When you plan to invest on property, you have to make sure what you are investing on is worthwhile. Don’t just invest because it’s a tax delinquent property and it’s cheap. Know if you are really maximizing your potential to make money in tax delinquent investing by scoping the market and getting all the location details of the properties that could be up for auction. After getting the addresses of the properties, which you already categorized, scrutinized and decided upon in a certain county. The next thing that you should do is do a tour plan on the county.

You will need a map, which you can buy in a grocery store, a pen, a notepad, a good camera and a car of course to make it fast paced. Having pinpointed the properties that you are interested in by knowing all their addresses mark each property on one map. When you are finished marking, you can take one look at it and it will be clear which route you need to drive so that you will not be going on around the areas twice. Wasting time is always a bad habit.

When driving through the properties make sure that you jot down the exact geographical location and special notes you remember from each property. This will help you in the marketing of the property later on. With your camera on hand take a digital picture of what you had just written in the notepad (which is the house number), because this will help you not to get confused over things. Come to think of it, you will be looking at 15 to 20 lots; you cannot just trust your memory to remember all the details. From experience, even when I have a picture of a property at hand, without my notes visible in the photo, I could not remember that one special detail I saw when I was right in front of it. I’ve forgotten some details, even if it was only hours ago that I saw the land in the photo. Now, I have a bunch of photos of properties I found interesting but could not tell you what I found interesting about them by just looking at the photo.

What I now do is I take a notepad and I label each property by numbers, like “Property 1”. Then I go on to take a picture of property one. I take pictures of everything I want to take a picture of in that area and then I sit down and take notes. On the notes I make sure that the number 1 is apparent. I make a note that this property is flat, street like this, road access, it has a nice mobile home on it, or a nice house, the house has green roof, etcetera. Then when I download my digital pictures I know that all the pictures behind the number one that I took a picture of belong to the sheet where I put the number one in. Now I can match them up and get a good reminder when I need to make my final decision on which properties I want to buy.

In Tax Delinquent Investment, You as the investor is constantly searching for the right properties to invest in to make the most return on your investment, and quickly. You are looking for a specific type of seller. The type you will most likely be dealing with are the ones who have made up their minds that they’re going to let the property go, they’re going to stop paying the property taxes and give up the property for the taxes owed. It’s going to take years for that property to come up for auction, and during those years a lot of back taxes, interest, fees, and penalties are going to pile up, more than you want to. If you get hold of that person NOW, you’re often the only person who has contacted this person about his or her piece of land, and they’re often more than happy to sell it to you for just about anything you offer. All these can be done without being a dirty rotten scoundrel. In this business, it is not odd to be in a “win-win” situation. Everybody can benefit in good spirits.

That’s why it’s important that you get to talk to the seller first hand. This way you can establish some sort of a business relationship and maybe a bit of personal one, too. Beating everybody to the seller will lead you to pertinent detail about the property and an opportunity to get ahead of the pack of wolves, all hungry for good investment opportunities. When you finally get the seller in your camp, remember to ask them about the area, the surroundings, the utilities available and even the repairs or modifications done during their ownership of the property. This way you can check out if the area fits your preference and worth your money or you should back off because you’ll end up spending more to fix it.

After weighting the Pros and Cons for each prospective Tax Delinquent property and you find that the Pros outweigh the Cons, then these might be the properties that you would like to invest in. Remember you have an advantage because not only do you want the property the seller wants to get rid off, you also have started building a relationship with this seller. Build rapport with the seller so that the deal will go smooth sailing. People like dealing with people they like, meaning they will do business with you if they like you. Show them your personality and be real with them and you will profit in the end. Show your interest on the property with respect and they will remember you are sincere. If your intentions are right and you don’t plan to cheat them out of a deal, then it will show through. In the Tax Delinquent Investment business, Profit is your reward for Truth and Sincerity.

Buying properties that do not have zoning and environmental issues quickly sells. Checking the technical dimensions of the property is also an essential.

