Re: tax sales… - Posted by domineaux_TX
Posted by domineaux_TX on October 09, 2005 at 11:37:12:
Tax Sales are like fishing in the Mississippi. You can’t see into the water, and you’ll never know what you’ll catch. LOL
Tax Sales can come back and bite you like no other RE investing practice.
There is gold in the hills, but in the same context the Gold is just as hard to find and acquire at tax sales as it is for real…finding gold.
I’d suggest tax sales as a casual alternative for making investment property purchases. You can find many other much better “make money now deals on property” than tax properties.
The Basic reason - No one is fool enough to let a property go at a tax sale auction. There are too many options for getting the taxes paid before throwing in the towel. You can borrow money from all kinds of sources including family members to keep a property before it is lost to a tax sale auction.
You’ll rarely have a shot at bidding on a property with any “current resale for profit” without making further investment. Tax sale properties are for the most part troubled or crisis properties and usually vacant land.
You need to very carefully research all documents and filings on tax sale properties before bidding. You should “absolutely NEVER bid on tax properties unseen or NOT researched carefully”.
Texas uses a judicial foreclousure process for tax sale properties, which is one of the cleanest states for acquiring tax sale properties, IMO. I’ve had local jurisdictions and governments make claims against tax properties when they had no legal right to make the claims. I still had to pay an attorney and deal with the bureacratic shuffle. Title companies will demand complete satisfaction of liens and encumbrances…and it’s a rare buyer that will accept a property without a title policy.
One other big problem at tax sales is the complete ignorance of so many bidders. They will bid properties up thinking they’re making a “done deal”. You’d better do your research or you can be effectively motivated by the bidding process to pay an absolutely stupid amount of money for a property.
The expression…Caveat Emptor is critical to remember when you plunk down your hard earned cash at tax sales.
I love tax sales, because I’ve learned just about a co-zillion things from experience after 10+ years of making tax sale auctions. It’s always fun to buy a bargain “that’s a big win”, but honestly it’s usually not without working through problems on every property purchase made.