All Forum Posts by: Jerry K.

@Ned Carey and Karen - To answer the two points Ned brought up - I think it may depend on the county, but in Pinal county I had an owner redeem after the tax lien foreclosure was started and the owner had to pay all my attorney fees. Not sure if the same holds true for Navajo county. 

You can assign the certificate easily. The county will probably have a fee to do so. I had a person purchase two certificates from me and they paid the county a fee to have them registered to their name.

@Karen D. Schiano I haven't looked up the statute yet, but what you described is acceptable - where you offer to buy when you send the "Intent to Foreclose letter". That is the first step of foreclosure in AZ (which is when you can can contact them) and my attorney sends the letter for me. Added in the letter is language to contact us if they have no intention to redeem. I'm going by what my attorney has advised me. If the county said you can contact them before the redemption period is over (before your Intent to Foreclose letter is sent) I'll leave that to you to decide. I'm not an attorney and I highly recommend talking with one. There are people who do their own tax lien foreclosures - I choose not to do that since I don't have the expertise or time to do it correctly on my own.

@Karen D. Schiano - I'm an Arizona tax lien investor and the statutes are what you have been told; you as a tax lien holder may not contact the owner regarding the property. That includes asking about payoff of the lien or buying the property. It's an easy lawsuit for them to file, if they know, or if someone tells them about the statute. The courts will protect the owner before you - the tax lien holder.

You might be able to contact them about buying the property if they list the property for sale before the redemption period is up. But I would contact an attorney to get clarification before I would do that. That is not specifically noted in the statute, so they could file a lawsuit if they found out you held the tax lien. 

Dave you can get the results and list of winners from the county auction website. You may have to create a free account to access the list. 

https://coconino.arizonataxsale.com/

Under the Advanced menu on the left side, there is a "Downloads" choice. clicking on that will bring a page where you can download a TXT file of the results. The name of the winner (or entity) of each lien is listed. Note, they have yearly result files going back to 2007.

Here is the last table larger to be able to read:

The 2019 online tax lien auction for Coconino county in northern Arizona ended last week and here are some unofficial results. Results can change if investors do not make their final payments for their lien purchases.

Dollar amount sold was about $178,000 less than year. The total number of liens rose slightly in comparison to the previous year. The number of investors who won liens this year remained flat at 69.

Flat number of liens won, dollar amounts down and number of investors who won was flat. Looks like institutions or individuals are still moving away from lien investing as overall interest rates are going up on other investments - the overall winning tax lien rates this year went up to 5.26%.

Interesting that the percentage that had the highest number of bids placed was 15%. That is a jump from the usual 5% or 6% level. Could be there were many new investors. New investors tend to bid high their first year. I’ll know more when I build my Bids list later this month.

Number of liens sold to investors:

2019 - 599  (1,846 did not sell and were Struck to County)

2018 - 531
2017 - 630
2016 - 766
2015 - 767
2014 - 1,062
2013 - 1,220

Total dollar of liens sold:

2019 - $640,851.63  ($1,743,387.16 did not sell; still held by the county)

2018 - $818,883.67
2017 - $1,023,450.05
2016 - $789,139.40
2015 - $752,379.78
2014 - $1,359,566.57
2013 - $1,868,433.33

Average rate of return overall:

2019 – 5.26%   (13.11% if you include the Struck to County which all get 16%)

2018 – 4.52%   (12.09% if you include the Struck to County which all get 16%)
2017 – 5.91%   (12.19% if you include the Struck to County which all get 16%)
2016 - 4.71%   (11.74% if you include the Struck to County which all get 16%)
2015 - 6.52%   (12.58% if you include the Struck to County which all get 16%)
2014 - 6.58%
2013 - 6.83%

Number of Investors who won liens:

2019 – 69

2018 - 68
2017 - 84
2016 - 54
2015 - 68
2014 - 69
2013 - 106

Total Number of bids for all liens:

2019 - 4,163

2018 - 4,059
2017 – 3,601
2016 - 3,348
2015 - 4,311
2014 - 6,254
2013 - 54,255,0890

You bid down the interest rate in 1% increments from 16% down to 0%.
Rate Percent that had the most number of bids overall:

2019 – 15% had 531 bids

2018 - 4% had 832 bids
2017 – 5% had 688 bids
2016 - 4% had 867 bids
2015 - 5% had 551 bids
2014 - 7% had 1,162 bids
2013 - 7% had 18,001,058 bids

Most bids per lien/parcel:

2019 – One lien had 28 bids

2018 - Four liens had 25 bids
2017 – One lien had 25 bids
2016 - One lien had 21 bids
2015 - One lien had 35 bids
2014 - One lien had 38 bids
2013 - Two liens each had 482,840 bids

Results by Property Type minus the Struck to County (click on image to make larger):

The 2019 annual Tax Lien auction for Yavapai county Arizona ended last week. I have the raw results data. There may be some slight changes since the official counts come out after all certificates are paid.

