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49
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Londell Reedman
  • Pinole, CA
15
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49
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5th year of unpaid taxes

Londell Reedman
  • Pinole, CA
Posted

hello to the BP community

So I have a friend that's approaching his 5th year of unpaid property taxes. He does not plan on paying either... The single family home is worth 200k. I offered to pay the taxes of 6k. what's a good amount on offering him for the property??? lets take in consideration the house is in the middle nowhere and it takes months for the house to sale in the area.

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5,116
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Kyle J.
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Northern, CA
5,180
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5,116
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Kyle J.
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Northern, CA
Replied

@Londell Reedman Don’t pay the taxes that are past due. That’s the worst thing you could do in this scenario. All that would do is bring him current on his taxes and he would have zero motivation to sell. Furthermore, paying the taxes will not give you an ownership right in the property so you will have accomplished nothing.

If the house is in your state (California), the county can/will auction the property off at a tax deed auction after 5 years of unpaid property taxes. So if this will be his 5th year of not paying taxes, the county should start that process after he doesn’t pay and he’ll begin to get some notices in the mail which could help with his motivation. 

The county always publishes the list of properties it intends to auction, so you’ll be able to confirm if his property ends up on the list. If it does, you can be assured he’s received notices from the county and that might be the ideal time to re-approach him and have another conversation about selling. His motivation at that point is certain to be higher than it is now. 

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