All new articles will be posted to my Tax Lien Investing Tips blog at http://TaxLienInvestingTips.com.
I am combining my articles with my audios, videos, and anything else I can think of. The articles already here will stay here. So keep this blog site taged for reference, but make sure and note the new site for current,updated information. Look to http://TaxLienInvestingTips.com for continuing assistance with tax liens, tax deeds, and new strategies on investing in real estate.
Happy and Prosperous Investing,
Joanne Musa
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Thursday, April 09, 2009
April 2009 Q & A Webinar
The April 2009 Q & A Webinar is now posted on the Members Area of TaxLienLady.com. In this webinar I answer some questions about deed sales in California and in Pennsylvania, and I talk about what you can expect from tax lien and tax deed investing. It may not be what you think!
I've also posted a bonus video to show you how you can use Bid4Assets.com to find out about California online tax sales, including how to register to bid at the sale, and how to get the tax sale list.
If you're already a member of TaxLienLady.com's Members Area, just go to www.taxlienlady.com/membersarea and put in your name and password. Then click on the teleseminars link on the left side bar to go to the page with all of the recorded webinars and teleseminars. The April call will be at the top of the page.
If you haven't yet taken advantage of the 30 day free trial to the members area, you can do so at http://budurl.com/30daytrial.
Many California counties have online tax sales, and many of them are in April, May and June. So don't miss out, get your free 30 day trial and listen to the replay of April's webinar and the bonus video to find out how you can start bidding on California tax deeds. Go to http://budurl.com/30daytrial.
I've also posted a bonus video to show you how you can use Bid4Assets.com to find out about California online tax sales, including how to register to bid at the sale, and how to get the tax sale list.
If you're already a member of TaxLienLady.com's Members Area, just go to www.taxlienlady.com/membersarea and put in your name and password. Then click on the teleseminars link on the left side bar to go to the page with all of the recorded webinars and teleseminars. The April call will be at the top of the page.
If you haven't yet taken advantage of the 30 day free trial to the members area, you can do so at http://budurl.com/30daytrial.
Many California counties have online tax sales, and many of them are in April, May and June. So don't miss out, get your free 30 day trial and listen to the replay of April's webinar and the bonus video to find out how you can start bidding on California tax deeds. Go to http://budurl.com/30daytrial.
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Update to Tax Lien Investing Book Review: New Edition of The 16% Solution
Just after I wrote a review of three of my favorite books about tax lien investing, I got a call asking me if I’d like to review a brand new edition of one of them. A second edition of The 16% Solution, by Joel S. Moskowitz, is now in bookstores and I’ve just finished reading it. It’s been a while (more than 6 years) since I read the original version of this book – which was somewhat outdated then, so I wasn’t sure just how different the second edition would be from the first.
I was pleasantly surprised! With all of the hype and recent infomercials lately touting tax lien investing as a way to get rich quick, this book is very refreshing. Right from the beginning Mr. Moskowitz sets the reader straight, giving honest and straightforward information. I was really impressed with the forward to this second edition where he likened the chances of someone getting a property for pennies on the dollar from a tax lien to someone winning one million dollars from a one-dollar lottery ticket. Yeah it happens every now and then, but it’s not likely. And then he tells you what you can expect from tax lien investing – “super-high interest combined with safety.”
This book is divided into four sections. In the first section Mr. Moskowitz explains what tax liens are, why they are such a safe investment, and why now, more than ever before you need to include them in your investment plan. At the end of the section he has a chart that shows how tax lien certificates compare to other investments in terms of income and growth potential, risk avoidance, safety, and liquidity.
Section 2 talks about how to buy tax lien certificates; how to choose a state and county to invest in and how to choose the properties to buy tax liens on. It also covers bidding at the auction and buying over-the-counter and assignment liens. There is even a chapter on how to get local officials to help you do your due diligence (This doesn’t always work in every county, but it’s certainly worth a try).
Section 3 of The 16% Solution talks about how you get paid on a tax lien certificate and how to foreclose on the property. Mr. Moskowitz explains how a tax lien certificate is redeemed, how to foreclose on a tax lien, and what to do with the property once you foreclose on it. Section 4 talks about avoiding and managing risks. Mr. Moskowitz explains just what the risks of tax lien investing are and how to avoid them. That’s something that most tax lien investing “gurus” never tell you until you give them thousands of dollars for coaching. I recommend that anyone interested in tax lien investing read this book for this section alone. Buy this book and save your thousands for investing in tax liens!
Also included in the book are a couple of appendixes with helpful information. In Appendix I there is a chart of state laws for all of the tax lien states. Georgia is included even though it’s technically a redeemable deed state. This chart is a good tool, but remember, just because a state has laws that allow it to have tax lien sales doesn’t mean that they actually have any. There are at least a couple of states on this list that either have only a couple of counties or municipalities that have tax lien sales, or have hardly any properties available in their sales.
Appendix II has some more detailed information for 14 of the tax lien states (these are the states that have an interest rate of 16% or higher). Some of these states are covered more thoroughly than others. My guess is that the states that are covered well are the ones that Mr. Moskowitz personally invests in. The states that are covered thoroughly are: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, and Iowa. Detailed information on the other states is lacking. If you are investing in one of the above-mentioned states or planning to invest in one of these states I recommend that you purchase this book. Also if you are planning to invest in tax liens on commercial or industrial properties there are helpful forms for avoiding environmental problems in Appendix III.
This book is great for beginner investors in tax liens, it does not have information about tax deed investing, but it does have detailed information for 4 of the more popular tax lien states, and one redeemable deed state, plus general information for the other tax lien states. It also discusses investing online and purchasing leftover liens. You can purchase this book at a discount on Amazon at http://budurl.com/vdns.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Tax Deed Investing on Steroids Part 2
In Part 1 of this series on tax deed investing, I introduced you to a strategy for cashing in on tax deeds without even going to the tax sale. In this article I’d like to answer some questions that you may have about the excess proceeds strategy that I introduced you to in Part 1. About a year ago, I did a very informative teleseminar interview with tax deed and real estate investing expert Cody Matousek. Cody divulged the “little known secret” of tax deed investing know as “excess proceeds.”
This seminar entitled “Cashing in on Tax Deeds Without Going to the Sale,” was the most popular teleseminar that I had by far. In fact we had over 200 people sign up for this call! Everyone was so excited about this little known method for making money on Tax Deed properties – without actually owning the property, at least, not for very long, that I got a lot of questions as well as some great testimonials regarding the teleseminar with Cody. Following are the answers to some of the frequently asked questions that we got about this seminar. You can find out more about this “secret” investing strategy at www.TaxForeclosureFortunes.com
Q1: How does it affect your credit if you buy a tax delinquent property and then let it go to tax sale (i.e. you don’t satisfy the delinquent taxes on the property)?
A: This depends on the state and county. Remember that the excess proceeds strategy does not work in every state. In most states property tax delinquencies, and foreclosures, are not reported to the credit bureaus. The counties simply to not have the wherewithal to report hundreds or thousands of delinquent property owners every year. You may want to check this out before you use this strategy. Just call the county tax collector and ask what happens if you’re delinquent with your taxes and your property is sold in a tax sale – do they report it to a credit bureau?