A quick check for zoning and environmental issues is a standard procedure to real property brokers, planners, developers, builders and even to a plain household buyer. Location for businesses or house is a big factor. Common characteristics of a good location are often on a flat terrain and flood-free. For business location, it should be in the commercial zones and along traffic areas for higher customer visibility. On the other hand, houses should be on a flat terrain, away from flood, landslides, earthquake faultlines, typhoon or tornado paths. For developers and planners, infrastructures should always have good geological dimensions and away from environmental reserves like forest, water, wildlife reserves.

Avoid building houses in wildlife reserves because human settlements disrupt the habitat. Avoid developing housing villages near an industrial zone because of potential pollutions, least, industrial noise pollution, that may harm community health. Avoid industries near water reserves to prevent water from being polluted. Avoid backyards with history of a gas station built on it because they most probably had harmful gas residues.

You can be 99.9% safe if you find properties off the dirt road or in a desert with less people in a week or 2 hours away from the city. They are safe because environmental issues are most improbable in these areas.

These are technical dimensions that need quick-check but it does not require you technical expertise. Such information are readily available online. Just check the list of brownfields or environmentally-challenged areas at www.secretlandprofits.com. Also get a plat map from datatree.com or dataquick.com. These 2 websites for subscription are national services of title companies. If you cannot subscribe, just call the county and request a plat map from them.

Return of Investments in Tax Delinquent Investments

There are a lot of ways to make a profit on real estate and one of them is investing on tax delinquent properties. Tax Delinquent Property means that the landowners have not made any real property tax payment to the local county and or authority for their said land thus making the land delinquent. Investing on Tax Delinquent Properties can be very profitable if you know how to approach these tax delinquent landowners. But before one starts approaching these people one should know some of the terminology and its definitions in connection to Tax Delinquent properties.

One of them is “Tax Lien Property”. Tax Lien Property means that the said property has been legally claimed by one person/company/entity from the landowner to secure a payment from the landowner’s debt to satisfy an obligation. Then there’s “Tax Deed” which means that the land title deed is issued by the public authority to a purchaser or buyer because of nonpayment of taxes. Investing on these types of delinquent properties can be very profitable but it could take a longer period because the landowners can be given up to five (5) years to redeem the said delinquent property and also the said procurement might have to undergo public bidding. So before you can cash in on this property you have to wait for 5 years. It is called long term investment.

If you are looking for a short-term period for the return of your investment plus a large profit on tax delinquent properties, you need to be very resourceful. Records on tax delinquent properties are open to the public. If you can get to the landowners before they actually give up their properties to local authorities for foreclosure then you are in better shape. You can then offer to purchase their land for a fraction of the actual value. By doing so, it seems as though you just hit a gold mine. Usually, these landowners grab whatever money they can get before the actual foreclosure happens. Its better to get something than nothing, as one might say, and for the tax delinquent it’s certainly is the case. This is where the profit comes in really fast for the Tax Delinquent investor. It might sound cliché, but it surely fits the “Buy Low, Sell High” paradigm.

There are ways to make a profit faster in Tax Delinquent Investments but whatever way you look at it there will always be money to be made in this business. So whether it may be for long or short-term investment on tax delinquent properties you are assured of ROI (return of investment) plus a hefty profit.

Learn from Walmart. One reason of their boom success is buying goods at the lowest possible cost. Profit is always made when purchased, not when you sell. It is somehow trivial but it is the key. Buying is the key to any industry. Selling is only the profit realization.

As to quote Warren Buffet, “Buy at below value (because) rule number 1 is never lose money; rule number 2 is do not forget rule #1.” Don’t buy until you have a margin of safety. Even if the market recessed or you are 50% wrong or off in market valuation of what you buy, you can still earn money.

Buy cheap or cheaper especially today, when U.S. economy is in near recession. Recessions cut purchasing power of buyers and pricing up is not just too possible in the real property industry. Profits, therefore, is bleak, but buying cheap (and cheaper) will widen the margin of safety. $300 property will provide you a $4700 profit margin, considering my usual selling price of $5000 on normal market. That selling price will probably adjust down during recession, say $4000, to accommodate buyer’s lower purchasing power. Though profit is trimmed, buying cheap at $300 will still give you substantial earning.

