I have been looking over some tax sale lists in the past few weeks and have seen some parcels owing hundreds of thousands of dollars, even 1 million in back taxes. In these and other instances, the properties owe considerably more than they are worth. If no one bids on them year after year at the tax sale, how to the collectors dispose of the properties in situations like this. I realize it varies from state to state - maybe even county to county. Curious to hear how this process plays out. Thanks #22.

PS Mike and Sid - if there's a pre tax sale pow wow, I'll buy you guys lunch

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The city about an hour north of me recently had a tax resale. These were things that had been sent to tax sale, but hadn't sold on the courthouse steps. They wait until they have a decent amount of houses, and then they do a sealed-bid sale. You submit your bid, accompanied by 10% of your proposed purchase price, and you have x time to bring them the other 90% if your bid is accepted. There's a committee made of councilmembers, school board members, and county commissioners, and they decide whether to accept or reject... and sometimes, they'll reject everything, if they don't get a number they're looking for. For example, there was one little 2/1 with a minimum bid of $31k, and they rejected an offer of $25k that had been given after the original sale failure. ????

Out of the 12 houses they had for sale, there were maybe four that were worth considering. But their minimum bid from the first time around was pretty close to half the retail value of the house. They had let the taxes accumulate, unpaid, for about seven years, so by the time they finally did try to sell them, they were so bloated by taxes, penalties, and lawyers' fees, it wasn't competitive. No one wanted to buy a grungy little fixer-upper for so expensive, right? I decided that I would rather get my houses by beating out the competition, rather than having a committee decide my bid was worthy enough to be accepted... especially since bids needed to be accompanied by a cashier's check, and I kept forgetting to ask how long it took for the unsuccessful bids to get their money returned. :) However, when I followed up to see what those four houses had sold for, in each case, the winning bid was higher than what the minimum bid had remained unsold at the original sale.

I also looked into a rural county down the road. They, too, have a tax resale for stuff that isn't snapped up on the steps. It's monthly. In their case, they tell you, "This is what the minimum bid is that we'll consider." And then they accept sealed bid offers. The City Council meets, looks over the bids, and passes judgment. So for July, the last day for bids was July 31st, and the Council meets the third week of August to make their decision.

#22 For those kinds of $$ I would guess you are looking at your town up north. If that is the case remember their tax sales are a little different that the ones in the hinterlands of MO where I live.

I don’t know of any pre tax sale pow wow coming up. If there was one I surely would like to attend as a student and see what I could learn. SID is getting to be very knowledgeable and a great teacher. I wish he had been my mentor.

I just finished my paper research today and will drive the county tomorrow laying eyes on things I am interested in.

I should have a little time Sat and Sun if you have any questions I would do my best to answer for you. I believe you have my number. I will yo – yo back to the other side of the state Monday and spend one and a half weeks looking over there.

From last year’s sale I picked one up in December and believe I will get two more at the end of this month. One person died and the other person lives in Calif and hasn’t been around for a long time. But we never know.

If you bought lunch it would probably be a pine float. I used to have lots of them. They were about the only thing I could afford. I think you are too young to remember what they were. A pine float was a glass of water with a wooden mint flavored tooth pick floating in it.

Let me know if I can help you.

Plenty

I think you confirmed my thoughts as to where you are looking for the tax sale properties.

Just look at tax sales, regular or over the counter, as somewhat looking for tenants.

You have to make lemon aid out of lemons. You have to kiss a lot of frogs before the prince or princesses is found.

Example. One guy found a piece of land that was somewhat skinny but fairly long. I don’t remember the numbers. No one wanted it. Had been on the books for a few years. He bought it (very cheap) and made a landing strip for his airplane.

So your cliff you found. What can you do with it? Have you thought of opening or finding someone (ex military) who would like to open a repelling school? If this is close enough to the city this might be a niche. I know YOU wouldn’t want to open a repelling school but someone might.

I bought a property a couple of years back. Used to have a mobile home on it but termites had a picnic. Couldn’t think of what to do with it other than where to strike the match. The post the other day about campsites. That’s my answer. The property is about 50 or 60 feet wide and maybe 140 feet long. The front of the property touches the dirt gravel road but the back lot line is the embankment of the river. You can put your lawn chair there and cast your hook into the river.

Keep the mind open.

PS i know these sugestions arn't worth you rich guys time but us bottom feeders have to do what we can :)smiling