Letting a property that you own go to tax sale may affect your ability to purchase any other properties in that sale, however. In most tax deed sales, you have to sign an affidavit stating that you do not owe any property taxes in that county when you purchase a tax deed at the sale.
Q2: What about liens and judgments on tax delinquent properties? If you purchase a property before the sale from the owner, are you responsible for them?
A: Yes, you are responsible for any liens or judgments on a property that you purchase from the owner before the tax sale. If there is a mortgage on the property, for example, and you purchase it from the owner before the sale, you can be held responsible to pay that mortgage. You should do a title search on a property before you purchase it and stay away from properties that have mortgages or other liens on them.
Q3: How do you do a title search on a tax delinquent property? Do you have to hire a title company and get title insurance?
A: Although you should do a title search to find out if there are any liens or encumbrances on the property, you do not necessarily need to pay a title company to do this for you. Since you do not intend to hold on to the property and sell it, you do not need title insurance. You can either hire a title abstractor (these are the people who actually do the work for the title company) to search the title for you, or you can do it yourself. You search the title by going to the county Hall of Records (or where-ever the records are kept) and searching on the name of the owner or owners of the property. Any liens or judgments recorded in their name would attach to the property that they own.
Q4: Why would a person practically give their property away to someone they don’t even know?
A: Great question, and if this didn’t happen than this whole system of buying tax deed properties for pennies on the dollar – before the tax sale wouldn’t work. There are many reasons why someone would give you their property for little consideration. Remember you are looking for people that are just going to let their property go to tax sale anyway. They have already decided that they don’t want the property anymore, for whatever reason, and are willing to give it up. They don’t think (or they don’t know) that they can get anything for their property and you are going to offer them something for the trouble of signing over the deed. In many cases they have already left the property and it’s vacant, or they are living in another state and don’t want to be bothered with it anymore.
Q6: How do I find the owners of the property if county can’t find them to deliver the tax bill?
A: Look in the Tax Foreclosure Fortunes Manual for some links to free sites where you can look up hard to find people. There is also a reference to low cost service that you can pay for if the free sites don’t work.
Q7: Which states can I do this in?
A: Only deed states that award the excess proceeds to the owner of record of the property at the time of the tax sale. Keep in mind that you have be the owner of record at the time of the sale, which means that the deed needs to be recorded a couple of weeks before the tax sale. This can be difficult if the tax sale list is not published until 4 weeks before the tax sale. Another way to do this more efficiently is to use the delinquent tax role instead of the tax sale list. You can get the delinquent tax role at any time – not just before the tax sale, but you may have to pay the county to get it. Also you need to contact the right person to get this list.
Q8: How do I get the excess proceeds once the property is sold at the tax sale?
A: Some states will notify you of the excess proceeds and tell you what you have to do to collect it. In other states you may have to request the excess proceeds. It is helpful if you talk to someone at the county tax office before using this method of investing to find out what happens to the excess proceeds and what the owner of a property needs to do in order to collect them.
Q9: Can the owner of record on a tax delinquent property collect the excess proceeds even if there is a mortgage or lien on the property?
A: Each state handles this differently. Some states will notify the owner and all the lien holders of the excess proceeds. Some states give the lien holders the first right to the excess proceeds, and then if it isn’t claimed in a certain amount of time the owner can request it. Other states will give the owner the first right to the excess proceeds. Again, you can check with the tax collectors office before you use this strategy in any given state to find out what the rules are. You can also do your due diligence a head of time to make sure that there are no mortgages or liens on the property before you purchase it from the owner.
Monday, March 23, 2009
California Tax Deed Sales
I recently received an e-mail from a subscriber in California. He had paid to get a tax sale list for one of the counties in California. He got the list from the county, but it came too late for him to do his due diligence on any of the properties in the tax sale. His question to me was “where can I get the tax sale lists in time to do due diligence.” I happened to get his question as I was getting ready to go to San Francisco for personal reasons, but since I knew that there were a couple of tax sales coming up in that area, I decided to check out a couple of the California deed sales myself. In this article I’m going to let you in on the tools that I used to find out about tax sales in California.
First of all for those of you who are not familiar with tax sales in California, California is a deed state and many counties have online sales. Most of the online sales in California are conducted by Bid4Assets. You can sign up for free at www.Bid4Assets.com to get notified of upcoming online tax sales. Many of these tax sales do require that you put down a large deposit ($5000) in order to bid, but they do give you access to the list of properties even if you are not a registered bidder.
Some counties do a great job of providing the list of properties in the sale and property information, and some counties do not. The information given can vary greatly by county. Some counties will only provide the tax number of the property, a legal description, (which is impossible to decipher unless you’re a surveyor), and the minimum bid amount. Other counties will give you the address of the property and tell you what type of property it is and even tell you about any other liens, thus saving you a lot of time in doing your due diligence. Some counties will even provide pictures of the properties.
So what do you do when you find that the list only has minimal information and does not even give you the property address? There are two things that you can do when you find that the list that you get for free online does not supply all the information that you need. The first option is free, but will cost you your time, and is a bit tedious. Usually there is a link provided on the Bid4Assets web site to look up the assessment information. But you have to type the property ID number in for each property on the list and look each one up separately, and then transfer the information to a spreadsheet in order to keep track of it. I tried this for one of the counties and gave up after it took me an hour to research about 15 properties.
The second option will cost you some money but save you a lot of time. You can go to www.TaxSaleLists.com and purchase a detailed list, which most of the time will have all the information you need for the tax sale properties. There is one more option that I haven’t tried yet, but it may work for tax sales that are not held online. You could call the County Treasurer and ask if they have the information available either online or on a CD, and ask them if it includes the property owner’s name, and the address of the property. Those are the most important thinks that you need in order to do your due diligence.
Investing in Tax Liens: What if I’m in a Deed State?
Frequently I get asked this question: “I really want to start investing in tax liens, but I live in a deed state. Should I look into investing in tax liens in another state, or try to invest in tax deeds in my own state.” In this article I’ll give you what I recommend for investors want to invest in tax liens, but find that in their state they only sell tax deeds. It’s not a one-size fits all answer, it really depends on what your goals are and on your particular state.
You really have two options, either find a way to invest profitably in your state, or look at some of the online tax lien sales, you may even want to do both. First, find out what goes on in your state. Are there many deed sales? How often are the tax sales? How many properties are available and how competitive are they? You will actually have to go to some tax sales and see what they are like.
Some states just don’t have very much available, if that’s the case, you may want to try the online tax lien sales. Other states may be very competitive and properties may get bid close to market value. If that’s the case there is still a way that you may be able to profit from tax deed sales in your state. Some counties give the excess proceeds – that’s the amount that’s bid in excess of the minimum bid amount, back to the owner of the property.
Here’s how the excess proceeds strategy works in a nutshell. Instead of waiting for the tax sale you contact the owner of the property before the sale and see if they are going to let their property go for back taxes. If they have already decided to walk away from the property, perhaps they would be willing to give you a quitclaim deed to their property for a small fee. You record the deed with the county clerk a few weeks before the tax sale. Let the property go tax sale and after it is sold you apply for the excess proceeds.
This strategy only works in a few deed states that give the excess proceeds back to the owner of the property – not all deed states do this. So before you try this strategy check with the county tax collector or county treasurer and make sure that the owner of record of the tax delinquent property can apply for the excess proceeds from the sale. Also you do have to check for any other liens, since you are buying the property from the owner and not purchasing the deed at the tax sale, you will be held responsible for any other liens on the property.
