My First Tax Lien Sale!
It's official my people! I have a bidder number for my first tax lien sale!! I am going in light footed because I kind of just want to learn the process right now, but I have done a good amount of research. Between podcasts, forum posts, property searches, court records, and YouTube, I feel pretty good going into this. The only two things I haven't been able to find info on are: 1). Do these people know your real name/has anyone ever been threatened by the people you bought a lien from, and 2). If you bid on multiple properties, do you only win up to the amount of properties that you have a budget for? I plan to bid on more than I actually want, but that's because I don't believe I'll win most of them. Or is that bad to do? I meant to ask Ned Carey because I have noticed he is the go to Maryland tax lien guy, but I can't tag him because we aren't a connection yet.
@Elise Wharton are you bidding in the Baltimore sale? Different sale shave different rules.
I have never been threatened with person harm but once a lender said it was his ex girlfriend that last the house. He said if you evict I will rip out all the cabinets and materials that I paid for. It is a good idea to bid in an entity like an LLC but if you are dealing directly with former owners they are going to know who you are.
In Baltimore city you can set a budget. You could bid a milion dollars but if your budget is only $1,000 they will award you winnings up to $1,000 and then you are done. In some other counties you may not have the ability to set a budget so you need to know you will have enough money to pay for all that you win.
Hi @Ned Carey! I am actually bidding with Howard County because I know the area pretty well. They have you place a budget. I don't have an LLC yet, but if I end up liking the tax lien game then I will definitely look into one sooner than I originally intended. Allegedly most tax lien sales don't end in foreclosures, but if I win and it gets that far, I am mostly looking at places where the home isn't the primary residence. I haven't figured out where my conscious lies with tax liens yet so for some reason it makes me feel better to foreclose on someone's investment property instead of their primary. Not sure if that is logical or not lol.
@Elise Wharton Howard county is extremely competitive. I don't bother to bid there. Even if yo win a lien it is very unlikely you would get a property. The interest ratre will get bid down to probaly 4-6% there. You absolutley should participate, you will learn a lot, but don't have high expectations.
I'll be interested to hear how it goes.
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They don't know who you are or your name.
You can bid on as much as you like but you can't buy more than you have money to pay for.
@Ned Carey wooooooo I won nothing but knowledge, but I'll take that and try again at a different tax sale lol. Do you only do Baltimore City? I was trying to research what the most a least competitive counties are but I can't find anything really. I also want to see what bids people made for the properties I wanted but the winning list isn't out yet. How long do those usually take?
@Elise Wharton It doesn't surprise me that you won nothing. When I went to live auction in Howard county I never even got to raise my paddle before the bids were to high for me.
I have done several counties in Maryland but the main one for me is Baltimore city. I thiknk all of the counties in Maryland are pretty competitive. I participated in Saint Mary's county a few years ago. I figured it was more rural and would have less competition. Within seconds of the bids opening any property worth anything had a bid of 300% of the assesed value.
The key for a small investor is look for the odball property that might get overlooked.
How fast the results happen will depend on the county. Baltmoe city has them within minutes of each batch ending.
Was Saint Mary’s live so you could see what others were bidding? Howard is just an excel sheet that you submit
@Elise Wharton
Foreclosing on an investment property versus a primary residence makes sense to me.
I don't buy tax liens. Instead I look to buy from property owners who have tax liens. If they're not looking to sell then I look to help them keep the property.
I also work a lot of tax foreclosures and I've seen some serious horrors from people who lost their primary residence. Absolutely brutal. So while I'm not a big fan of tax lien investors in general (lol), I do appreciate your approach.
If a tax lien does go to foreclosure doesn’t your bid go to the owner and the HBP goes to the county….or am I wayyyy off? That way at least the owner gets something, especially if people bid high?
@Elise Wharton Saint Marys county went to an online format for the first time, the year I bid there. As I recall you could not see anyone else' bid.
Yes, if a property is foreclosed upon, the property owner, or others like lenders in the chain of title, get the amount of the bid above the taxes owed. The HIgh Bid Premium gets applied towards the bid price. The county only get the taxes owed.
I'm going to the Washington Co auction. I think it's one of, if not the last live auction in Maryland. I am also looking at some counties in West Virginia that are coming up.