Yesterday the Yavapai county online tax lien auction ended. For this year, I decided to use my spreadsheets of previous years results, to pick off a few select certificates on really nice properties in the Sedona area.

I knew this meant my interest rates would be on the lower end, but still better than savings accounts, CD's, and Money Market funds. Last year I went after only high rates and I was able to use my data to win 6 certificates all at 16%.

This year I went after 3 prime property certificates and had a few more as backup. I won 2 of three prime property certificates and would have won another of the backup certificates if I had not run out of funds. I was able to win one of the prime certificates even though it had over 7,000 competing bids!

These are blind auctions, meaning I have no idea what interest rate my competitors bid, and all I knew was how many bids there were on each certificate in total. Lowest interest rate bid is the winner.

I'll discuss what I did, and that of my friends who participated for the first time in tax lien investing, on my BiggerPockets blog in the next day or two.

Jerry