You really have two options, either find a way to invest profitably in your state, or look at some of the online tax lien sales, you may even want to do both. First, find out what goes on in your state. Are there many deed sales? How often are the tax sales? How many properties are available and how competitive are they? You will actually have to go to some tax sales and see what they are like.
Some states just don’t have very much available, if that’s the case, you may want to try the online tax lien sales. Other states may be very competitive and properties may get bid close to market value. If that’s the case there is still a way that you may be able to profit from tax deed sales in your state. Some counties give the excess proceeds – that’s the amount that’s bid in excess of the minimum bid amount, back to the owner of the property.
Here’s how the excess proceeds strategy works in a nutshell. Instead of waiting for the tax sale you contact the owner of the property before the sale and see if they are going to let their property go for back taxes. If they have already decided to walk away from the property, perhaps they would be willing to give you a quitclaim deed to their property for a small fee. You record the deed with the county clerk a few weeks before the tax sale. Let the property go tax sale and after it is sold you apply for the excess proceeds.
This strategy only works in a few deed states that give the excess proceeds back to the owner of the property – not all deed states do this. So before you try this strategy check with the county tax collector or county treasurer and make sure that the owner of record of the tax delinquent property can apply for the excess proceeds from the sale. Also you do have to check for any other liens, since you are buying the property from the owner and not purchasing the deed at the tax sale, you will be held responsible for any other liens on the property.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Tax Lien Investing: How I Got Started
Nine years ago my husband and I sold our 2 bedroom condo thinking that we were going to rent for a while until we were able to find a three bedroom home for our growing family (we had three young boys). We were unable to find a place to rent or buy in the county that we lived in. We moved almost an hour away to a small 2 bedroom apartment in the town that I grew up in. The housing market was just starting to take off and for the next 4 years we looked for a home that we could afford in three different counties in NJ and were unsuccessful.
Because we couldn’t find a house to buy that we wanted to live in, we decided that we would look into purchasing real estate for an investment. The problem was that rents had not rose at the same rate as selling prices of houses, so if you had to purchase an investment property and get financing, the rent that you collected would not be able to cover the mortgage payments. Still I thought that real estate investing was the fastest way to build wealth. So I thought that we should try buying foreclosed houses or pre-foreclosures.
The real estate market was booming at this time and investors were paying close to market price for foreclosures because the market was rising so fast. At the foreclosure sales that I went to, small distressed houses sold for over $300,000, and that was out of my price range. Also at these sales you needed to have 20% of the bid price in certified funds on the day of the sale and the rest within 10 days. Since we found ourselves locked out of the real estate market, I wanted to do something with the little bit of money that we had left from the sale of our condominium to invest for our future. I had heard about tax lien investing, and I thought that was something that I might be able to do.
I started going to tax sales in NJ, the state that I lived in at the time. The problem was that I could not find any information about how to invest in tax liens in my state. At that time there was just one book in print about tax lien investing and it didn’t contain any specific information about my state. What information that I could find was very general. So I started going to tax sales and doing some research to find out more. I met someone else that was trying to do the same thing I was, only on a much larger scale, so we teamed up and helped each other.
We learned the tax lien investing business in NJ, and for a while I worked for my partner, building a sizable tax lien portfolio for him while I was building a smaller portfolio for myself. I hired a handful of people to help me and trained them on how to do due diligence for tax sale properties and bid at the sale. We even developed our own software to track our investments and automate a lot of the work.
Meanwhile I realized that there were a lot of people out there like me who wanted to learn about tax lien investing, but didn’t know where to turn. I started my web site, TaxLienLady.com, to answer questions about how to get started investing in tax liens. I researched tax lien and tax deed investing in every state and wrote a couple of e-books, which I sold through my web site. Then I started doing teleseminars, and interviewing experts in different states on aspects of tax lien and tax deed investing. I wrote step-by-step home study courses on tax lien and tax deed investing, and began doing live seminars for local investing groups.
Now I have multiple home study courses, web sites, and blogs for tax lien and tax deed investing. I have a tax lien investing podcast on iTunes, Videos on YouTube, and articles on tax lien and tax deed investing that appear all over the internet. My goal through all these mediums is to give you the truth about tax lien investing, without the hype, and to help you build your own profitable portfolio of tax liens or tax deeds. If you’d like to find out more about how you can get started investing in real estate secured tax lien certificates, or buying properties for pennies on the dollar with tax deeds, you can get my free report “7 Steps to Building Your Profitable Tax Lien Portfolio” at www.TaxLienInvestingBasics.com.
Because we couldn’t find a house to buy that we wanted to live in, we decided that we would look into purchasing real estate for an investment. The problem was that rents had not rose at the same rate as selling prices of houses, so if you had to purchase an investment property and get financing, the rent that you collected would not be able to cover the mortgage payments. Still I thought that real estate investing was the fastest way to build wealth. So I thought that we should try buying foreclosed houses or pre-foreclosures.
The real estate market was booming at this time and investors were paying close to market price for foreclosures because the market was rising so fast. At the foreclosure sales that I went to, small distressed houses sold for over $300,000, and that was out of my price range. Also at these sales you needed to have 20% of the bid price in certified funds on the day of the sale and the rest within 10 days. Since we found ourselves locked out of the real estate market, I wanted to do something with the little bit of money that we had left from the sale of our condominium to invest for our future. I had heard about tax lien investing, and I thought that was something that I might be able to do.
I started going to tax sales in NJ, the state that I lived in at the time. The problem was that I could not find any information about how to invest in tax liens in my state. At that time there was just one book in print about tax lien investing and it didn’t contain any specific information about my state. What information that I could find was very general. So I started going to tax sales and doing some research to find out more. I met someone else that was trying to do the same thing I was, only on a much larger scale, so we teamed up and helped each other.
We learned the tax lien investing business in NJ, and for a while I worked for my partner, building a sizable tax lien portfolio for him while I was building a smaller portfolio for myself. I hired a handful of people to help me and trained them on how to do due diligence for tax sale properties and bid at the sale. We even developed our own software to track our investments and automate a lot of the work.
Meanwhile I realized that there were a lot of people out there like me who wanted to learn about tax lien investing, but didn’t know where to turn. I started my web site, TaxLienLady.com, to answer questions about how to get started investing in tax liens. I researched tax lien and tax deed investing in every state and wrote a couple of e-books, which I sold through my web site. Then I started doing teleseminars, and interviewing experts in different states on aspects of tax lien and tax deed investing. I wrote step-by-step home study courses on tax lien and tax deed investing, and began doing live seminars for local investing groups.
Now I have multiple home study courses, web sites, and blogs for tax lien and tax deed investing. I have a tax lien investing podcast on iTunes, Videos on YouTube, and articles on tax lien and tax deed investing that appear all over the internet. My goal through all these mediums is to give you the truth about tax lien investing, without the hype, and to help you build your own profitable portfolio of tax liens or tax deeds. If you’d like to find out more about how you can get started investing in real estate secured tax lien certificates, or buying properties for pennies on the dollar with tax deeds, you can get my free report “7 Steps to Building Your Profitable Tax Lien Portfolio” at www.TaxLienInvestingBasics.com.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
What’s Wrong with Tax Deed Investing?
