Bigger Profits From Tax Lien Investing

Posted on November 2, 2010 by Debby

Although it?s true that you can get double-digit profits from tax lien investing, it?s not always likely.?I get questions from investors all of the time asking if it is still possible to get high interest rates on tax lien certificates given the competition and the institutional bidders at the tax sales. Tax lien investing has gotten more competitive in the last few years for a lot of reasons.

Here are a few of them:

1. ?Popularization of tax lien investing by national and now world real estate investing gurus that make tax lien investing sound like an easy way to get rich ? which it?s not.

2. ?Online tax sales, which are getting more popular with counties, increasing the competition at tax sales by making it more convenient for investors to bid at the tax sales.

3. ?The increased availability of information online for doing due diligence on tax sale properties, so that even foreign investors can invest in the online tax sales without having to physically come to the US to do due diligence or bid at the tax sale.

4. ?More banks and financial institutions getting involved in tax lien investing as they are looking for safer investments.

5. ?More individual investors looking to get involved in tax liens as an alternative to the stock market.

So how can the individual investor compete with the big companies and still get high interest rates on tax liens? Especially when in some states the interest rate is bid down competitively at the tax sale. Here are some strategies that I have used and that I know other investors use in order to keep their returns on tax lien investing high: Continue reading →

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Tax Lien Certificates: Safer Than Stocks or Real Estate

Posted on November 2, 2010 by Debby

There are so many great opportunities to invest and make money right now!

When the economy is not so great and the markets are down, when everyone else is selling, that is usually when the smart investors are buying. But how do you know what to buy when? If you purchase stocks when the stock market is down, you don?t know if the market will go lower before it turns around and you don?t know for how long it will remain down before it goes back up. It?s the same with real estate or any other market.

The Best Thing About Investing In Tax Liens

One of the nice things about investing in tax liens, is that they are not tied to any market.The rate that you receive on your tax lien certificate is fixed, so even though the value of the real estate that secures your lien may fluctuate, the interest that you get when your lien redeems remains constant. The county or municipality that issues the lien, not by the price of the property that the lien is against, determines the interest rate. Continue reading →

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Why Use A Tax Lien Investing Agent?

Posted on October 26, 2010 by Debby

Why would you want to use a tax lien investing agent instead of investing in tax liens on your own? After all tax lien investing is a safe way to earn double-digit interest on your money without the risk of the markets, right? And isn?t it ?government guaranteed?? And isn?t it easy enough to do that you don?t need a broker to do it for you, you don?t even need good credit, so why would you want to give your money to someone else to invest for you and then have to pay fees?

Tax lien investing is a safe way to earn double-digit returns on your money as long as you invest in only good properties. If you buy a tax lien on a junk property and then you foreclose on it, who will buy it from you and how will you get your money out of it? It really bothers me when other tax lien experts use the term ?government guaranteed,? since no one guarantees that you will get paid on a tax lien. It is the real estate that you have a lien against that is your guarantee. What they mean when they use that term is that the county or municipality that issues the tax lien certificate guarantees the interest rate that you get ? but they do not guarantee you payment. Continue reading →

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Which Lien State Has the Highest Interest Rate?

Posted on October 18, 2010 by Debby

One of the most frequent questions that I get is: “Which state has the highest interest rate for tax lien investing?” The answer is Illinois. Illinois has a default interest rate of 18%, but it’s not 18% per annum – it’s 18% per six months. So the per annum rate is 36%. That’s higher than and of the other tax lien states. The interest rate is bid down at the tax sale, and except for Cook county, which started conducting online tax sales last year, you have to physically go to the sale in order to bid.

But what if you could have someone else bid for you in Illinois? How would you like to have a tax lien agent that specializes in buying tax lien certificates in Illinois and also buying redeemable deeds in Texas and Georgia? Continue reading →

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Where Are The Tax Sales?

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Joanne

So you want to invest in tax lien certificates or tax deeds, But how do you find out about the tax sales? How do you know which counties in which states have tax sales online and when the tax sales are conducted?

I use TaxLienLady-database.com when I want to find out what tax sales are coming up. If you’re a member of the database, you can do a custom search and find out what online tax sales are coming up in the next few weeks. But even if you don’t have a subscription to TaxLienLady-database.com you can still do a basic search to find which states have tax deed sales and which states have tax lien sales, and when each state has their tax sales.

Here’s what the list looks like: Continue reading →

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