tenant occupied property/tax deed sale

tenant occupied property/tax deed sale

Jacksonville, FL · Member since 2017 · 4 posts · 1 vote

So today I found a "NOTICE OF TAX DEED SALE" on my front door.  I rent a tiny 520 sq ft single family house in a horrible neighborhood -I mean the worst, however it's this house is Heaven to me.  

After the recession my world in new industrial and health care construction came crashing down, I was laid off without notice and zero work to be found.  

For a female who has been managing large construction projects for 25 years I was someone no body wanted not even to dig ditchs or scrub toilets and I wudda taken ANYTHING for any amount of pay, I would have worked for raman noodles if someone would have offered it.  

So me and my daughter lived anywhere and every we could find a place to lay our heads including but not limited to my car, homeless shelters, friends and family in 3 different sates.  

From 2008 until 2013 we were for the most part literally homeless and not for a lack of trying my very very very hardest.  

I moved where the work was and it was day to day survival.  I lived out of a duffel bag and rented whatever I could get my hands on because I could not commit to a lease because i could only find work at 1 construction project in any given state  at any given time while my daughter stayed with family.

I had to work, unemployment did not even cover 2 or 3 vials of insulin a month and I go thru about 10 per month, I was born a diabetic.  And since I was capable of working and had never even entertained applying for disability I did not qualify for Medicaid.  Even without insulin as a factor I had to work, it's all I have ever had other than my daughter, it's all I ever was and all I ever will be.  I started my first job at 9 years old and fell in love with the idea of work.  It's my ONLY sense of value but creates so much more in infinite, priceless, ways.

In 2010 I landed full time temp work in the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota but because I am a female I could not stay in the man camps, the pay was decent but no where and I mean no where to live, it is illegal to live in your car or camper in the winter (not that I wanted too) and my daughter stayed with family.  

Even with decent pay, still no place to live I was fortunate in knowing someone from an indian reservation, I went to school with his grand niece, she was able to hook me up with him and I lived in a horrible trailer house with no running water, no insulation and you could literally see the ground thru the bathroom floor and drove 1 1/2 each way to work everyday in 40 below weather but I had a job and that was ALL that mattered.  

That project wrapped up and I landed another project in South Dakota, a couple city parks and a sports complex, as those projects were rapping up the Good Lord blessed me with permanent good full time work in Jacksonville FL.  

I packed my duffel bag once again and made the drive and rolled the dice on eventually finding a place to live once I got here.  I finally found this little ugly gem of a house in a truly horrible neighborhood.  The rent is cheep which I need because now I am digging my credit out of the gutter.  I drive a very old ugly gem of a car, I live in a terrible neighborhood and I absolutely adore, cherish and love this house because it's a roof over our heads and I know that I can always afford the rent and for now that's ALL that matters.

It may always be that way for me and if so, then so be it, that's the cross I bear with tears of joy because there are so so so many with far far less.  

After I got the notice of tax sale on my front door today, I called my property manager to find out the scoop, she and all of her colleges are of course and as I feared "out of the office" until Monday, so I jump on line to find out what I can, and there is a tax deed certificate on the house so I google some more and I run across this website that I am sharing my story now with you and I read the most horrible awful condescending judgmental comments from the members of this site about low end run down houses,  and tenants that live in the property's your group purchases in some form or fashion as investment property's.

First know this, I nor my little tiny ugly gem of a house are "scary", "worthless", "loosers", "welfair squatting", "section 8", "HUD", "drug dealers", "drug users", "disability collecting", "food stamp spending" pieces of trash.

I would imagine that some of the property's that you purchase do have issues as with any money making opportunity but to be clear, the tenants many of you complain about are human beings from all different walks of life from all corners of the world.  

Yes, I am sure that there are some really difficult people that you have to deal with, but how dare you make blanket statements about the tenants of the property's you purchase!  How dare you categorize ALL tenants of cheep property's that make you money as worthless.  I mean my rent may be worthless to you as it is currently not going into your pocket  since it's a new purchase for you, but I am am not worthless.  My life here in this house...... NOT WORTHLESS.  

I am not asking for your sympathy, I am not begging for your respect.  I am telling you that the comments that I have seen on this website while just trying to find a little information out about tax deed sales and where that leaves the tenant, were shameful, heartbreaking and disturbing.

This little house is my whole world and I am the world to this little house, without me who would take care of it, certainly not my landlord thats forsure!  

So to the potential highest bidder, all I have to say is this, do not be afraid to knock on my door have a short conversation with me and just keep me in the loop about what happens next.  

I do not know what will happen, I do not know how to proceed, i am nervous and scared but I am not scary and I am a very nice understanding and reasonable person that will do all that I can to appease any given situation.  I am highly trained and well versed in the concept of flexibility and fast changing circumstances.  Surviving the recession by the skin of my teeth taught me that if nothing else.  I pay my rent in full each month BEFORE it's due and am seriously considering paying the back taxes my damn self to be done with it and keep my piece of mind and keep it movin until the taxes are due again next year.  The yearly taxes are, after all, about 50% of 1 months rent so no biggie.  The back taxes are a bit less than 1 months pay.  You may ask why I choose to live here if I don't really "have too" and I will tell you this, digging out of the recession will take years and that's at the lowest possible monthly budget.  I spend 30.00 on food each week pay my electricity and phone bill, car insurance and rent and my copay for insulin and thats IT thats ALL and I like it that way.  I actually enjoy getting by on the least amount possible, maybe a symptom of the recession, my Father told me thats how my Grandad (God rest his soul) and most people lived after the depression which is why all of the depression era's children and grandchildren .... our parents (baby boomers) are, for the most part, financially stable.

