Florida Tax Sales

Florida sells over 400,000 tax liens in an average year and this year will not be average, but much larger than average due to the mortgage crisis that is going on in Florida. Historically, the Florida tax sales are the largest in the country. Due to that fact it is one of the states that the so called "gurus" tend to tout the most.

What are the facts about Florida and should you consider buying in Florida?

Let me answer the last question first: Yes, by all means you should look at investing in Florida tax sales. There are a number of reasons why.

1. As we said before, it is the largest state for tax liens in the country which means there are lots of opportunities.
2. Most of the sales are now on the internet which means you don't have to go to a Florida tax sale, you can do them from home.
3. Florida has very good land records and assessor records on the web so for most counties you can get the information you need online.
4. Because of the financial crisis a number of large institutional buyers will probably not be buyers (they are too busy putting out their fires at home).

What are the negative aspects of Florida tax sales? There are not a lot of them, but there are some very major ones you should be aware of. Let's go over those.

1. Contrary to what the "gurus" tell you, you will probably not make 18% on your money. Florida sells the lien to the individual who is willing to accept the lowest interest rate on his money. Figure if you make 10% to 12% you are doing quite well.
2. You will never get the property at a Florida tax sale by just buying the tax lien. What happens in Florida is you buy the tax lien and if it is not paid off by the end of the redemption period (about 22 months) you apply to have the property taken to tax deed. What you are owed on your tax lien is the opening bid at the tax deed sale (you are also allowed to bid on the property and would not, obviously, have to pay what you are owed). If someone bids more than what you are owed, and they are the highest bidder, they get the property. If you have purchased a lien on a decent property THERE WILL BE PEOPLE BIDDING ON IT AT THE DEED SALE. So don't think you will get the property if you don't bid. What you will get is your investment back, plus interest, which the last time I checked, is not a bad deal.

One company has a good instructional course on how to use the internet for doing your research on tax sales. It is Taxsalelists.com and I have put a link to their course below. They have a webinar which is "An Introduction to Tax Sales" that costs nothing and has some good information.

You will need to learn how to do the research for the sales on the internet and how to cut the lists down to just those properties you are interested in because the lists are huge. The average list will be well over 20,000 properties (nobody can do that many properties) so you have to know how to quickly eliminate those properties you don't care about.

If you would like to know more about the Florida Tax Sales, I have posted some links below that will prove useful.

Have a great day and take a look at a Florida tax sale this May