All Forum Posts by: Will Sifert

 tax liens are my retirement plan. I started with just a few thousand in 2009 and invest back everything I make, my snowball is getting bigger and bigger and rolling faster down the hill. In another 10 years or so I should be good to go.

 Why not foreclose on those liens and take ownership of the property and sell it??  I've been investing in tax liens since 2009 and I TRY to buy the liens that wont be redeemed because I can make a lot more money from selling the property than I can from the interest from the lien. I've acquired a lot of properties doing this and have made a lot more than interest. There is only a few ways you can lose by acquiring the property, for example if they bought tax liens on property that was basically worthless or it had lots of other local liens on it that can't be cancelled. 

 In Louisiana I don't believe there is a minimum % as long as you are an owner (even 1%) you can't be forced to be a co owner. If the other owners don't want to buy you out, and it can't be worked out we have a lawsuit that can force the sale of the property (or for the property to be divided up by % but that is rarely possible.) Then the proceeds from the sale is divided up by % of ownership. This most commonly happens in inheritances. 

 Your client must have insured with US National, I have used them in the past and had to pay a high amount for title insurance. There are other options, depending on the situation. Other title insurance companies will write on tax lien properties if you can provide the pre tax sale notice. This is the certified mail that is sent to the owner before the tax sale. Most parishes are good at keeping those records but at most maybe 1/2 of those green cards end up getting signatures. Another option is to get the original owner to sign a quit claim AFTER the suit to quiet title. Usually you can offer the previous owner some money to sign it, if you can find them.

When he goes through his suit to quiet title unless he can find and serve the heirs to the property the court will have to appoint an ad hoc curator to try to locate and represent the interest of the heirs. If he can find them they will likely have some lack of noticing claims and depending on the value of the property and if they want to hire an attorney, they could sue to annual the tax sale. 

In this situation title insurance wont matter because he is just part owner (90%)... unless he can locate and work out a deal with the heirs, his only option will be to do a suit to partition by licitation if he is successful with his suit to confirm the tax sale and quiet title. 

 This happens in Louisiana a lot more often now that tax lien sales have gone online. In Louisiana you bid down by percentage of ownership of the property, that is if it doesn't get redeemed. If it gets redeemed than the % you bid is irrelevant. Most states bid down by interest rate or bid up by premium or some variation of that.  Iowa and Louisiana are the only two states that I know of that bid down the % of ownership you are willing to take in the property... if it doesn't get redeemed. It starts at 100% and is bid down  to 1%.

So you bid 90%, has it been 3 years since the date you bought the tax lien? We have a 3 year redemption period.  If it has, then you would need to hire an attorney to start a lawsuit to confirm your tax sale and quiet the title. If you owned 100% that is all he would have to do but since you are part owners with someone else the attorney would also have to file a suit to do partition by licitation.   Basically you confirm your tax sale, take ownership of 90% of the property then with the partition suit the judge will force a sale of the property and the proceeds will be split up based on percentage. So you would get 90% of what ever it sold for. I believe you get back what you paid in taxes off the top and reasonable attorney fees, but not 100% sure on that part. 

fried alligator appetizers ? mmm

Are you looking for land to build your own new construction ?   St Tammany is a pain in the *** when it comes to anything that involves planning and zoning's approval. 

 That is awesome. I am not to the point yet. I haven't taken any money out in 12 years, just reinvest it. My goal is to build it as big as I can for another 10-15 years then I can retire from it. I don't want to hinder my progress yet. Its like you start off with 1 that you turn into 2, than 4, than 8, than 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512   that is where I am at now   if I started pulling money from it, it might just go 512, 600,700, 800   and I am too motivated to see 512 go to 1024, 2048 etc etc for me to stop rolling it back in.  I'm finally past the slow growth part in the beginning several years, now the fun really starts if I let keep going full force. 

 Thanks Arnie, I know a lot about tax liens but not that much about deeds. Is there a decent amount of deeds for less than 20K or do most cost tens of thousands of dollars or more? I was attracted to liens because of the low cost of entry, like most I just started off with a couple thousand dollars. My first year I bought about 5 liens.   I have been investing in tax liens in Louisiana since 2009. I've always reinvested everything I made and have grown that initial small investment into buying over 100 tax liens a year now. If you ever have any questions about Louisiana let me know. 

 That is what I am working on ;)  I can find the basics doing research but only the people who do it every year, for years, know the ins and outs.