Tax Lien Stories – how is everyone going with these?

I have been investing in liens for 18 months now and am happy with my returns.  It is not a get rich quick way of obtaining income but a nice steady trickle that grows as you reinvest and over time will give a very nice constant return.

Andrew, I look to the two years for a return on my liens.  I want 18% so don't invest in the liens that are likely to redeem quickly.  I'm happy to wait, reinvest all including interest, to slowly build a nice little nest egg.

Max, I attended Thomas Senatore's Tax Lien and Deed training and have been investing ever since.  I live in Perth but am currently in Fort Myers indefinately.

Hi Judith,

If the liens are not redeemed (within two years I think) do you intend to sit and wait for the returns or are you keen to take legal action and take over the title deed?

Andrew

Max, I have only ever purchased online and don't anticipate that changing.  I am not interested in bidding down an interest rate and am happy to sift through those that are left as over the counter.  There are plenty of those spread over the various Counties to satisfy my needs.

Max,  E.mail me [email protected] and I will answer you privately.

Hi Munglord,

To have a look at these go to the county tax collectors website.  Some states sell by auction and over the counter while others will do auction only.  I know Florida does over the counter so you can see some listed on their county websites when the auctions aren't on. 

Andrew

Thought I would share my experience in Tax Lien investing.

After attending PI conference in Mel, we made a plan to reassess our investing strategy and liked the sound of the US and Lien investing. I then attended Tommy's course in Mel.

Finally received my ITIN in Dec and set up the LLC and Bank account with Fifth Third Bank through Tommy.

Throughout the year I was looking at the Over the Counter Liens available in Lee County and obviously as everyone else got their ITIN's started to see my list of potential Liens dwindle.

I ended up purchasing about 10k worth of Liens in Lee County. I started looking elsewhere in Florida and decieded to look at Charlotte County just above Lee County.  Even though their Tax Collector and Appraisor sites aren't as user friendly compared to some counties, it was pretty good.

The process in Lee and Charlotte County was fairly straight forward, doing the research, calling the County emailing the details of the Certificates I wanted and Transfering the funds.  I had already used Ozforex to transfer the funds to my US bank account and then called to Wire the funds across to the county.  My only comment here is to be careful of the Wire Transfer costs.  As I transfer about 10k lots across to the US and transfered the funds to the county in my first month I was stung with over $100 worth of fees from 53.  I could have avoided the fees but would have needed 40k in my account at all times which I was not prepared to do.  However I can ACH from this account at no charge.

I have since purchased Liens in 5 counties across 2 states,Florida and Arizona.  I participated in the Auctions in Arizona and my expereinced was varied compared to the straight forward investing of OTC.  As you cannot research every item at the auctions you start placing bulk bids on search options.  After looking at my winnings the next day, a couple I questioned why I even bid on them.  Also as bidders run out of money it is easier to win liens later in the auction at the full interest rate.

In my first month of investing in Liens I have had 3 redeemed, the quickest took 2 days, so obviously lucky there, but by using Tommy's and Steve's advice on the type of Lien to purchase has shown dividends.

I am stil looking at investing into direct property and will be travelling to FL in Sep, like everyone else on these forums would love to catch up with anyone going over then are are investing in Brisbane.  My email is [email protected].

We had 8 properties and got to a point where banks weren't liking us anymore, so wanted to look at other ways to go forward.  Our revelation at the Mel Conference was the point of when to sell a property and look across our properties and made the decision to sell as many as possible as we felt that we had already received the full benefit from capital gains. And if I can get 18%+ on my money, would be better then the flat property market at the moment in QLD. 

We love the fact of no tenant issues, no maintenance issues, just buy and forget and wait for the cheque to come in.  We are going to look at direct housing so have allocated half of our funds to direct property. The distance is no concern for us as most of our properties are in Mining Towns and everything is done via email and phone.

After the ease of buying the initial Liens and the quick turnaround I think we might allocate more to Liens.  If we do buy a property it would have to have 25%+ return to make it worth while, seeing as liens are 18%+.