes to the treasurer or assessor’s office, those funds are used to pay for public schools, police and fire departments, and any number of other civic services. The local government that manages and operates these services is primarily funded by property taxes.

Every year hundreds of thousands of property owners neglect to pay property taxes for various reasons. So what happens then??

The remedy for local government is to confiscate that property and resell it at a tax defaulted property auction for only the back taxes with no mortgage. The majority of these auctions use a public oral bid system. To quality as a bidder is simple; you just need to register before bidding. The starting bid is the amount due to the local government for back taxes plus penalties and interest. If you win, in most instances, you must immediately pay for your purchase.

It doesn’t matter where you live; county governments in all 50 states are authorized to hold auctions to recover delinquent back taxes. Some states offer tax lien certificates, other states offer tax defaulted property auctions (tax deeds) which are used to collect the past due property taxes owed. The difference? A tax lien certificate entitles you to collect the amount of tax you paid plus the interest penalties; a tax deed purchased at auction allows you to become the owner of the property for the price you bid at auction the mortgage is extinguished, that is deleted by law.

The secret to becoming a successful investor in tax defaulted property (tax deed) real estate is to know the who, what, when, where, why, and how these tax auctions take place.

Golden Rule #1

Know what you’re buying. This includes the size of the parcel, how many buildings are on it, zoning, restrictions, easements, the annual amount of property taxes, the appraisal value, previous sale prices, and current condition.

Taxes are usually assessed at 1 to 1.5 percent of the property’s value. So a piece of real estate valued at $100,000 will be assessed somewhere around $1,000 in taxes each year. Three years of back taxes would equal $3,000 and the local county will probably ask for a minimum bid at the tax defaulted property auction of $3,500 -the county will add late payment penalties to the back taxes.

The next question that must be answered is where and when are the auctions taking place? Normally auctions are conducted at county offices, but not always. Regardless of the location, it will be announced in advance of the auction. Some counties hold one big annual event while others schedule tax defaulted property auctions monthly, annually in the United State of America there’s over 5,000 tax defaulted auctions.

Secondly, you must know how the bidding process works. Rules vary from state to state, taxing district to taxing district. Some counties use an online bidding process which is becoming more and more popular, but the majority still hold live auctions you may attend in person.

At the auction, each parcel number is announced in turn; then the auctioneer asks for opening bids. It works much like any other auction; the bidding goes up until there are no more bids. The person who wins with the highest bid is awarded a Treasurers Tax Deed from the county treasurer. Make note there’s dozens of unique bidding processes, this is only one.

Real Estate For 20 Cents On The Dollar

There’s big money to be made buying tax defaulted property at auction Tax defaulted property (tax deed) auctions allow you to buy low and resell for a quick profit. Do your research, and you’re bound to find success!

Ted Thomas is famous for showing newcomers and investors how to earn 6 figure incomes within 1 year of completing his training program. Conservative investors love tax lien certificates because they are predictable, certain and secure and sold by local government. Tax defaulted properties are sold at oral big auctions and online. Starting bid, only the back taxes…. More information at TedThomas.com