Information from the tax lien lady's state guide may be helpful. You may want to go look up information on her and Dustin Hahn who invests in the Houston area.
Texas is a redeemable deed state and has the highest return of any lien or redeemable deed state at 25% per six months for non-homesteaded and non-agricultural properties. There are 254 counties in Texas. The larger counties have tax sales 4 times a year and counties with really large populations may even have a tax sale every month. Some counties also have over the counter deeds available. As with all other redeemable deed states, you must physically attend the tax sale, however Texas counties also require that you register in advance of the tax sale and have a bidders statement in order to participate in the tax sale. The bidders statement is a statement signed State Guide to Tax Lien and Tax Deed Investing © Copyright 2010-2016 Tax Lien Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved. 60 by the county assessor-collector attesting to the fact that you do not owe any county, municipal or school taxes in that taxing jurisdiction. Travis County requires that you request a bidders statement at least 5 days before the tax sale. Once you get a bidders statement from Travis County, it is good for 90 days. The Travis County tax collector also has a lot of good information on her web site for bidders including a due diligence guide, a video explaining the tax sale process, tax sale information, and tax sale lists. You can even sign up to receive notices of tax foreclosure sales by email. The web site is at https://tax-office.traviscountytx.gov/foreclosure. For most of the other counties the tax sales are handled by private law firms. Two law firms that conduct a lot of the Texas tax sales are Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP and Perdue Brandon Fielder Collins & Mott LLP. The redemption period is 2 years for homesteaded (owner occupied residential) and agricultural property, and 6 months for all other properties. The redemption penalty is 25% and the penalty is paid on the total amount paid for the deed, not just the minimum bid amount. The minimum bid consists of delinquent taxes, penalties and cost of the sale. All this makes Texas an excellent state for tax deed investing. Successful bidders must pay in full at the time of the sale, or within a given time period; failure to do so will result in penalties of up to 25% of the value of the property plus the cost of resale. Personal checks, money orders, and cashiers checks (with proper ID) are accepted for payment; cash and credit cards are not. All bidders must be registered before the sale. In order to bid for another person or entity, documentation of the bidder's authority to do so must be presented to the officer conducting the sale. Purchasers will receive a "tax resale deed", which is without warranty, and will have a legal right to the property during the redemption period. . For the smaller counties that do not require the bidder's statement of no taxes owed before the sale, the purchaser must furnish a statement signed by the county tax assessor stating that the purchaser has no known delinquent taxes owed to the county or any of it's taxing authorities within a couple of days of the sale. Since a property could State Guide to Tax Lien and Tax Deed Investing © Copyright 2010-2016 Tax Lien Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved. 61 be subject to different taxing authorities, such as the county, school district, or city, the purchaser may be responsible for additional tax liens as well as current taxes on the property. Many Texas counties have tax information online, but to find information on the tax sale you will need to contact the legal firm that is handling the sale. You can get a lot of information tax sales for a lot of counties at the Linegarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP website at http://www.publicans.com, including tax sale lists for the regular tax sales, resales, and struck off (over the counter) properties. The firm of Perdue Brandon Fielder Collins & Mott LLP also has some information online at http://www.pbfcm.com/. Some of the larger counties will use both law firms and have more than one tax sale going on at the same time.