You may have heard that tax deed investing is a great way to purchase properties for back taxes. But here are the reasons why it doesn’t always work out that way. First of all these tax sales are competitive and though the bidding for tax sale properties may start at the back taxes owed, any property with a house on it is bid up at the sale, sometimes close to market value. Then what makes it even more difficult for the average person to buy a home at a tax sale is that in most counties is, you need to have the full bid amount, in certified funds on the day of the tax sale or the day after the tax sale. That means that you have to have all of your cash on the day of the sale. You do not have time to get financing. So what is a person in one of these competitive deed states to do? How can you buy tax sale properties for pennies on dollar in one of these states?
There are ways that you can purchase tax sale properties for pennies on the dollar, but not buy going to the tax sale. You can avoid the competition at the tax sale in tax deed states by contacting the owners of these properties before they are sold in the tax sale. You can do this by finding vacant properties that are on the tax sale list that have out of state owners and by contacting the owners of these properties. What you are looking for are property owners who have already decided, for whatever reason that they no longer want the property, and were prepared to let it go at the tax sale. Then you can offer them a small consideration for deeding the property to you before the tax sale. In this way you can pick up vacant properties for less than what they would sell for at the tax sale.
But why would someone just handover a quitclaim deed to their property to you? There are many reasons why someone would do this. There are many reasons why a person would do this. Here are just a few: Divorce or other life changes, loss of a job, or relocation to another area of the country. It is important to check for other liens on the property before you do this because since you are purchasing the property directly from the owner, you would be responsible for any liens, judgments, or mortgages they may be on the property. So check that out first.
Did you know that there is a little known secret about tax deeds that you can do in some states that will let you cash in on tax deed properties without going to the tax sale? You can find out all about it in my free Tax Foreclosure Fortunes mini-course. Get your copy at www.TaxForeclosureFortunes.com.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tax Deed Investing on Steroids Part 1
You may have heard that tax deed investing is a way to purchase tax foreclosed properties for pennies on the dollar. And you may also know that now is a great time to start investing in tax deed properties because there’s more available now then there has been in the last few years. But did you know that there is a way to Cash in on tax deed properties without even bidding at the tax sale? How would you like to be able to buy tax sale properties for less than what they would go for at the tax sale? And because you are purchasing the property from the owner, before the tax sale, you don’t have to worry about clearing the title.
But that’s just the beginning of how you can cash in on tax deed properties without going to the tax sale. I’m going to tell you a little known secret about tax deeds that not all investors know. In many tax deed states, when properties are bid up at the tax sale, the county will make the “excess proceeds” available to the owner of the property. The excess proceeds are the amount of money that is in excess of the back taxes and penalties, or the minimum bid. Many states give this back to the owner of record of the property at the time of tax sale, and you can use this knowledge to make money on tax deed properties without bidding on them at the sale.
Here’s how it works. You find the owner of a property that is going to be sold in a tax sale in a few weeks. You ask the owner of the property if they intend to let the property go to sale. And you ask them if they would give you the property since they are going to let it go anyway. Or you could offer them a small amount of money for it. You get them to issue you a quitclaim deed to the property. You record the deed at the county clerk’s office. You DON’T pay the taxes; you just let the property get sold in the tax sale. You track the property and find out how much it sold for at the tax sale, and then you apply for the excess proceeds.
The beauty of using the excess proceeds strategy of tax deed investing is that first of all you avoid the competition at the tax sale by purchasing the property directly from the owner and you don’t have to pay as much for the property as you would at the sale. Secondly, you don’t have to clear the title to the property and because you only own the property for a short time, your expenses are minimal.
There are a few things that you need to check out before you try this though. This process does not work in all deed states. Some deeds states do not give the excess proceeds back to the owner of the property, so you need to check that out first. The next thing that you have to check is that the property will be bid up at the sale. You have to make sure that the tax sale is competitive enough that the price of the deed will be bid up considerably higher than the starting bid if you are going to be able to make money at this. You can check this by checking on what happened at the tax sale last year, how high did properties that were in last year’s sale get bid up? But that doesn’t always let you know what will happen this year, since economic conditions may be a little different. So you might want to also check recent tax sales in nearby counties or nearby states with similar demographics to get a feel for what you can expect this year.
You also have to do your due diligence on any properties that you plan on purchasing before you buy them. You need to do this for two reasons. The obvious reason for checking out the property is to make sure that it’s worth enough money so that it will be bid up at the tax sale. But you also want to check and see if there are any liens or judgments on the property before you purchase it from the owner. Because you are purchasing the property directly from the owner and not at the tax sale or from the county, you would be responsible for any liens or judgments against the property at the time you purchased it. So if there is a mortgage on the property, you would be responsible to satisfy that mortgage. Therefore you want to stay away from properties that have any liens on them.
Since you have to do due diligence on tax sale properties anyway, for any type of deed investing, this strategy of tax deed investing is no more work than just purchasing properties at the deed sale. The great thing about using the excess proceeds strategy is that you need less money, so you can purchase more properties and make more money! In part two of this series I’ll give you some FAQs for the excess proceeds strategy.
You can get a free mini-course on this little known secret strategy for cashing in on tax foreclosed properties without going to the tax sale at www.TaxForeclosureFortunes.com
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tax Lien Investing Book Review
Recently one of my clients asked me what I thought of one of a book about tax lien investing. The book that he asked me about is one that I do recommend on my web site. The name of the book is Profit by Investing in Tax Liens, by Larry Loftis. The problem with books about investing in tax liens and tax deeds is that every state is very different and there is no book in print that I’m aware of that does justice to every state in the U.S. My goal in this article is to give you a short review of some of the books that I’m familiar with and point out the pros and cons of each one.
Let’s start with the book already mentioned, Profit by Investing in Tax Liens by Larry Loftis. Mr. Loftis is an attorney in Florida, and I do find that the best books on tax lien investing are written by lawyers that are also tax lien investors. Mr. Loftis has personally purchased tax liens in nine states and the District of Columbia. In addition he has also either attended tax sales or bid on over-counter liens or deeds in four other states. He or a member of his staff has either interviewed or spoken with tax sale officials from all 50 states. This is probably the most comprehensive and accurate book on the market that I am aware of. It’s great for anyone that is just getting started in tax lien or tax deed investing and wants to know the basics. The drawback is that for some states there is very little information given. As I said earlier, there is no one book that does justice to every state. What I like about this book is that the author didn’t just look up the state statutes in each state (even though he is a lawyer), but contacted county tax offices in every state to find out what actually takes place. I give this one two thumbs up for beginners and one thumb up for experienced investors in tax lien investing.
Another book written by an attorney is The 16% Solution, by Joel S. Moskowitz. Though this book is written by an attorney, it was first published back in 1992, and last copyrighted in 1994, more than 10 years before Profit by Investing in Tax Liens. What I like about this book is that it does not attempt to cover both tax lien and tax deed investing but concentrates on only tax lien investing. As little as four years ago, this was the only book that I could find in print on tax lien investing. Even then, though, this book was already outdated. Not only does each state have different rules when it comes to tax lien and tax deed investing, but these laws and procedures are constantly changing. This book is still good to read and have in your library, but only as an introduction to tax lien investing. Any state specific information is outdated (it doesn’t give too much state specific information anyway), and any contact information is probably no good. I give this book one thumb up for beginners, no thumbs up for experienced investors in tax lien investing.
