As a new investor certain areas of real estate are appealing; however, the aspect of low risk, no money down with unlimited opportunity for profit is the most sort after. We all know no area of real estate is completely free; however, the area I am referencing is Tax sale overages.
My questions pertains to the tax sale overage process:
1.) to my experienced investors can you share your story/ journey in the tax sale overage arena?
2.) once you have identified and located the individual through your respective marketing strategy, you convey to them that they are entitled money, then you draft up the legal documents to highlight your finder's fee, obtain the unearned cash and you take your fee and transaction complete.
A.)Is it really that simple?
B.)If so what is the maximum finder's fee you can receive?
C.) what about the tax lien holders, banks, etc.?
I look forward to your responses? Please advise.
@Tyrone Harris @Tammy McBride I think k the fallacy of this system is that this company probably has multiple people working as “researchers” in your area, all going after the same leads. I also suspect the vast majority of this company’s income is in selling folks like you the system and Very little from actually collecting the surpluses for people.
One thing you guys need to realize, at least in my area, there are only one or two firms making any money at this, and it’s only part of what they do.
AND....those few people that are Acrually making any money at this are contacting the people owed a surplus THE DAY OF THE SALE, by email and cell phone. Once you find a “list” of people owed a surplus, YOU ALREADY WAY TOO LATE. I can assure you, the people selling you this program know this.
@Tyrone Harris question... So we have to sign up with what type of company? Are you referring to Surplusfundsriches.com?
Yes, Surplus Funds. That's who i signed up with, but there are a lot more companies out there!
@Tyrone Harris can you give me a few names and/or recommendations regarding companies?
Thank you
@Tyrone Harris can you give me a few names and/or recommendations regarding companies?
Thank you
@Tammay Morton have you began your journey in the Tax Overage business yet? If so can you tell me what steps have you taken and what company, if any, did you sign up with?.
Thank you
Off the top of my head, I can think of some guy named Bob Diamond. I believe he has a tax sales overage business as well. Your best bet would be to check google.
@Tyrone Harris @Tammy McBride I think k the fallacy of this system is that this company probably has multiple people working as “researchers” in your area, all going after the same leads. I also suspect the vast majority of this company’s income is in selling folks like you the system and Very little from actually collecting the surpluses for people.
One thing you guys need to realize, at least in my area, there are only one or two firms making any money at this, and it’s only part of what they do.
AND....those few people that are Acrually making any money at this are contacting the people owed a surplus THE DAY OF THE SALE, by email and cell phone. Once you find a “list” of people owed a surplus, YOU ALREADY WAY TOO LATE. I can assure you, the people selling you this program know this.
Sorry to tell you, but you are wrong. And,every opportunity has its ups and downs.
I just created an account here on BiggerPockets to post a reply to this thread. I really appreciate Tyrone's posts in charting his experience. I was googling what information was out there on Surplus Funds A/K/A Excess Proceeds A/K/A Overages and this thread came up.
I have to say working for 8% as a researcher for deals that may not (or will likely not) be closed, sounds like a really bad deal. I think researching deals and qualifying them as leads is a really important part of the process, and if you know how to do that, you may be farther along than you think in working in this business.
My background is that of a Private Investigator, but I have been in the Surplus Funds business for the past 8 years. I did not pay for a course to learn, but got my start working for a company that specialized in the recovery of funds, and many of those were Excess Proceeds from the tax sale of a property. It was a good education, but I figured out a way to do these things on my own without a title department, researchers, office staff, manager or an in house attorney.
There is definitely a lot of wrong ways to do this business, and it is easy to get burned out if you don't figure out how to get it right. It took me about a year of full time work experience with the company I worked for to really get a feel for how to approach deals, and this is just from the sales side, I was there for another year and a half before I figured out everything else. Well, not EVERYTHING as there are a bunch of different types of Unclaimed Funds out there and different holding entities. It's a pretty big market.
I think if you have solid background in real estate, you could do this business. I think house flippers could definitely do this business. Certain types of PI's like myself would be good for this business. I'm not saying you have to have those types of backgrounds, but it definitely gives you a leg up.
As for the courses that are out there...I haven't seen one teaches people the way I handle cases. I would say beware of the guys who flash a bunch of money and talk about how easy it is.
I have uncovered fraud in doing this work and have cooperated with authorities on more than one occasion. I have also ensured that people do not lose money to liens that should not have been paid out. The majority of the cases I handle, the party of interest would likely have not gotten the money I was able to get for them has I not gotten involved. I have seen other cases where high sums of money have become the property of the holding entity because nobody stepped forward. These funds don't escheat to the state.
It's a great business to be in once you figure it out and have the right approach.
