New to Tax Sales or DeedGrabbing? Start Here

What is a DeedGrabber? What is DeedGrabbing? The first question I am often asked is, “What is a DeedGrabber?” Here is the short answer: A DeedGrabber is an investor who gets a deed to (buys) property that is about to be lost to a tax sale investor. Read my article Tax Sale Basics for a more complete understanding of how most tax sales work. Can YOU Be a DeedGrabber? Nearly anyone can use the DeedGrabbing technique to profit from tax sales. Why? Because, as a rule, we do not risk or invest more than a few hundred dollars on any given [...]

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Tax Properties – 5 Things You Should Know

At some point in everyone’s real estate investing career, tax properties enter the scene as the “miracle” real estate investing vehicle. Usually this comes about because of a tax sale guru’s promise of free and clear properties for only a hundred bucks or so. Unfortunately, this just isn’t how it works 99% of time – at least if you do things the “usual way”. What You Should Know About Tax Properties 1. The number one thing you’ll discover when you go to your first tax sale, is that there is always a catch. If the properties are being sold outright [...]

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Quit Claim Deed VS Warranty Deed: What’s the Difference?

I’m often asked if a quit claim deed has the same “power” as a special warranty deed or warranty deed. The concern is that if a quit claim deed is obtained, that the new owner will somehow have “less than full ownership.” This is not true. A quit claim deed, like the other deed types, transfers any and all interest in the subject property, from the person signing the deed (the grantor) to the person receiving the deed (grantee). The Quit Claim Deed While all deeds transfer any valid interest from the grantor to the grantee, a quit claim deed [...]

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Flipping Houses in Now and Beyond

Think flipping houses is “dead” after the real estate meltdown? Not at all. It just takes a different strategy to be viable in this real estate environment. Here is how the art of flipping houses has changed over the recent years. No More Investor Mortgages When I first started flipping houses in 2005, there was more money available to investors than they knew what to do with! Mortgages were granted to nearly anyone, and so selling was easy. Now, investor mortgages are all but a thing of the past. It’s largely a cash game in the under $40,000 housing market. [...]

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Lien Certificates Part 3: The Arrangement Between Rich Man and Poor Man

The Plan For Investing in Lien Certificates The investment plan for lien certificates that I always made to the Rich Man when I was the Poor Man: I offered to research the lien certificates, which was a significant expenditure of my time. It involved driving past every property I was considering, and then looking up aerials of each one. I’d get my short list together and then I gave Rich Man two options. He could either send me to the sale with a check, or he could come along and buy the lien certificates directly into his name. Rich Man [...]

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Lien Certificates Part 2: ‘Rich Man’ and ‘Poor Man’ Team Up

In a previous post we met ‘Rich Man’ and ‘Poor Man’, and why lien certificates were not a viable investment for either one of them individually. Poor Man may not actually be “poor” as we normally define it. But he doesn’t have much cash for long term investment. For now, he’s looking for bargain properties. And, Rich Man may not be fabulously rich by the normal definition either. But, he has several thousand dollars in cash that he’s looking to invest safely, and passively (he doesn’t want to have to manage the investment). He won’t need the money for quite [...]

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Lien Certificates Have Something To Offer For ‘Poor Man’ and ‘Rich Man’

Lien Certificates – Yielding Two Forms of Return That Couldn’t Be More Different! Recently, in my post “Tax Liens: What Camp Are You In?“, I showed you how lien certificates produce one of two very different results. Most of the time, quality liens will redeem. A much smaller percentage of the time a quality property is obtained. In this 3-post series we’ll meet ‘Rich Man’ and ‘Poor Man’. Rich Man may not be fabulously wealthy, but he has several hundred thousand dollars that he won’t need to use for several years. He’s looking for a better return on it than [...]

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Tax Lien Auctions – “Bid Up” + 3 Additional Formats

To briefly sum up my first post (here) about tax lien auctions: Each state has different rules for their tax lien auctions but they can all be grouped into 4 general types We talked about the first type, found in just a few states, called “bid up” tax lien auctions The price of the lien is literally bid up until only one person remains An overbid is created if there is a lot of bidding activity. The overbid is returned to the tax buyer with interest if the lien pays off. It goes to the former owner in the event [...]

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Tax Lien Auctions – The 4 Major Flavors

Tax Lien Auctions: What Are the Major Formats? Tax lien auctions are conducted differently in each state. Though it’s common to see two states with seemingly identical tax lien auctions, there are always at least minor differences. For example, South Carolina and Indiana tax lien auctions are very similar. In each case, the state auctions a tax lien and allows competitive bidding. The owner has exactly one year to pay the tax lien off (called a redemption period) in either state. Interest rates even end up being similar even though they’re paid out differently. However, there are likely different rules [...]

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What Is A Tax Lien Certificate: Misconceptions Debunked

What Is A Tax Lien Certificate? “What is a tax lien certificate” is a question that late night infomercials try to answer in a misleading way. Let’s look at some of the top misconceptions that arise during these attempts to answer, “What is A Tax Lien Certificate”… Misconception #1: What is a tax lien certificate? A: It’s an above-market return on your money, guaranteed by the government! Truth: Tax lien certificates are guaranteed by nobody. IF the owner pays the certificate off, the government will definitely pass those payoff funds onto you. But if not, you will have to take [...]

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