I’ve heard that the state of New Jersey is the second most popular state for tax lien investing. I don’t know if that’s still true, but I do know that NJ has the most complicated law and procedures for tax lien investing. It is also one of the most profitable and most competitive states to invest in. Until 2005, there was no book in print that discussed tax lien investing in New Jersey accurately. That’s the year that Tax Liens: The Complete Guide to Investing in New Jersey Tax Liens, by Michael Pellegrino, was published. Mr. Pellgrino isn’t just an attorney in New Jersey; he’s an attorney that specializes in tax liens. He specializes in tax lien foreclosures and related litigation, so he really knows the ins and outs of tax lien investing in New Jersey. Although this book doesn’t cover everything for the experienced investor, it does cover what you need to know to get started with tax lien investing in New Jersey. What I love about this book is that it concentrates on tax lien investing in one state, thus it covers what happens in that state more thoroughly than any of the other books about tax liens. This is a must have for anyone that is thinking of investing in New Jersey tax liens and a good reference for experienced investors in that state. I give this book two thumbs up, for both beginning and experienced investors in New Jersey.
You can find all of the books that were mentioned in this article on my web site at TaxLienLady.com/resources and you can also find them at Amazon.com. When I first started investing a few years ago there was only one book in print about tax lien investing. Today there are several. There are more available than were mentioned here in this article. I want to caution you before you purchase other books that are written on this subject. There is only one other author I know of that I would recommend even though I haven’t read her books. That author is Lillian Villanova and the reason that I would recommend her books is that I know she is an experienced tax lien investor. In fact, I believe that she makes her living with tax liens; she is experienced in more than one state, and has taught others how to invest in tax liens. This is important because there are a few people out there writing books on tax lien investing that have limited experience. They buy a couple of tax liens, do a little research and then write a book. This is not the kind of advice or knowledge that you need in order to buy profitable tax liens. You want to learn from a real expert, who knows what the pitfalls are and can steer you away from them. Maybe that’s why all of the books that I recommend on my web site are written by attorneys.
Let’s start with the book already mentioned, Profit by Investing in Tax Liens by Larry Loftis. Mr. Loftis is an attorney in Florida, and I do find that the best books on tax lien investing are written by lawyers that are also tax lien investors. Mr. Loftis has personally purchased tax liens in nine states and the District of Columbia. In addition he has also either attended tax sales or bid on over-counter liens or deeds in four other states. He or a member of his staff has either interviewed or spoken with tax sale officials from all 50 states. This is probably the most comprehensive and accurate book on the market that I am aware of. It’s great for anyone that is just getting started in tax lien or tax deed investing and wants to know the basics. The drawback is that for some states there is very little information given. As I said earlier, there is no one book that does justice to every state. What I like about this book is that the author didn’t just look up the state statutes in each state (even though he is a lawyer), but contacted county tax offices in every state to find out what actually takes place. I give this one two thumbs up for beginners and one thumb up for experienced investors in tax lien investing.
Another book written by an attorney is The 16% Solution, by Joel S. Moskowitz. Though this book is written by an attorney, it was first published back in 1992, and last copyrighted in 1994, more than 10 years before Profit by Investing in Tax Liens. What I like about this book is that it does not attempt to cover both tax lien and tax deed investing but concentrates on only tax lien investing. As little as four years ago, this was the only book that I could find in print on tax lien investing. Even then, though, this book was already outdated. Not only does each state have different rules when it comes to tax lien and tax deed investing, but these laws and procedures are constantly changing. This book is still good to read and have in your library, but only as an introduction to tax lien investing. Any state specific information is outdated (it doesn’t give too much state specific information anyway), and any contact information is probably no good. I give this book one thumb up for beginners, no thumbs up for experienced investors in tax lien investing.
I’ve heard that the state of New Jersey is the second most popular state for tax lien investing. I don’t know if that’s still true, but I do know that NJ has the most complicated law and procedures for tax lien investing. It is also one of the most profitable and most competitive states to invest in. Until 2005, there was no book in print that discussed tax lien investing in New Jersey accurately. That’s the year that Tax Liens: The Complete Guide to Investing in New Jersey Tax Liens, by Michael Pellegrino, was published. Mr. Pellgrino isn’t just an attorney in New Jersey; he’s an attorney that specializes in tax liens. He specializes in tax lien foreclosures and related litigation, so he really knows the ins and outs of tax lien investing in New Jersey. Although this book doesn’t cover everything for the experienced investor, it does cover what you need to know to get started with tax lien investing in New Jersey. What I love about this book is that it concentrates on tax lien investing in one state, thus it covers what happens in that state more thoroughly than any of the other books about tax liens. This is a must have for anyone that is thinking of investing in New Jersey tax liens and a good reference for experienced investors in that state. I give this book two thumbs up, for both beginning and experienced investors in New Jersey.
You can find all of the books that were mentioned in this article on my web site at TaxLienLady.com/resources and you can also find them at Amazon.com. When I first started investing a few years ago there was only one book in print about tax lien investing. Today there are several. There are more available than were mentioned here in this article. I want to caution you before you purchase other books that are written on this subject. There is only one other author I know of that I would recommend even though I haven’t read her books. That author is Lillian Villanova and the reason that I would recommend her books is that I know she is an experienced tax lien investor. In fact, I believe that she makes her living with tax liens; she is experienced in more than one state, and has taught others how to invest in tax liens. This is important because there are a few people out there writing books on tax lien investing that have limited experience. They buy a couple of tax liens, do a little research and then write a book. This is not the kind of advice or knowledge that you need in order to buy profitable tax liens. You want to learn from a real expert, who knows what the pitfalls are and can steer you away from them. Maybe that’s why all of the books that I recommend on my web site are written by attorneys.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Another Advantage of Tax Lien Investing
I finally figured out why I’ve been successful at investing in tax lien certificates, but have not been very successful at other types of real estate investing. All this time I thought it was just because there’s less money needed for tax lien investing than there is for most other types of real estate investing. But now I think that I’ve found out the real reason. It’s my negotiating and communication skills, or should I say lack thereof.
Most types of real estate investing require negotiation and communication. You have to get on the phone and talk to someone, negotiate a price, and make a deal. Worse than that, you might have to make a few cold calls – you know call someone that has a property for sale or rent who doesn’t know you from Adam, ask them about their property, and determine if they’ll sell it to you, at a discount and preferable for no money down.
Well I don’t know about you, but when it came to these calls I was terrified of the phone. It wasn’t actually the phone that I was afraid of but the person on the other end of it. It didn’t matter if they were calling me and responding to one of my “we buy houses” ads, or I was calling them on their for sale or for rent ad. And then I had to meet them in person, look at their property and negotiate a deal. I just didn’t consider myself a good negotiator.
With tax lien investing on the other hand, there is nothing to negotiate. Usually, I never have to talk to the delinquent taxpayer. The only person that I have to talk to is the tax collector and maybe the other bidders at the sale. I don’t have to negotiate the terms of the deal. State law already specifies all of that. All I have to be concerned about is exactly how low in interest or how high in premium I want to bid. No negotiating skills needed - Another benefit of tax lien investing over other types of real estate investing.
