So many ways to make a profit from delinquent tax sale properties, but which way is right for you? Which way is the easiest and most profitable?
Well that all depends on where you live, how much time you have to devote to finding information and doing your due diligence, and whether or not you want to own property. So let’s take a look at the benefits and drawbacks of these three methods of making money from tax sales. And I’ll let you know how and where you can get more information on each one.
My specialty is tax lien investing. I like using tax lien investing both inside and outside of my retirement account as a way to invest my money for the future. I love the fact that I don’t have to do any negotiating with anyone, and that as long as I do my homework on the properties I invest in, I don’t have to worry about owning them. I could wind up with a property, but it’s not very likely, and even if I did get to foreclose on a property I could sell my lien to another investor and get my profit – without any headache instead.
But some of you might actually want to own property. You might like negotiating with people and buying and selling real estate. You might prefer to invest in tax deeds as opposed to tax liens. And just because you don’t live in a tax deed state doesn’t mean that you can’t purchase tax deeds. There are some states that have online tax deed sales and they make it very easy for you to do your due diligence online. California, Florida, and Michigan are three states that have counties with online tax deed sales.
Perhaps you don’t want to own property at all, or even have to evaluate properties, but you want to make a profit faster than with buying and selling tax deed properties. If you don’t have a lot of money to invest but you do have some time to invest then you may want to investigate how you can make money from tax sale overages. When properties are sold at tax deed sales and bid up way above the minimum due to the county, the overage can be claimed by the previous owner of the property. But many people who lose their property to tax sale foreclosures are unaware of this and the money goes unclaimed. After awhile this overage “escheates” to the county (is taken by the county). What if you could find people that are owed these overages and collect a fee for getting them their money? You wouldn’t have to put much money out at all, just some time in finding out who’s owed the overages and tracking them down.