Hey BP community,

I’m contemplating purchasing my first buy & hold property and see it’s on the auction list. I was wondering if anyone has experience with Philly tax auctions? Are these properties being sold with the debt attached to it or is the sold amount at the auction what’s needed to clear the property?

For instance, if I purchase a property at the auction that has $5K in back taxes for $6.5K, am I assuming the debt as well?

@Derrick Alexis if you buy it from the Auction it should free and clear. However the original owner has about 9 months to come back and claim it. Happened to me. I bought properties from Philly auction .

@Reda Akbil in that scenario, the city is suppose to issue a refund if receipts are shown right? Also, if you don’t mind me asking, how was your success with purchasing at a great price, I’ve attended a few and the numbers get driven up ridiculously

@Derrick Alexis right! My best deals were 2-3 years ago. I stopped going because like you said prices don’t make sense anymore.

Originally posted by @Reda Akbil :

@Derrick Alexis if you buy it from the Auction it should free and clear. However the original owner has about 9 months to come back and claim it. Happened to me. I bought properties from Philly auction .

@Irfan Raza and I were looking a couple of months ago to find someone who had their property redeemed via the right of redemption period. Can you talk more about what the experience was like? Did you receive your full investment back + 10%? Was the property occupied when you purchased it? Cash for keys situation pop up prior to the redemption? Any insights you can share would be great. 

Originally posted by @Derrick Alexis :

@Reda Akbil in that scenario, the city is suppose to issue a refund if receipts are shown right? Also, if you don’t mind me asking, how was your success with purchasing at a great price, I’ve attended a few and the numbers get driven up ridiculously

My understanding is you can't get reimbursed for just anything, say you go and remodel the kitchen, you'd be out that money if the right of redemption was exercised. If you fixed an L&I violation like a crumbling wall, you could get reimbursed for that. Most title companies won't give you title insurance for a year, even though right of redemption is 9 months, and it's only on owner occupied properties, but title companies don't care. Even if it's vacant land they won't insure for a year, so plan to not be able to get financing on it for a full year because you can't get title insurance. 

@Reda Akbil did you buy the properties that were owner occupied or non owner occupied?