If you are reading this blog and learning about tax liens, then you are probably getting pretty fired up about the major opportunities in this real estate investing arena. However, if you live in an area – or wish to invest in an area – that only holds tax lien or tax deed sales once or twice a year (or even less frequently) then you may be wondering how to take advantage of all your new information on tax lien investing. Well, I have some good news: you can buy …

Thanks to the massive foreclosure slow-downs brought on by last fall’s robo-signing fiasco, the shadow inventory is still, well, lingering in the shadows and bringing down the housing market, reported Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors (NAR)’s chief economist today[1]. Yun cited this pervasive shadow inventory as a major reason that the housing market has not yet recovered even though other aspects of the economy are stirring and showing signs of life. Yun addressed the commercial market’s relatively superior recovery by pointing out that a lack of construction in …

According to the National Quarterly Housing Survey, only 64 percent – slightly less than 2/3 – of Americans think that “owning their own home is a safe investment.” That is down from 70 percent at the beginning of 2010 and from 83 percent in 2003[1]. And while home sales rose in January 2011 for the third straight month, the median home price hit its lowest point since April 2002. What does this mean for homeownership as “The American Dream?” It could mean that that particular concept has run its course.
There …

Tax lien investors who bid on liens for the purpose of making money when those liens are redeemed often want to avoid states in which bidding is accomplished not by declaring a stated amount that one will pay for a lien, but rather how little interest one will accept on the debt. After all, if a lien is “bid down” to a very low interest rate then a tax lien investor will collect less money when that lien is redeemed by the homeowner. Bid low enough, and the lien is …

In an effort to make property taxes more manageable – and collectable – many counties around the country have moved from a single deadline for all property taxes to two or even four quarterly deadlines throughout the year at which homeowners can pay portions of their taxes. In Tuscawara County in Ohio, the move seems to be working. However, for those who fail to pay their taxes, the county will not hesitate to act[1].
Many local governments have hesitated to foreclose on homes via property tax liens or utility bill liens …

Many commercial real estate investors are reeling right now from miscalculations made in past years about what the future would hold in commercial real estate. Senior-living developers are working on innovative solutions to turn struggling communities that were predicted to fill with baby-boomers into viable businesses (read that article here), and while everyone agrees that a double-dip is unlikely, many commercial analysts are having trouble determining just when the market will overcome high unemployment and massive uncertainty to really bounce back. So it’s not particularly surprising that a niche of …

While it is problematic enough that Chicago’s 60621 zip code has been rated the most at-risk for mortgage fraud in the country for three straight quarters, what is perhaps more disturbing out Interthinx Mortgage Fraud Risk Report numbers are the way that the risk appears to spread. According to the data-tracking firm’s analysis, Chicago as a whole has increased when it comes to risk of mortgage fraud from “moderate” in second-quarter 2010 to “very high risk” by the end of 2010, indicating that “ ‘very high’ risk at the zip …

Many people have been writing into the blog asking about how to get started investing in tax liens. One of the first things that you will need to do is to get familiar with your location options for investing. While it would be nice if you could just invest in your own hometown, that may not always be the best option for you. Not every local area has tax lien auctions, and even those that do may not have the right properties for your …

According to an article in the Florida Bar Journal, the Florida Bar Association considers it an attorney’s responsibility to notify judges of potential foreclosure fraud when working on foreclosure cases – even if the property has already been foreclosed upon and even been sold at auction[1]. The types of fraud particularly noted are “robo-signed affidavits and forged notary stamps.” Given that in the 1.2 million foreclosures filed in Florida since the beginning of 2007, “tens of thousands of forged signatures, backdated documents and other problem paperwork” have been detected already, …

In California, like most other places in the country right now, builders and developers are hurting for work. That makes 2010’s 46 percent increase over 2009 in new permits for single- and multifamily homes in Ventura County something to get cautiously excited about[1]. And when you factor in the fact that multifamily home construction increased in that county from 173 to 398 from 2009 to 2010, even if you had hoped for a “more robust recovery” as did Mike Winn, the California Building Industry Association (CBIA)’s president and CEO, you …