Buy rural lands and lands without houses because these properties often are cheap and even cheaper during recessions. Buy rural lands from property tax delinquents because they are the cheapest. Owners of such properties just gave up their ownership and redemption rights to prevent the burden of paying more taxes, penalties and other fees. Most importantly, buy properties with no mortgages because banks pay the properties and these mortgaged properties just give you additional investment costs.

Your a-list of delinquent properties is primarily sourced out from 3 rolls: tax roll, assessment roll, treasurer’s roll.

This list will lead you to the next step in investing properties. You just could not move further without this. Thus, it is essential to have a good list first.

Tax roll is the required list itself. It enumerates all properties with tax delinquencies that you get from the county.

Assessment roll is a more technical document that is source out from the assessor’s office. It details use key or use code, which informs people of the “uses” of a particular property. It tells you whether the property is commercial, residential, industrial, agricultural, etc. It is relatively similar to land use plans. It just does not enumerate real properties with delinquent taxes. Even then, the assessment rolls can still help you filter your list. The parameters provided by the use key are valuable in identifying properties in terms of land value, location, etc. It pinpoints properties that are likely subject for sale even when the owner is not real property tax delinquent.

In fact, 50% of properties I bought do not currently owe any taxes. Owners of such properties just got frustrated with their properties, likely because of property damages, town blight or idle use. Those properties just became burdens to the owners, inflated more by real property taxes. The willingness and urgency of such burdened owner to sell their property at a cheap price is equally relative to a tax delinquent. Though my investment focuses on tax delinquents, burdened owners can also be in the list.

The last source for the list is the treasurer’s roll. It is source out from the treasurer’s office. It is similar to assessment rolls because it is a shared document between the assessor and treasurer. Unlike with the assessment rolls, the treasurer’s roll has a tax base. It tells you how much real property tax is paid annually.

If you are investing on tax delinquent properties, particularly located on rural areas, it is best that you go to the local counties and do your property research there.  Before you start to travel, put in mind that there are 3,141 counties in the United States of America.  Where to start will be a problem.  Even worse, that’s a lot of county offices to visit. It would take so much time to do that. Normally you start on counties that are near you but even though this county is near, expenses will be incurred even before you know if there are tax delinquent properties that you want to invest in on these counties. You wouldn’t want to waste time and money before you make some. Or even if you have made money, you wouldn’t want to reduce that for nothing.

So how do you get information before hand without having to pay?  You can both use the yellow pages of your phone directory and look for the contact details of these local counties or you can search their websites in the internet and explore their site on tax delinquent properties.  Most local counties nowadays have already setup their own websites in the internet.  Like for instance, if you are searching for the website of Apache County, Arizona in Google, there will be a lot of pages on the search results but the official website of Apache County, Arizona is www.co.apache.az.us.  On this website you will be able to get the information you need on tax delinquent properties in just a click of your mouse.  If you want to look websites on counties in California like Orange County you can go to their official website which is www.oc.ca.gov. 

Naturally you will get to see a website with information about all sorts of topics regarding the county but you can also get detailed information about properties located in that county.  You can Google all the local counties you want to visit and most probably you will see their official website on the first search result page.  By being able to search for these websites online, you now have the ability to go to each county as if you were walking in their office. What’s good about this is that you get the information the you need on your own direction without having to wait for people to help you seek it out.

There is a step further you can take to get these faster, though. There is a certain website that gives a listing of all the website information of most, if not all, counties. It can be accessed through www.naco.org.  It is the National Association of Counties in the US.  On this site, you will be able to access the contact information for almost all counties.  It’s almost like a magic wand for the Tax Delinquent Investor. It saves time, money and effort without compromising the necessary data. So what are you waiting for? Click Today, Profit Tomorrow.

Knowing what records to look for is somewhat straight forward initially. List only those property records that are tax delinquent. List all delinquents, including 1-2 years delinquents or even a day or month delinquent. List every property owner that did not pay their real property taxes.

