Tax Lien Sales

In the current economy no one should be purchasing homes for their full retail value.  There are just too many houses on the market for the higher prices to be acceptable.  Some of the options available to buyers include home buyer supplemental down payment programs through the city and/or state, offering far below the asking price, purchasing through short sales or foreclosures, or finding tax lien sales.

Many people don't think of tax lien sales as an option when they are searching for a new home.  This is unfortunate, especially in the current market where these homes are abundant, because tax lien sales are far lower than anywhere else.  They take a little work and research, but they are totally worth the effort.

The first thing that homebuyers should do is head down to their county building and talk to whoever is in charge of tax lien sales.  They can dates and times of future tax sales and auction and also a list of properties.  Once the property list is in hand the homebuyers can start to research the different homes.  Often there is a lot of undeveloped land as well, so if that interests the buyers they can look into the land too.

All efforts need to be made to find out as much as possible about the tax lien sales properties beforehand, but the homebuyers especially need to try and track down contact information for the owners of the properties they are interested in.  After the auction has passed and when the owner's redemption period is nearing an end with no payments of their debts in sight, homebuyers should contact the owner and make an offer on the home.

It is important to wait until this point, because often the owners have given up on being able to pay off the debts to keep their property or else they are just not interested in keeping it.  They are usually willing and happy to make some money off of their tax lien sales since their impending option is simply to lose it to the government.

There are times when homebuyers won't be alone in contacting the owners of the tax lien sales.  In these instances they should be prepared to offer a reasonable amount, but also be willing to ask for inspections and such things.  The sale of the home should not be different than in a normal environment.  It is simply a "for sale by owner" transaction in which the back due taxes should be included in the closing costs so that the lien isn't carried over to the new owners title.

By exercising more options when it comes to home buying, people are bound to find a great deal in the current housing crisis.  Tax lien sales are an excellent option.  Although they require effort by means of research and reaching out to contact people the results are unbeatable.  Homebuyers could spend as much as half of what it would cost them to buy even a short sale or foreclosure home.  Tax lien sales should definitely be considered in the search for a new home.