The Online deed sales in Michigan are over and so are the online tax lien sales in Colorado. So where are the online tax sales now? 

There are still a bunch of online tax sales coming up in November and December, most of them are deed sales in Florida, but there are also a couple of online tax lien sales coming up in New Jersey and a couple of Online tax deed sales in the state of Washington. Here’s what you need to know about these tax sales.

New Jersey

Online tax lien sales in New Jersey are conducted on http://www.realauction.com/. The minimum amount that you have to have to participate in these tax sales is $10,000. That’s because the minimum deposit in order to participate in these tax sales is $1000 and considered to be 10% of your budget. If you only deposit the $10,000 minimum, the auction platform will let you keep bidding until your budget of $10,000 is reached. You must have that amount to pay for your successful bids immediately after the tax sale, or you will lose any successful bids and be barred from future tax sales.

You also need to know that the bidding system in New Jersey is different from all other states. They don’t just bid down the interest as they do in the Arizona or Florida tax sales, or bid up premium as in Colorado or Indiana. In New Jersey, bidders will first bid the interest rate down to zero and then bid premium on tax liens. If premium is paid for a tax lien, the lien buyer does not receive any interest on the certificate amount or any interest on the premium, however the premium is returned to the investor upon redemption of the tax lien if the lien is redeemed within 5 years of the tax sale. The reason that investors are willing to bid premium and not receive any interest on the certificate amount is that once they have the lien, they are able to pay any subsequent taxes (if the property owner doesn’t pay them), and get the default rate (18%) on their sub tax payments.

Only a handful of NJ municipalities have online tax sale at this time, but more are coming online each year. There are only a couple NJ tax sales coming up from now through the end of the year. This is a busy time for tax sales in NJ though, so I expect that in future years there will be more NJ online tax sales held at this time of year.

Florida

In Florida lien holders do not actually get to foreclose on the property after the redemption period is over. Instead they have to apply for the lien to go into a deed sale. The property is then sold to the highest bidder at the deed sale. Because of this system, there is a continual feed of properties for deed sales in Florida, and deed sales can be conducted quite often, even more often than once a month in some counties. Although close to 90% of Florida counties have online tax lien sales, only a few counties have online tax deed sales. Some of these sales are on http://www.RealAuction.com. What you need to know about the tax deed sales in Florida is that they don’t always start the bidding at the back taxes owed. If the property is a homesteaded property, the minimum bid must be 50% of the assessed value of the property.

Washington

Only a handful of Washington counties have their tax deed sales online. Most of these tax sales are conducted at http://www.bid4assets.com/. Typically there are not many properties available at these auctions. The starting bid is the amount of back taxes and penalties due. Some of these tax sales do not require a deposit in order to bid. The full amount for any successful bids are due within a short time (usually a day or 2) from the end of the tax sale and must be paid by cash, cashier’s check, or wire transfer. A treasurer’s deed is issued within 30 days of the tax sale, and the deed is recorded (fees for this are included in the minimum bid price). Since any minor or incompetent person who claims a right to the property has 3 years from the date of the sale to redeem the property, you may not be able to get title insurance for 3 years.