Any tips for investing in tax lien certificates remotely?
I live in Portland, OR, which is a tax deed state, and the nearest tax lien states to me are Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arizona. Right now I only have around $7k to invest, so I don't really want to spend the money to travel to go to a live auction, because the travel expenses would eat a lot of my profit unless a property doesn't redeem, which is somewhat unlikely. That leaves me with investing in over the counter (aka assignment purchasing, struck liens, whatever the county calls it) or attending an online auction. I know that AZ, CO, and FL do online auctions but I'm not sure what the competition looks like for those and I want my return to be as high as possible. I'm also struggling with the question of whether I should go the tax lien route or if I should just try to put my money towards a buy and hold property instead. How have people been doing with remote tax lien/deed investing?
Note: I've done quite a bit of research on tax liens and deeds through some of the products that the US Tax Lien Association offers, so I feel confident that I have a good basic knowledge around tax liens and deeds, and my next step is to focus on specific states and counties and start learning the specifics.