Getting the list however is usually the hardest part because county employees do not give out this list on a regular basis and often do not know what you are requesting.

The rule of 5 will ease your frustrations.

The rule is simple: Generally speaking you will need to talk to 5 different county employees to find the person that will be able to help you.

Probe or do a Q&A session to these 5 people. Ask a lot of questions because in between talks, these 5 people will cite names of those responsible for the list. These people often point other people or department to do your request. Thus, you are very likely to land on the right people after 5 talks. They sometimes just direct you to a webpage where you can run your own quires.

Dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig and dig deeper to obtain the list, Even if the county charges for the list this data is gold. A few hundred dollars is a minimal cost compared to profit you will make off of these valuable leads. I often buy properties at $300 and sell them at $5,000. So don’t give up the right list is worth the effort spent.

If you are an entrepreneur, most likely you will agree when someone says that Information is the key to ones business success.  Whatever business you are in, decision makers initially gather data or information before they start deciding on what to do. Most people collect their information from the Internet, some on printed materials like daily newspapers and magazines or industry publications, and others from government offices or banks where some data are open for public viewing. 

In the Tax Delinquent Investment business, investors gather a lot of information before they buy certain land or properties. Mostly, they need to know what the current value of the said land/properties they want to procure. We get this type of information from the local banks or the local government where records of the said land are kept.  Once we have assembled all the information needed, the next move is to decide whether the investment will be profitable in a short or long term period. 

One good example of this is acquiring tax delinquent properties and reselling it. If you have access to raw information on lands and their owners with tax delinquent problems then you might have hit a gold mine.  But don’t get excited right away, because after getting the raw data this is where the filtering of information begins.  Filtering information needs a system, gut-feel and vast knowledge on real estate before you approach the said landowners of tax delinquent lands. 

Why focus on tax delinquent properties?  Because most landowners of this said land are willing to sell their properties on whatever amount they can get rather than getting nothing at all.  With the present crunch on real estate you can still reap a lot of profit by getting the right information from reliable sources.  There are a lot of advantages if you are connected. Connected means not only to the Internet, where you can get information in a split of a second, but also, to people whose sources are reliable. The Information Super Highway does not only mean reliable public information sources but also personal inside information sources. Taking this route will get you to your destination fast with very little traffic jams and minimal stops.

One person can start his own business right away but finding the right business that suits you can be very hard.  If you are currently working a 9 to 5 job, don’t think of quitting right away, instead lay out your plans first and start zeroing in on what kind of business you would like to invest in.  Normally people would like to invest their money on something where they can get back their investment fast and make a lot of profit right away.  You start to think, what kind of product or services can you sell nowadays that can bring money in fast? 

There are three essentials that a person needs in life.  The first one is food, next is shelter and the last one is clothing. So if you put your money on these basic needs, chances are you can make profit on these commodities.  So let us focus on shelter.  Before you can build your home, definitely you will need land. As long as there is a demand on land, real estate business flourishes.  And since everybody will need shelter, they will need land for all of our existence. However, currently, the real estate business is in bad shape. Don’t fret, for there is still a way to make money in investing even for a small amount and the possibility of making a lot of profit.  There are certain properties called tax delinquent lands.  These are the kind of land where the owners ceased paying their real property tax on to the local authority, thus, making it tax delinquent.  If  the said land will be foreclosed by the government, these lands will be auctioned to the public and some of these lands may be valued only 30 to 40 percent its actual value.  But if there is a way you can contact these landowners before their properties get foreclosed, you can even buy them as low as 5 to 10 percent of its actual value. If you play your cards right, you can actually buy property for as little as possible.

Tax Delinquent Investing is a very lucrative business to get in to.  If you learn the business, know the process and master the art of negotiating and selling then you can begin to expect a fortune on your returns. Learn to play the game and soon you will master it. If you can do this then it is time to quit your 9 to 5 job and open your very own company. Then you will become your own BOSS.