Real Estate Investor · Member since 2014 · 7 posts · 2 votes
I know many people direct mail property owners in the following categories; absentee property owners, behind on mortgage payments, probate, etc. What about text delinquent properties, people behind on their annual property taxes? I haven't read about very many people using that strategy. Does anyone use the strategy? Thank you!
I'm surprised you've never heard of people talking about this strategy. This is a great strategy in my opinion. I've tried to target these delinquent tax paying home owners right when they're notice is recorded into my county's public records. Don't expect them to call you right away, a lot of them are overwhelmed and feel like they can make up the payments eventually ( sometimes they can). However, the ones that end up falling farther and farther behind are the ones that will eventually call you (may take a number of months). The next step for these home owners is foreclosure, so your pitch to them should be that you can help them prevent foreclosure and save their credit.
I'm new to investing using delinquent tax payers. My question to those of you who are veterans would be what are you sorting your list by? Are you targeting only out of state homeowners, or are you only targeting a range of delinquent taxes? I would really like some insight here. Thanks in advance.
I personally search for tax sales throughout the country that hold tax lien sales online. Most of the tax liens sales I purchase online. For the tax deed sales I focus on GA, FL, and TX. I mostly contact the county either online or by phone for any upcoming sales. Where are you looking to invest? Have you identified the market you are comfortable investing in?
Harris County and surrounding areas. I am currently wholesaling and would like to use delinquent taxpayers as my niche, or at least for the moment. I've already purchased the list. It is rather large. Even after sorting by several filters, I still have over 80,000 properties. I definitely need to filter more. My brain is all over the place.
Thats some list. How many properties did you start with. Is the list in excel format. You may need to create different sub list based on property type. I look at many list every week and I know how overwhelming it can be. Are you looking to contact property owners before the properties go to tax sale? i've toyed with the idea, but for now I will just pick them up at the tax sale
Yeah, it seems like it's more so how you ask for something when dealing with the city/county. I would just try and dumb down your question & ask for a list of people who are late on their property taxes. In my county there's a new list after every tax year...
I used to market to these people all the time. I now have a new strategy that allows me to have them find me.
I market to everyone who has a house that I'm interested in. 3/2 /4/2 Free and clear. 10 year ownership or more. This allows me to focus on more counties I'm close to and want to work.
Yeah, lots of dead leads but it's cheaper than buying a list, scrubbing for equity, Making sure it's correct (hint) and working that list.
This way when someone calls, I know what they have is what I want AND if there's a problem, it'll come out at some point.
Hi I'm in Florida an attempting to get the list from my county. What info do you ask for exactly? I've been trying to find it on the county site but they make it to where they only give you the account number instead of the owner info
Each county in Florida populate their public sites slightly differently. I've found often times I need to cross reference information between various sites, ie, tax collector, property assessor and court records to truly determine the owner, how much was owed ect. It can be time consuming, but with some counties it seems to be the only way to get to the bottom of things. Keep what consistent information you can dig up like the parcel ID number, important or reoccurring dates at hand so when you click from one site to another you can make the connections.
How did I miss this thread? I had a hard time finding much info on BP regarding TD mailing several months ago when I started researching the idea. Since then I've scrubbed the TD list of a couple thousand in my area, to almost 600 that are 2 years or more & at the very least $5K behind in taxes.
This will be my first real stab at direct mail. Postcards arriving next week, I plan to mail my list every 6 weeks. I'm excited to see what my results will be & will let you know how it goes...
@Ushi Hastie That's great! I'm doing my mailing after the next round of taxes are due. Right now I'm hand mailing letters to owners that are 2 or more years and over $5K in delinquency as well.
@David Battle have you found out how to get the list from your county yet? I'm in Pinellas and I pull my own from my county website. Just wondering how does hillsborough county work?
I experimented a bit with tax delinquent lists in my state, Massachusetts. Went to the registry of deeds in Essex County and asked them; The staff there was a bit antagonistic. When I told them I'd ask the individual towns instead they said towns would NNNever (yes, the N's where LOOONG) give me such lists - that they "didn't exist". BS, I knew otherwise. I left the registry of deeds and visited several towns' treasurer/tax collector. At first I went there in person, but then I started googling them and simpy emailed them with my request. Most of the treasurer/collectors were very ince. They responded fairly soon and in most cases generated the lists without charging me a dime. Some towns in other counties (e.g. Worcester) actually already have such lists in their website.
The email/letter I sent them is this:
This is a request under the Massachusetts Public Records Law (M. G. L. Chapter 66, Section 10). I am requesting that I be provided a copy of the following records:
List of tax delinquent properties - properties that are behind in their taxes (2016 and prior)
I recognize that you may charge reasonable costs for copies, as well as for personnel time needed to comply with this request. If you expect costs to exceed $10.00, please provide a detailed fee estimate.
The Public Records Law requires you to provide me with a written response within 10 calendar days. If you cannot comply with my request, you are statutorily required to provide an explanation in writing.
Once I had a few lists, I cross referenced them with public record (to find out where the tax bill was being sent - that is, where the owner lived) and then sent out my letters. I got between 3-4% response rate, which was great, but I also got about 15% of my letters returned because the owner wasn't reachable. Perhaps I made the mistake of not asking for the "tax address" in my requests? Either way, I'm now leaning towards targeting absentee owners instead.
For folks working the tax delinquent list, what % of your letters get returned because the owner is unreachable? And more importantly, how do you handle those "leads"? Would love to learn. Cheers
@Alan King I'd love to follow that line of inquiry, but frankly I have no clue how to go about it. What are some tools you use to go down that line? What would you do if you get a letter returned?
This information is very valuable! Thank you for sharing, I appreciate it. For off market deals, I have began a small direct mail campaign targeting absentee owners in the state. The list I purchased was from list source. If you'd like PM me and I can give you the criteria I used to purchase the list as well as the 6 time (every 4 weeks) marketing plan I am running.
@Alan King I'd love to follow that line of inquiry, but frankly I have no clue how to go The SA market is hot. There are some good deals out there but they go quick. The key is to have your financing lined up so u can act fast. it. What are some tools you use to go down that line? What would you do if you get a lettereturned
@Miguel M. There are a few services online that will allow you to do some skip tracing. locateplus.com, lexisnexis.com, accurint, & tlo.com are some online skip tracing services. When a lead is returned the 1st step is to look at the returned mail piece. The post office may have labeled the lead vacant or provide a forwarding address. If the forwarding address is provided, send your mailer to the new address regularly. If no address is provided or the returned mail is labeled vacant, the goal is to locate a current address, phone#, email address, fb page, relative's contact info, etc. for the owner. If you are able to locate this info reach out to the owner regularly to see if they are interested in selling.
I tend to take aggressive measures when I know the property is sitting vacant with delequent taxes. The key is to be consistent and never give up.
In Michigan like most of the country I believe you fill out a very simple FOIA (freedom of information act) form and ask for the properties in the city you are farming for the properties that are tax delinquent. I keep it short and simple but polite. I find mine in the city clerk of that city. They usually have the list ready in a couple days and it's 6 bucks for 400 properties as an example in my area. Can't beat that!
I purchase A vacant property list from my city clerk of my city. I am looking for vacant properties in general but I find that many houses on that list are behind on taxes as well. It's kinda just works out that way.