I implore each of you to be mindful, considerate and compassionate of how you think, what you say, who you say it too and were you say it at.  You never know who is listening or watching it may just be the person that you have to deal with as a result of your investment, and ultimately weather you believe or not our Father God sees all and hears all and one day you just like me, and every other soul on earth will have to answer for our thoughts and words and actions.  In the mean time I have to live with all the horrible things said about tenant occupied real-estate purchases that I saw this evening on this website while simply trying to prepare and get a feel for for whats next.  A responsible move by a person that cares not the type of person your words have painted a very dismal picture of.

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Real Estate Professional · West Palm Beach, FL · Member since 2012 · 23k+ posts · 13k+ votes
8y
When the new owner comes knocking on your door.....just tell them you’d like to stay, you’ll be reliable and leave it at that.
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  • Real Estate Professional · West Palm Beach, FL · Member since 2012 · 23k+ posts · 13k+ votes
    8y
    When the new owner comes knocking on your door.....just tell them you’d like to stay, you’ll be reliable and leave it at that.
  • Real Estate Investor · Audubon, PA · Member since 2009 · 13k+ posts · 8k+ votes
    8y

    Find out from the tax collector whether paying any part of the property taxes that are due will stop the tax sale. If it will, check with landlord to see if you could get some type of rent abatement / refund for paying them - that way if you did pay, you could be out of pocket no more than you have already budgeted. If landlord won't, then you can decide whether you prefer to possibly pay the taxes for the stability you seek.

  • Investor · Jacksonville, FL · Member since 2013 · 89 posts · 22 votes
    8y

    Hello @Christa 

    I am in Jacksonville also. I came across your post and I would be very interested in seeing what I could do to help. If you get a chance message me. Please don't let the post of a few destroy the image of the majority. 

  • Investor · Las Vegas. Jacksonville, Bay Area Ca, Nv, Ca, Fl · Member since 2015 · 511 posts · 220 votes
    8y

    @Christa M., I always squint when I hear or read of someone minimizing someones life or existence. Believe it or not there are a lot of people here on this site that has similar stories to yours. As @Gerald Smith stated don't let a few people who lacks compassion for the next person speak for the rest. I am sure your story will not fall on deaf ears. If you want you can P.M me, you can do this by clicking on my name and then click on message or connect. I am willing to help.

    I am not sure if you know how the tax deeds work so here is a quick run down. 

    If a property owner fails to pay property taxes then the county will offer the tax to be paid for by anyone. The person who pays the tax is issued a tax certificate. After 2 years and next April the certificate can be filed by owner with a application to apply for Tax Deed. This tax deed is a transfer of property ownership to the holder. Some counties/states the tax deed can be turned in to a full warranty deed after another year or 2. 

    What this means is that if you were to purchase this tax deed from the original holder then you have a stake in the property you live in.

    If anyone would like to correct or add to my description, please do.

  • Real Estate Professional · West Palm Beach, FL · Member since 2012 · 23k+ posts · 13k+ votes
    8y
    Okay guys, apparently you thought I was dismissing/minimizing the OP. Definitely not, but I can tell you.....someone new will own this property after the tax deed auction and if she dives into her whole life story/background as above, the new owner will immediately decide this is going to be too much drama long term, and evict her.....hence the advice given. As for her “buying the tax deed”, she obviously doesn’t have the money for it. Since a Cert holder has to pay off All other outstanding cert.s along with 18%/year to the county to send a property to tax sale, the minimum amount here is likely a few thousand dollars minimum even on a low end property like this, which the OP clearly can not afford. No since in fueling her with a false sense of a solution. She needs to present herself as a reliable tenant to the new owner.
  • Tom GimerBusiness Member
    DMV · Member since 2017 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    8y

    @Wayne Brooks is right. This is a TAX DEED sale rather than a tax lien sale. And unless the new owner plans to do something drastic (like demolish and rebuild -- not likely and wouldn't happen quickly anyway), OP should be able to continue to rent this property for a period from the new owner.

    Perhaps the new owner will be a better landlord who takes her rent and pays the property taxes. 

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  • Investor · Las Vegas. Jacksonville, Bay Area Ca, Nv, Ca, Fl · Member since 2015 · 511 posts · 220 votes
    8y

    @Wayne Brooks, By no means was I speaking of you or your post I was referring Christa's post when she stated... "I run across this website that I am sharing my story now with you and I read the most horrible awful condescending judgmental comments from the members of this site about low end run down houses, and tenants that live in the property's your group purchases in some form or fashion as investment property's."