Now is a great time to start investing in tax lien certificates because of the economy there are more tax liens available and less competition. The Arizona tax sales go on at this time every year (February and March), and some Arizona counties have tax sales online. If you’d like to learn how to build a profit tax lien portfolio now, I can help. I have a home study course that takes you through all of the steps that you have to follow to buy profitable tax lien certificates or tax deeds, including how to do your due diligence to illuminate the risks. Find out more about how you start your own profitable tax lien portfolio today at TaxLienLady.com/EquityTrust.
Most types of real estate investing require negotiation and communication. You have to get on the phone and talk to someone, negotiate a price, and make a deal. Worse than that, you might have to make a few cold calls – you know call someone that has a property for sale or rent who doesn’t know you from Adam, ask them about their property, and determine if they’ll sell it to you, at a discount and preferable for no money down.
Well I don’t know about you, but when it came to these calls I was terrified of the phone. It wasn’t actually the phone that I was afraid of but the person on the other end of it. It didn’t matter if they were calling me and responding to one of my “we buy houses” ads, or I was calling them on their for sale or for rent ad. And then I had to meet them in person, look at their property and negotiate a deal. I just didn’t consider myself a good negotiator.
With tax lien investing on the other hand, there is nothing to negotiate. Usually, I never have to talk to the delinquent taxpayer. The only person that I have to talk to is the tax collector and maybe the other bidders at the sale. I don’t have to negotiate the terms of the deal. State law already specifies all of that. All I have to be concerned about is exactly how low in interest or how high in premium I want to bid. No negotiating skills needed - Another benefit of tax lien investing over other types of real estate investing.
Now is a great time to start investing in tax lien certificates because of the economy there are more tax liens available and less competition. The Arizona tax sales go on at this time every year (February and March), and some Arizona counties have tax sales online. If you’d like to learn how to build a profit tax lien portfolio now, I can help. I have a home study course that takes you through all of the steps that you have to follow to buy profitable tax lien certificates or tax deeds, including how to do your due diligence to illuminate the risks. Find out more about how you start your own profitable tax lien portfolio today at TaxLienLady.com/EquityTrust.
When NOT to Buy a Tax Lien
Recently someone contacted me with a very “valuable” lien that they had for sale. They didn't have the money to foreclose on the lien and wanted either to sell it or partner with someone on foreclosing it. (Have someone else hire a lawyer to foreclose on the lien and share in the profits). When I checked into the property, I found out that it was a vacant piece of land with little value, and the lien holder had already invested more than $16,000.00 into this lien. They had paid subsequent taxes over a few years and when they stopped paying the taxes the lien was struck off to the municipality.
Because this was not a good property the municipality never foreclosed the lien as well. The original lien was purchased back in 1993. The municipality picked up the lien in 1997 and the back taxes owed on this property now are probably more than the property is worth. I had to give her the bad news that her lien is not worth foreclosing on and she won’t be able to sell it. If she only knew when NOT to buy a tax lien, this bad investment would have been avoided.
So here is a list for you of a few reasons not to buy a tax lien. Be sure check the items on this list for tax sale properties before you purchase a tax lien certificate on the property and you’ll avoid taking an unnecessary risk with your money.
* There are very low annual taxes for the property (lower than usual for the area)
* You can’t find the property on the tax map
* You can’t locate the property to look at it
* The property has an unknown owner
* The property is land locked with no right of way
* The property is not large enough or not the right shape to build on (check zoning)
* There are prior tax liens on the property and the prior lien holder is at the tax sale
* The property is or has been contaminated (check the state environmental web site)
* The property is condemned or about to be condemned (eye-ball the property or check with the municipality)
* The grade of the property is too steep to build on
* The property is in a flood zone
These are just some reasons not to buy a tax lien certificate. I don’t want to give you the wrong idea. Investing in tax liens can be very profitable. I believe that it’s an excellent way to invest your money safely if it’s done properly. You can find out all the reasons why I like in tax lien investing in my article Why Do I Invest In Tax Lien Certificates.
Now is a great time to start investing in tax lien certificates. As a result of the week economy there are more tax liens available now then there have been in the past few years. Right now (fall) the states of Indiana and Illinois are having their tax lien sales, An in the Arizona tax sales go on at each year in February, some Arizona counties even have tax sales online. If you’d like to learn how to build a profitable tax lien portfolio now, I can help. I have a home study course that takes you through all of the steps that you have to follow to buy profitable tax lien certificates or tax deeds, including how to do your due diligence to eliminate the risks. Find out more about how you can start your own profitable tax lien portfolio today at ProfitableTaxLienPortfolio.com>.
Because this was not a good property the municipality never foreclosed the lien as well. The original lien was purchased back in 1993. The municipality picked up the lien in 1997 and the back taxes owed on this property now are probably more than the property is worth. I had to give her the bad news that her lien is not worth foreclosing on and she won’t be able to sell it. If she only knew when NOT to buy a tax lien, this bad investment would have been avoided.
So here is a list for you of a few reasons not to buy a tax lien. Be sure check the items on this list for tax sale properties before you purchase a tax lien certificate on the property and you’ll avoid taking an unnecessary risk with your money.
* There are very low annual taxes for the property (lower than usual for the area)
* You can’t find the property on the tax map
* You can’t locate the property to look at it
* The property has an unknown owner
* The property is land locked with no right of way
* The property is not large enough or not the right shape to build on (check zoning)
* There are prior tax liens on the property and the prior lien holder is at the tax sale
* The property is or has been contaminated (check the state environmental web site)
* The property is condemned or about to be condemned (eye-ball the property or check with the municipality)
* The grade of the property is too steep to build on
* The property is in a flood zone
These are just some reasons not to buy a tax lien certificate. I don’t want to give you the wrong idea. Investing in tax liens can be very profitable. I believe that it’s an excellent way to invest your money safely if it’s done properly. You can find out all the reasons why I like in tax lien investing in my article Why Do I Invest In Tax Lien Certificates.
Now is a great time to start investing in tax lien certificates. As a result of the week economy there are more tax liens available now then there have been in the past few years. Right now (fall) the states of Indiana and Illinois are having their tax lien sales, An in the Arizona tax sales go on at each year in February, some Arizona counties even have tax sales online. If you’d like to learn how to build a profitable tax lien portfolio now, I can help. I have a home study course that takes you through all of the steps that you have to follow to buy profitable tax lien certificates or tax deeds, including how to do your due diligence to eliminate the risks. Find out more about how you can start your own profitable tax lien portfolio today at ProfitableTaxLienPortfolio.com>.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Real Estate Investing Training: My Quest for the Best Part 4
In the last 3 articles in this series I told you about my quest for real estate investing experts that give the best value for their courses, and I told you about two women that I choose to mentor me in real estate investing this year. I don’t want you to think that just because I choose two women in a field that is dominated by men, that there aren’t any men in this business that are excellent trainers as well. In this article and the next article in this series I want to tell you about the men in my life – my business life that is; My tax lien investing to be exact.
The business of tax lien investing is such a small niche in real estate investing that it is almost totally dominated by men. There is only one or two other women that I know of that I would consider to be “experts” in this field. And while one of them has written a couple of books on the subject, neither of them give any formal training in this area that I am aware of. My mentors in the field of tax lien investing have been men. And the web sites that I consider to be indispensable tools for investing in tax liens are also owned and operated by men.