Rates were up this year along with the number of liens available. Total $ sold was down slightly from last year even though the face amount of liens available was larger than last year. Total number of bids were up a little this year again, but still nowhere near the 2013 bids.

The previous years are there for comparison.

Number of liens sold to investors:

2019 - 2,540 (1,599 bought by investors - 941 Struck to County as no bidders)

2018 - 1,739 (1,376 bought by investors - 363 Struck to County as no bidders)

2017 - 2,141 (1,902 bought by investors - 239 Struck to County as no bidders)

2016 - 1,880 (1,600 bought by investors - 280 Struck to County as no bidders)

2015 - 2,039 (1,808 bought by investors - because 231 struck to county as no bidders)

2014 - 2,575

2013 - 2,382

Total dollar of liens sold:

2019 - $2,404,457.11 ( $1,496,105.00 bought by investors and $908,352.11 not sold)

2018 - $1,776,766.27 ($1,594,714.45 bought by investors and $182,051.82 not sold)

2017 - $2,175,069.34 ($1,890,259.85 bought by investors and $284,809.49 not sold)

2016 - $1,874,010.88 ( $1,694,277.89 bought by investors and $179,732.99 not sold)

2015 - $2,678,533.35 ($2,336,551.03 bought by investors - $341,982.32 not sold)

2014 - $3,015,871.87

2013 - $3,435,014.32

Average rate of return overall:

2019 - 10.48% (7.12% by investors when subtracting out struck to county liens which all get 16%)

2018 – 6.53% (5.45% by investors when subtracting out struck to county liens which all get 16%)

2017 – 7.26% (5.94% by investors when subtracting out struck to county liens which all get 16%)

2016 - 6.28% (5.25% by investors when subtracting out struck to county liens which all get 16%)

2015 - 6.75% (5.40% by investors when subtracting out struck to county liens which all get 16%)

2014 - 5.86%

2013 - 6.55%

Number of Investors who won liens:

2019 - 91

2018 - 87

2017 - 97

2016 - 74

2015 - 89

2014 - 116

2013 - 201

Total Number of bids for all liens:

2019 - 12,246

2018 - 11,898

2017 – 10,550

2016 - 8,823

2015 - 10,525

2014 - 18,812

2013 - 99,073,789

You bid down the interest rate in 1% increments from 16% down to 0%.

Percentage with the most number of bids overall:

2019 - 6% had 1,836 bids

2018 – 5% had 1,783 bids

2017 – 5% had 1,315 bids

2016 - 4% had 2,680 bids

2015 - 6% had 2,391 bids

2014 - 7% had 3,542 bids

2013 - 4% had 36,251,623 bids

Most bids per lien/parcel:

2019 - 1 lien had 31 bids

2018 – 1 lien had 28 bids

2017 – 3 liens had 23 bids

2016 - 3 liens had 20 bids

2015 - 7 liens had 24 bids

2014 - One lien had 41 bids

2013 - One lien had 470,295 bids

Created a Pivot table where I grouped the liens by "Property Use Description". The county had no Use Description (#N/A) on 62 parcels.

Click on image to see larger version of table.

The name of the entity that purchased a tax lien is public domain. Many county websites have it listed on the Treasurer page for each parcel. I have had people contact me about the tax liens I hold on a parcel and they said they got my name from the county just by calling or going in person. They then did an online search to get my contact information.

As for fees and payoffs - it depends on the county/state rules. You'll need to do your research on tax lien payoffs for the specific state and county you are looking to buy.

Call the county and get the amount of the tax lien. You'll need property address or better yet, the Parcel ID number for the county to tell you. If the county is online, you could check to see if the county Treasurer page has a search for  taxes on a parcel.

@Patrick Walters - I was mistaken, the auction is ending today. The house lien had 3 final bids and was won with a 12% rate - or 1% per month.

The lot ended up having no bids. So it sits with the county accruing 16% interest.