    I was just giving Christa a quick run down on how tax deeds work. Since she mentioned... "The yearly taxes are, after all, about 50% of 1 months rent so no biggie. The back taxes are a bit less than 1 months pay." This can be a viable solution.  

  • Jacksonville, FL · Member since 2017 · 4 posts · 1 vote
    8y

    Wayne Brooks to be clear the reason that I told my story on this website is because I wanted ppl like you to understand that just because my property owner does not pay the taxes does not mean that I am a bad tenant clearly I am not going to go into a hour long rant about my past with a new property owner.  I am not crazy for God's sake, why would you assume that just because I told my life story on this website chastising the derogatory comments about tenant's that occupy the property's won in a tax auction that I would do the same to some random stranger that ends up with this property.  

    I ranted on this website because I was appalled at the derogatory comments from people just like you (small minded half wits with biased opinions) about people like me (tenants of cheep property's), but I thank you for further proving my point, hence the cause for the rant in the first place!  

    The most "drama" my property management company has EVER experienced in ANY interaction with me is my pen running out of ink when signing a 2 year lease, a lease that I asked for and a lease that was agreed to because i am such a good and reliable tenant with ZERO drama after being a zero drama tenant for the past 2 years.   Not every tenant of cheep property is a bad tenant.

    Why on earth would it matter how much money I do or don't have in the bank?   The fact that I have money to pay the rent in full each month before the first of the month is, after all, the bottom line.

    I am not trying to own this house, no one in their right mind would.    You failed to miss the entire point of the rant however you did provide the support for it with your ridicules assumption that there must be something wrong with me, otherwise why would I be ranting right?  I was ranting because of ppl like you, ppl that assume I must come with drama because I live in such a place and the unrealistic fear that one of your potential buyers may be scared off by the existing tenant.   The same place that ppl like you purchase, flip and sell to another person who then rents to ppl like me.  And so turns the circle of flipping.

    If your so concerned about horrible cheep tenants and the horrible problems they cause when trying to flip a cheep horrible property, stop flipping cheep horrible property's........duhhhhhhhhhhhh.  I mean seriously, that's like an abortionist bitching about unplanned pregnancy's.     

  • Jacksonville, FL · Member since 2017 · 4 posts · 1 vote
    8y

    THANK YOU Robert Rayford !!!!!!!! I truly appreciate your response!  And the information that you gave me is exactly what I was looking for when I stumbled upon this website but then got side tracked with anger after reading the terrible comments about tenants of cheep property's.

    So if I understand you correctly, if I simply just pay the back taxes plus the interest for the current property owner this entire issue goes away right?   Because if that is the case, and I can work something out with my current property owner to give me a rent credit that equals what I paid for them then that would be something that I would be interested in, and capable of,  in order to just to buy myself more time.  We are only talking about a few thousand dollars in reference to just my rental.  

    I believe the entire problem is that there are a total of 20 property's owned by my property owner and they are ALL going to tax sale.  The total tax liability for all 20 property's is just under $65,000.00 and that does not count the additional $42,000.00 owed in nuisance liens on 16 of the 20 property's, mine has no nuisance liens.

    OR would that be a bad move and jeopardize my few thousand dollars?  It equals about 5 months of rent credit.

    My goal is just to have another 2 years of time with super cheep rent and without the expense of moving again  in order to save enough disposable cash and much better credit to purchase my own property.

  • Tom GimerBusiness Member
    DMV · Member since 2017 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    8y

    This thread is going sideways. 

    A simple question about the tax deed sale process and timeline would have sufficed... if that was truly the goal. 

    Nobody here is interested in all this drama except perhaps for a good laugh. 

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  • Jacksonville, FL · Member since 2017 · 4 posts · 1 vote
    8y

    Tom Gimer -

    why did you spend time reading my rant in the first place if you weren't interested?  Why spend time commenting not once but twice?  No one forced you to spend your time reading it nor your time commenting ........and now your complaining because you did??????????

    I never expected or asked for anyone to give me advice and my original post did not solicit advice....my original post was a statement not a question, however I am sincerely thankful for the good advice that it generated, clearly your time is better spent somewhere else so please, i beg you to go spend it elsewhere - no one and I mean no one here is asking for your time

  • Investor · Jacksonville, FL · Member since 2013 · 89 posts · 22 votes
    8y

    @Christa M. Don't get caught in the woods. You know your situation don't let others cause you to loose focus. I would suggest seeing if you can buy the property for a little more than what is owed for taxes. Most of the time when this happens the owner has passed away and the heirs have neglected to pay the taxes. So don't worry about trying to change others mindset. It is!!! What it is!!!

    Remember others can't understand if they are not there. So focus on how you can make your next 10 years better than the last 10. When you get a chance read this book "Who Moved My Cheese"

    With your mindset and words you can frame your world, don't let negativity have a say when coming from others.

  • Tom GimerBusiness Member
    DMV · Member since 2017 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    8y

    @Christa M. Trust me, I wish I hadn't read it.

    This site has a KEYWORDS feature. The words you used in your post triggered my attention because you were discussing a topic of which I -- unfortunately -- have some knowledge.

    I'm pretty sure several who initially tried to be helpful got involved for the same reason. Let's see if you can offend every one of them.

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