In this article I’d like to tell you about three web sites that I believe are indispensable tools for investing in tax liens. The web site that I use the most for investing in New Jersey tax liens is LienSource.com. LienSource is a registered servicemark of Savid Resource Corperation, a New Jersey Based company. Savid’s president, Steve Davis, has been a New Jersey certified tax collector for over 15 years. He has worked in 8 New Jersey municipalities through his career and is currently the tax collector for Bethlehem Township in Hunterdon County. LienSorce provides tax sale information and tax sale lists for New Jersey and Florida, Nassau County New York, and Washington DC.
To find out what tax sales are coming up all over the country, I use TaxSaleLists.com. TaxSaleLists.com is owned and operated by John Lane. John’s company has over 35 years of experience in buying tax liens in different areas of the country. He is one of the few tax lien investing “gurus” that is an experienced and successful tax lien investor himself. You can get a free membership to his site at TaxSalesLists.com and find out what tax sales are coming up all over the country.
The third web site that I consider to be one of my indispensable resources for tax sale information, especially for investors in Arizona, is ArizonaTaxLiens.com. Arizona Tax Liens is owned and operated by Brendan Monahan. Brendan has been helping people invest in Arizona tax liens since 2001. His site provides education and Arizona tax sale information and tax sale lists. Brendan started providing tax sale lists for Arizona counties a few years ago when he found it difficult to get these lists for his own investing. Many Arizona require that you send a request by mail (with a check for the required fee) and wait for your check to clear before they will send you the tax sale list. This can take weeks. Arizona Tax Liens provides updated lists instantly online and in many cases for less than the county charges.
Stay tuned for Part 5 in this article series in which I’ll tell you about the two gentlemen that are my mentors in tax deed investing and investing in tax delinquent properties.
The business of tax lien investing is such a small niche in real estate investing that it is almost totally dominated by men. There is only one or two other women that I know of that I would consider to be “experts” in this field. And while one of them has written a couple of books on the subject, neither of them give any formal training in this area that I am aware of. My mentors in the field of tax lien investing have been men. And the web sites that I consider to be indispensable tools for investing in tax liens are also owned and operated by men.
In this article I’d like to tell you about three web sites that I believe are indispensable tools for investing in tax liens. The web site that I use the most for investing in New Jersey tax liens is LienSource.com. LienSource is a registered servicemark of Savid Resource Corperation, a New Jersey Based company. Savid’s president, Steve Davis, has been a New Jersey certified tax collector for over 15 years. He has worked in 8 New Jersey municipalities through his career and is currently the tax collector for Bethlehem Township in Hunterdon County. LienSorce provides tax sale information and tax sale lists for New Jersey and Florida, Nassau County New York, and Washington DC.
To find out what tax sales are coming up all over the country, I use TaxSaleLists.com. TaxSaleLists.com is owned and operated by John Lane. John’s company has over 35 years of experience in buying tax liens in different areas of the country. He is one of the few tax lien investing “gurus” that is an experienced and successful tax lien investor himself. You can get a free membership to his site at TaxSalesLists.com and find out what tax sales are coming up all over the country.
The third web site that I consider to be one of my indispensable resources for tax sale information, especially for investors in Arizona, is ArizonaTaxLiens.com. Arizona Tax Liens is owned and operated by Brendan Monahan. Brendan has been helping people invest in Arizona tax liens since 2001. His site provides education and Arizona tax sale information and tax sale lists. Brendan started providing tax sale lists for Arizona counties a few years ago when he found it difficult to get these lists for his own investing. Many Arizona require that you send a request by mail (with a check for the required fee) and wait for your check to clear before they will send you the tax sale list. This can take weeks. Arizona Tax Liens provides updated lists instantly online and in many cases for less than the county charges.
Stay tuned for Part 5 in this article series in which I’ll tell you about the two gentlemen that are my mentors in tax deed investing and investing in tax delinquent properties.
Real Estate Investing Training: My Quest for the Best Part 3
In the Part 2 of this series I introduced you to Wendy Patton, one of the 2 women real estate investing experts that I found to mentor me in my real estate investing this year. Now I want to introduce you to the second expert that I choose to work with this year, Heather Seitz.
Heather is a dynamic young lady who in a few short years became not only a very successful real estate investor, and trainer, but a very successful internet marketer as well. I love Heather’s style of teaching real estate investing. She’s honest and straight-forward and tells it like it is – she doesn’t candy coat the business of real estate investing. She teaches about real estate investing much the same way I teach about tax lien investing. Her trainings are top-notch and she gives a tremendous amount of value in her courses, which are very reasonably priced. That’s why I choose Heather to be one of my mentors in real estate investing in 2009.
I’m currently taking her “Back to Basics” 8-week webinar training course. I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to take her 8-week training that goes over all of the basics of investing in real estate and puts all of the pieces together. This training was just what I needed because I’ve purchased a few real estate investing courses over the last few years but still haven’t made money in real estate investing (except for tax liens). I was so impressed with the first lesson – and it fits right in with Wendy Patton’s program (see Part 2 of this series), that I can’t wait for the next lesson.
I also have Heather’s Probate Profit System – another great value for the money. Along with this course Heather gives all her form and contracts along with her step-by-step system for investing in probate properties, which is one of her favorite ways to find investment properties. This course includes CDs and transcripts from her live 2-day workshop, her contracts, and deal coaching with Heather or a member of her staff. All this for less than $500! I know that I’ve paid double that for similar courses.
I’m so excited about working with Heather this year that I’d like to share with you one of her special reports that you can get at no charge. Heather has a very informative special report on the lies that real estate gurus tell you and how to avoid getting ripped off. You can get her complimentary special report at http://budurl.com/rant.
Now just because I choose 2 women investors to be my mentors this year in real estate investing, a field that is dominated by men, doesn’t mean that there aren’t any men in this business that are excellent trainers as well. Stay tuned for Part 4 of this article series in which I’ll tell you about the 3 web sites (created and run by men in this business) that are indispensable tools for tax lien investing. And in Part 5 of this series, I’ll tell you about the 2 men that I consider to be my mentors for tax deed investing and investing in tax delinquent properties.
Heather is a dynamic young lady who in a few short years became not only a very successful real estate investor, and trainer, but a very successful internet marketer as well. I love Heather’s style of teaching real estate investing. She’s honest and straight-forward and tells it like it is – she doesn’t candy coat the business of real estate investing. She teaches about real estate investing much the same way I teach about tax lien investing. Her trainings are top-notch and she gives a tremendous amount of value in her courses, which are very reasonably priced. That’s why I choose Heather to be one of my mentors in real estate investing in 2009.
I’m currently taking her “Back to Basics” 8-week webinar training course. I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to take her 8-week training that goes over all of the basics of investing in real estate and puts all of the pieces together. This training was just what I needed because I’ve purchased a few real estate investing courses over the last few years but still haven’t made money in real estate investing (except for tax liens). I was so impressed with the first lesson – and it fits right in with Wendy Patton’s program (see Part 2 of this series), that I can’t wait for the next lesson.
I also have Heather’s Probate Profit System – another great value for the money. Along with this course Heather gives all her form and contracts along with her step-by-step system for investing in probate properties, which is one of her favorite ways to find investment properties. This course includes CDs and transcripts from her live 2-day workshop, her contracts, and deal coaching with Heather or a member of her staff. All this for less than $500! I know that I’ve paid double that for similar courses.