Hello@Tyrone Harris. I've considered joining that program as well. On ytbe, they encourage you to research many different states. So if it takes 2 to 3 months to finally get paid, I would research everywhere and get a good lump sum worth my effort. How has the business been treating you? I'm hoping very well by now.
@Jasmine Poteat hello. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out for me. I have not been paid yet. So I've moved on to something else. Good luck in your endeavors....
I just created an account here on BiggerPockets to post a reply to this thread. I really appreciate Tyrone's posts in charting his experience. I was googling what information was out there on Surplus Funds A/K/A Excess Proceeds A/K/A Overages and this thread came up.
I have to say working for 8% as a researcher for deals that may not (or will likely not) be closed, sounds like a really bad deal. I think researching deals and qualifying them as leads is a really important part of the process, and if you know how to do that, you may be farther along than you think in working in this business.
My background is that of a Private Investigator, but I have been in the Surplus Funds business for the past 8 years. I did not pay for a course to learn, but got my start working for a company that specialized in the recovery of funds, and many of those were Excess Proceeds from the tax sale of a property. It was a good education, but I figured out a way to do these things on my own without a title department, researchers, office staff, manager or an in house attorney.
There is definitely a lot of wrong ways to do this business, and it is easy to get burned out if you don't figure out how to get it right. It took me about a year of full time work experience with the company I worked for to really get a feel for how to approach deals, and this is just from the sales side, I was there for another year and a half before I figured out everything else. Well, not EVERYTHING as there are a bunch of different types of Unclaimed Funds out there and different holding entities. It's a pretty big market.
I think if you have solid background in real estate, you could do this business. I think house flippers could definitely do this business. Certain types of PI's like myself would be good for this business. I'm not saying you have to have those types of backgrounds, but it definitely gives you a leg up.
As for the courses that are out there...I haven't seen one teaches people the way I handle cases. I would say beware of the guys who flash a bunch of money and talk about how easy it is.
I have uncovered fraud in doing this work and have cooperated with authorities on more than one occasion. I have also ensured that people do not lose money to liens that should not have been paid out. The majority of the cases I handle, the party of interest would likely have not gotten the money I was able to get for them has I not gotten involved. I have seen other cases where high sums of money have become the property of the holding entity because nobody stepped forward. These funds don't escheat to the state.
It's a great business to be in once you figure it out and have the right approach.
YUP those who i know that have any modicum of success at this have a background or are PI's there are many places to find lost money.. Other than tax sale overages.. you have escrow holds that cant get forwarded and end up with the state.. I had one personally for 8k some PI found for me in Oregon.. he was working on another case and just ran my name.. he did it for free .. all sorts of monies for all sorts of things. Tax overage makes those who sell the system money and maybe 1% or less who try it actually get anywhere. We tried hard we got some I consider myself pretty knowlegable in the RE game.. its just a very tough thing to do.
@Jay Hinrichs Yeah it bothers me to see these guys that sell these systems by showing checks and pretending that this field is little more than an untapped ATM. Of course, all you need to do is to buy their system to make it all work for you.
There is actually an attorney who markets his system quite a bit. This blows me away because attorneys can't solicit clients, which is what must be done in order to get deals. I always wondered how he actually taught something he cannot do himself. He has pictures of people holding up checks which likely represent deals that came back to him to handle and to take the lion's share of the fee from the student. What I would like to see is the percentage of people who purchased his course that have actually closed one deal.
I appreciate @Tyrone Harris for continually updating his experiences here for others doing their due diligence for the system he purchased.
@Scott E White Hi Scott, I am currently obtaining my PI license here in AZ after a 17 year career in LE. I am curious about excess funds and how it ties into PI work.
@Scott E White Hi Scott, I am currently obtaining my PI license here in AZ after a 17 year career in LE. I am curious about excess funds and how it ties into PI work.
PI's are generally good researchers and can locate information that may not be readily available in an easy to use database. I will use various forms of FOIA requests along with networking my way through different holding entities to get the information I need to find cases.
Additionally, all of the unclaimed or excess funds are there because a problem exists. To effectively work one of those cases, it is best if you know what caused them to get to their current stage. Sometimes its easy to find the funds and figure out the underlying issues: those files have the most competition. The difficult ones require more investigative resources and experience to work effectively: these files have the least competition.
Being a good investigator/researcher is how to access a greater amount of leads which turn into deals for fair fees. This is not taught in any of these online courses that have been discussed. I would hazard to guess that most of these "courses" are better designed to take your money vs. helping you succeed in this field. The most valuable thing in this business (as in most businesses) is good leads. Getting access to good leads is worth paying for.