OTC tax liens - Are they worth a look?
A question that pops up a lot in the Tax Lien threads "Why not just concentrate on Over the Counter (County Held) liens?" Seems simple enough. In most counties that offer them, you get the highest rate return and you have no auction with competitors.
Some counties, based on the statutes and sheer number of liens that are never sold - it makes sense. For the counties where I usually invest (AZ & FL), and because they use online auctions with plenty of bidders - only the junk is leftover. So OTC liens are not usually worth the time it takes to find the needles in the haystack.
To prove my statement, I wrote a blog post on my BP blog where I randomly pick 3 liens that nobody bid on, from the recently completed online auction of tax liens. I do a high level look to see what types of property are underlying those liens.
Of course, it didn't turn out as planned. I would have made a horrible lawyer. Never ask a question unless you already know the answer! I could have not published the blog post, or picked a different lien to prove my point, but I figured, it may be a good lesson to show that maybe you can get lucky - and also teach myself a lesson too. Don't make blanket statements hastily. But I'll say this, a sample size of 3 is too small to draw definitive conclusions.
With that, if you want to read about me eating a little crow, here is the link to the blog post.