When To Initiate Attorney Actions During Lien Redemption Period

[Ben F.]

Hello BP Members,

I am looking for advice on when to hire and initiate any attorney actions within the redemption period of an owned lien.

I have liens in Arizona and Florida.  All of them are nearly 1 year since purchase.  Florida has a 2 year redemption period and Arizona has a 3 year redemption period.

When should I initiate any actions from an attorney from these states?  I anticipate the attorney would begin reaching out to the owner before the redemption period ends?? After-all, at the point that the redemption period ends, there is no reconciliation time left. 

• Or do I wait until the full redemption is over and then deal directly with the county (by way of my attorney)?

Thanks for the advice! If you have references for attorneys in these states, please send them my way...

[Wayne Brooks]

You misunderstand the FL process. There is no set “redemption period” in FL. You don’t “foreclose” with an attorney, the tax collector sends it to a public tax deed auction. The 2 years is the minimum time you must wait before you can send the property to a tax deed auction.
In order to get the tax collector to do this, you pay an application fee And you have to pay off all the other outstanding certificates, along with the 18%/yr interest the county gets on them, then the tax collector schedules the auction....takes about 3-4 months.
The minimum bid at the auction is an amount slightly above what you already have out pocket....if no one bids that high you get the property (at a price higher than anyone else was willing to pay). If someone buys it above the minimum you get your spent money back....all this to collect the interest you bid on Your certificate.
This can easily be 10 times the money you originally purchased the certificate for.
Many certificates expire worthless at the 7 year mark when people who bought a certificate on a junker property realize they’ll be throwing good money after bad.