While many advocates’ groups in Detroit, Michigan are currently engaged in trying to keep real estate investors who purchase large volumes of property in tax lien sales out of the city and preferably away from the auctioneer, Wayne County commissioners endorsed a plan yesterday that is a little more investor-friendly than many of the recent proposals. Under the proposed legislation, any individual or company whose property taxes are more than two years behind cannot participate in tax auctions[1]. Bernard Parker, commissioner who proposed the ban, says that he hopes that …

In the Detroit area, a record tax auction in October 2010 sold 4,300 properties and got those properties off the books and helped the city recoup staggering losses causes by the non-payment of property taxes. Sound like a success? Absolutely not, says Maggie DeSantis, president of a local non-profit development corporation. “[We’ve] got to make it so onerous to speculate [in property],” she explains, “and we have to do it now”[1]. DeSantis and others like the mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing, who believe that “shrinking” the area of Detroit is …

When property owners fail to pay taxes on their real estate, then the city in which the real estate is located has the option of selling off that property tax lien to the highest bidder. Particularly in these difficult economic times, municipal governments are relying heavily on these tax lien auctions to help bolster budgets that are lean and far in the red. However, in Detroit, many communities are saying that the money that comes into the government budget is not worth the blight on the neighborhoods when it comes …

Tax lien investors know that the holder of a mortgage on a tax-lien compromised property can be a friend or a foe. If you are hoping to have your lien redeemed, then a mortgage holder is a friend. After all, they would probably rather pay off your tax lien – with interest and penalties of course – to avoid losing their larger investment in the property. On the other hand, if you are hoping to foreclose on the property, a lender holding a large mortgage can be bad news since …

In a transaction that helped Harding, New Jersey recoup almost $52,000 in property taxes and that snagged one savvy buyer a luxurious estate at a 71 percent discount, a New Vernon estate in Harding, New Jersey was sold for $6.4 million online[1]. The estate, called Fawn Hill, sold in November of 2010 at what is known as an “absolute auction,” which basically is an auction with no minimum or reserve. The house goes to whoever bids the most.
This auction is a great example of why both real estate investors and …

Purchasing a property via tax deed is a great way to get involved in real estate investing. Unfortunately for a homeowner in New York that has been fighting for his home for almost seven years now, a tax lien paved the way for a Long Island woman to forge his name, take possession of the property and then sell it multiple times to other investors[1]. Garfield Gillings let his tax and water bills slide on his Brooklyn house back in 2003. When he contacted the collection agency that he believed …

In Closter, New Jersey, the small town was set to auction off a local mall at a tax lien auction in an effort to “recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes from…owners.” And investors were at the ready, eager to bid on the commercial property. Now, however, the entire process is stalled thanks to a last-minute bankruptcy filing by the property’s owners which effectively prevented the sale from moving forward[1].
In this case, bidders were lucky. The bankruptcy filing happened before the sale rather than immediately after. When the …