Buying properties at tax lien auctions

Tax lien auction can be a great way to buy real estate. Each county in the US has a unique way of settling past due tax liens. After a certain period of time of diliquency on a tax bill, the county will foreclose on the property and sell it at auction. Most auction are held online by a third party auction company and are quite simple to navigate and are fun to participate in. A deposit is require to participate of usually a couple thousand dollars that is forfited if you are the winning bidder on a property and then don't pay for it. The bidding will start at what is owed on taxes at some auctions or it will start at a minimum amount like $100. You can usually bid in $100 increments and are given a time period for bidding. Each property's bidding will have a date and time the bidding ends with a last minute bid adding an extra 5 minutes to the bid ending time. If is fun to wait and try to out bid another bidder by $100 at the last minute. The extra five minute makes it exciting. You can also put your bids on automatic to go up to a certain bid and cut off. That way you can bid on several homes at once and get the ones that sell in your price range. The nice thing about bidding on tax lien foreclosures is that they are in first place over all other liens and wipe all the other liens off, so you get the property free and clear other then the most recent property taxes. Even the past due property taxes are wiped off. To find property tax foreclosure auctions, call the county tax assessors office in the area where you want to buy and ask them where and how they auction their properties. I bought 17 homes in one auction for a total of $54,000, meaning an average of $3K a house. Make sure the market value justifies buying any property by adding the rehab cost to what you bid to know if you can sale it for a profit. Also make sure the area you are buying in can be rented easily so you will have a nice cash flow investment. Goodluck.