I’m so excited about working with Heather this year that I’d like to share with you one of her special reports that you can get at no charge. Heather has a very informative special report on the lies that real estate gurus tell you and how to avoid getting ripped off. You can get her complimentary special report at http://budurl.com/rant.
Now just because I choose 2 women investors to be my mentors this year in real estate investing, a field that is dominated by men, doesn’t mean that there aren’t any men in this business that are excellent trainers as well. Stay tuned for Part 4 of this article series in which I’ll tell you about the 3 web sites (created and run by men in this business) that are indispensable tools for tax lien investing. And in Part 5 of this series, I’ll tell you about the 2 men that I consider to be my mentors for tax deed investing and investing in tax delinquent properties.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Real Estate Investing Training: My Quest for the Best Part 2
In part one of this series I told you about my quest for the real estate experts with the best trainings at the most reasonable prices and I told you a little bit about the 2 women real estate investing experts that I have found. Now I bet that you want to know who they are. In this article I will introduce you to them and tell you how you can get more information about them.
First I want to introduce you to Wendy Patton. Wendy started her career as a real estate investor when she was 21. She went on to become one of the most successful real estate investors in Michigan, and to earn her real estate brokers license. She is also a licensed builder, and has her own real estate company, Majestic Realty LLC. She has experience in many different aspects of real estate investing including land development, commercial and residential real estate, foreclosures, and rehabbing, but her favorite way to buy and sell real estate is through lease options. In her seminars and home study courses Wendy teaches clients how to control real estate with little or no money down using lease option, lease purchase and subject to techniques. She is a featured trainer on REIBlueprints.com.
I have Wendy’s Wealth Building Arsenal which includes 4 of her home study courses: Working with Realtors, Getting the Deed, Buying on Lease Options, and Selling with Lease Options. It also includes 2 books - Investing in Real Estate with Lease Options and Subject to Deals and Remarkable Women, as well as 2 special reports, Investing in Lease Options with Your IRA and Tax Aspects of Lease Options. Unlike other training programs, this program has EVERYTHING you need to be successful at investing in real estate using Lease Options including contracts and forms that you can customize for your business. Wendy offers all this for $1998. I know that I have paid almost twice this much for similar courses that did not offer me the one thing that I got with Wendy’s course that I didn’t get with any other – an action plan that I could follow. You can find out more about Wendy’s program at http://budurl.com/wendypatton.
I just received all of the course materials a couple of weeks ago and I have finished Wendy’s book on Investing in Real Estate with Lease Options and Subject to Deals. The best part of her book is that it includes an action plan to help you get started. Wendy gives you a complete business plan to earn $120,000 in one year from real estate investing using the strategies in her book. She even tells you how to set up your office. Using her plan as a guide I was able to write my own business plan for the first quarter of 2009. If you can’t afford her entire program right now, but you’re interested in doing something with real estate investing this year, I recommend that you at least buy Wendy’s book. You can get Wendy’s book at Amazon.com at http://budurl.com/wendysbook for only $14.93.
Stay tuned for Part 3 of this article series where you’ll find out about the second expert that I’ll be working with in 2009.
First I want to introduce you to Wendy Patton. Wendy started her career as a real estate investor when she was 21. She went on to become one of the most successful real estate investors in Michigan, and to earn her real estate brokers license. She is also a licensed builder, and has her own real estate company, Majestic Realty LLC. She has experience in many different aspects of real estate investing including land development, commercial and residential real estate, foreclosures, and rehabbing, but her favorite way to buy and sell real estate is through lease options. In her seminars and home study courses Wendy teaches clients how to control real estate with little or no money down using lease option, lease purchase and subject to techniques. She is a featured trainer on REIBlueprints.com.
I have Wendy’s Wealth Building Arsenal which includes 4 of her home study courses: Working with Realtors, Getting the Deed, Buying on Lease Options, and Selling with Lease Options. It also includes 2 books - Investing in Real Estate with Lease Options and Subject to Deals and Remarkable Women, as well as 2 special reports, Investing in Lease Options with Your IRA and Tax Aspects of Lease Options. Unlike other training programs, this program has EVERYTHING you need to be successful at investing in real estate using Lease Options including contracts and forms that you can customize for your business. Wendy offers all this for $1998. I know that I have paid almost twice this much for similar courses that did not offer me the one thing that I got with Wendy’s course that I didn’t get with any other – an action plan that I could follow. You can find out more about Wendy’s program at http://budurl.com/wendypatton.
I just received all of the course materials a couple of weeks ago and I have finished Wendy’s book on Investing in Real Estate with Lease Options and Subject to Deals. The best part of her book is that it includes an action plan to help you get started. Wendy gives you a complete business plan to earn $120,000 in one year from real estate investing using the strategies in her book. She even tells you how to set up your office. Using her plan as a guide I was able to write my own business plan for the first quarter of 2009. If you can’t afford her entire program right now, but you’re interested in doing something with real estate investing this year, I recommend that you at least buy Wendy’s book. You can get Wendy’s book at Amazon.com at http://budurl.com/wendysbook for only $14.93.
Stay tuned for Part 3 of this article series where you’ll find out about the second expert that I’ll be working with in 2009.
Real Estate Investing Training: My Quest for the Best Part 1
This past year I have been on a quest to find the best real estate investing training at the lowest price available. I've been successful in tax lien investing, but now I want to use my profits from tax lien investing and put my money into real estate deals. Real estate investing is something that I have wanted to do for a long time. I just found it easier to invest in tax liens.
I believe that 2009 is the opportune time, both to get involved with tax lien or tax deed investing, if you've been sitting on the fence and to purchase investment real estate. The problem that I have found in learning how to invest in real estate without getting burnt is that there are tons of programs out there. How do you know which one is right for you? And most of the trainings, boot camps, and home study courses cost an arm and a leg. Instead of putting $10,000 down on your first property, it's not uncommon to spend that on training - I know I did. And where did it get me? We'll it didn't make me a millionaire. It didn't even get me my first deal.
My husband and I got our first deal at an auction. And then we were shocked to find out that we needed to put 20% down in order to get the financing for this deal. We only had 30 days till closing and the contract was not contingent on getting the financing. Fortunately we had financing lined up and had just enough money to put down 20% instead of the 10% that we were expecting to need. Now we knew that if we were going to do any more real estate deals we would have to use other methods to find and buy properties: Methods that required little or no money down.
The good news is that now I have found a couple of real estate experts that I can honestly say offer an excellent value for the price of their training. I will be working with these 2 women this year to maximize my efforts in real estate investing. That’s right, these 2 experts that I have found are women, in a field that is dominated by men. And these 2 women are more successful at real estate investing than most of the men out there.
One of them has been in the business for over 20 years – since she was 21, she is an extremely successful real estate investor. She even became a real estate broker and runs 3 successful real estate offices. And she travels the country giving very successful real estate trainings and boot camps. The other expert started her real estate investing business less than 10 years ago, and she has built one of the most successful internet marketing businesses as well as several successful real estate training programs and a very successful real estate business.
Join me on my Tax Lien Lady Recommends blog at http://www.taxlienladyrecommends.com/ in 2009 as I review the coaching and training programs from these 2 incredible ladies and keep you updated on my progress. Stay tuned for the next article in this series to find out who these ladies are and how you can have access to them.
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