How do I buy tax liens for real estate?

slider_20012003: How do I buy tax liens for real estate?
I have been seeing allot of John Beck infomercials lately on, how to buy real estate “free and clear” through tax lien certificates. It has caught my attention. How easy is it to buy real estate this way? There is obvously a catch, otherwise everyone would be doing it.

Answers and Views:

Answer by walding714
Contact your county tax collectors office

Answer by She She
You have to understand if a property has a tax lien on it there is probably a loan on the property also…The lender is not going to just let you come in and buy that house for the back taxes when they have a mortgage on it..More than likely the mortgage company will also be bidding on the property at the tax sale…They are not going to let you buy it very cheap..They will buy the house back for themselves and sell it to re-coop as much of their money as they can..ss

Answer by njyogibear
those commercials are a lot of baloney. they make it seem like anyone can buy a house for $ 500. theoretically it could happen but in practice I don’t think it happens too much. if you owed $ 500 or $ 1000 in back property taxes you would do anything, borrow from relatives, sell a kidney, even sell your house, before losing your house over that small amount.

Answer by John Rosa
John Beck’s information is correct but his delivery is a lot of marketing gimmick. Instead of paying a few hundred dollars for his system, I suggest buying a $ 19 book. My suggestions can be found below.

How do tax liens work:
1. Owners of real estate have back owed taxes.
2. County puts a lien on it and sells the lien to investors.
3. Investors get money back if owner pays back taxes, usually at a high interest rate of 16-18% in Arizona, Florida, and other states.
4. If the owner does NOT pay taxes, investor does not get any interest or money. But he has the option to OWN the property if the owner doesn’t pay within 2-3 years.

Why doesn’t everyone know about this? Because you need to read a lot. Learn how to find the good deals. You don’t want to buy ditches or swamps, so you need to know how to research properties. See sources below for more information.