My apologies if you are receiving a duplicate copy of this newsletter. We had some problems with our Internet service provider yesterday, and I wanted to be sure that everyone received their copy of the newsletter.

This month, before I jump into upcoming tax sales, I want to talk about something you have been asking for: travel free tax sale investing.

Over the last several months, my partner and I have been talking with many of you on the phone or via email. Based on your feedback, we’ve learned that many of you want to purchase tax liens and tax deeds directly from your home, without ever leaving your comfortable chair. Believe me, I don’t blame you. While tax sales can be a lot of fun, they can also be stressful and require you to travel during the week when you need to be working. Also, for many reasons, some of you may not be able to travel.

Your wishes have not gone unnoticed. After much thought and effort from the entire Rogue Real Estate Investor staff, we think we have an answer. In about a week, I will introduce you to an entirely new service that will make it possible for you to evaluate and bid on properties directly from your own home.

Now, let’s move on to the upcoming tax sales.

After a cold winter, spring is finally here. Sounds like a good time to start going to tax sales. Many states and counties have tax deed sales in April, May and June, because the weather is usually favorable. The states and counties want a decent number of bidders so that most of the tax debt can be purchased by investors.

The next stops on the tax sale express are Arkansas and Nevada.

For Arkansas, tax sales occur from April through October. Tax deed sales occur in the following counties in April:

Perry -- April 6, 2004
Pope -- April 7, 2004
Garland -- April 8, 2004
Chicot -- April 13, 2004
Desha -- April 13, 2004
Lee -- April 14, 2004
St. Francis -- April 14, 2004
Nevada -- April 15, 2004
Crawford -- April 20, 2004
Sebastian -- April 20, 2004
Little River -- April 22, 2004
Sevier -- April 22, 2004

Garland County is one of the larger counties in Arkansas and contains the historical city of Hot Springs, where presidents and gangsters alike have found refuge in nature's hot baths. Many properties are available at this sale due to the size of the county.

Here is the link for the tax sale lists for the upcoming Arkansas sales:

http://www.state.ar.us/land/land.html

My partner and I will be attending several tax sales in Arkansas over the next several months. In Arkansas, you are bidding on tax deeds, so you need to be prepared to take possession of the property. This means you must do your homework. You can mail in your bids, but I do not recommend it. This is because at the Arkansas public auctions, the mail-in bids are always read first and used as the starting bid. Therefore, in every case I have witnessed, bidders at the sale immediately bid over the mail-in bid.

Tip: In Arkansas, mail-in bids only seem to work on the negotiated sales lists, when you are bidding on the properties that did not sell at the auction. I will talk about the negotiated sales lists in Arkansas during the next newsletter.

Prior to an Arkansas tax deed auction, since you are bidding on property ownership, you need to check for everything you would normally check for when you are buying a home. Taxes, environmental problems, general neighborhood, condition of property, location and many of the other items that are discussed in Rogue Real Estate Investor (book 1 of the collection) should be evaluated. Although in most cases you will not be able to enter any structures on the property (tax sale investors are not allowed to trespass), it is surprising what you can learn just by looking at the property from the road and reviewing information about the property at the tax assessor's office.

It is also important in Arkansas to remember that the state is fairly sympathetic to property owners. Delinquent properties are not even offered for sale until taxes are delinquent for 4 years; and even after the tax sale, the owner still has 60 days to redeem the property (you will get your money back without interest if this happens). If the owner does not redeem in 60 days, then the state of Arkansas will issue you a Limited Warranty Deed.

For the next two years after you are issued a Limited Warranty Deed, you enter what is essentially a legal challenge period. During this time, the owner can challenge the sale. Based on conversations with state employees, this rarely happens. However, during this legal challenge period you will not be able to obtain title insurance; and you should not make improvements to a property you buy at an Arkansas tax sale until this legal challenge period is over. Considering all these factors, Arkansas can still be a good tax sale state because property values are generally low and many parts of Arkansas are still wild and beautiful.

Now let's move on to Nevada. Nevada has seventeen counties. Like Arkansas, the upcoming April sales are tax deed sales. In Nevada, however, tax deed sales are called Trustee Auctions. If you are the winning bidder at a trustee auction in Nevada, the owner has 30 days to redeem the certificate. If this happens, you will get your money back without interest. If the tax deed is not redeemed in 30 days, you will be issued a Quit Claim Deed for the property.

Similar to Arkansas, there is a 2-year legal challenge period during which you should not make improvements to the property. Here are some sales dates and tax sale lists for trustee auctions in various Nevada counties:

Clark County (Las Vegas) -- April 15 and 16, 2004
http://www.co.clark.nv.us/treasurer/AuctionParcelList2004.htm

For Clark County you need to register and pay a $500 deposit (cash, cashier's check or money order; do not send cash through the mail), and you must physically attend the sale to bid. You can use the deposit towards properties, and if you do not win any bids the $500 is refunded to you. You can register by mail by printing the following online form:

http://www.co.clark.nv.us/treasurer/Registration%20Form.pdf

Note: If you register by mail, you will need to have your form postmarked by April 9, 2004.

You can bid online in some other Nevada counties. Here are a few of the dates:

For Lander County, Washoe County, and White Pine County, bidding starts April 21, 2004:

http://www.bid4assets.com/storefront/?sfid=181

For Elko County, Nevada, the tax sale date is April 27 - 29, 2004. The tax sale list is not yet available.

The tax sale has been postponed in Humboldt County, Nevada. If you want to be notified when the new sale date is scheduled, here is the link where you can do so:

http://www.hctreasurer.us/taxsaleinst.htm

Based on what I could find, some of the less populated Nevada counties do not always have enough delinquent properties to have a sale.

Here is a quote from the Carson City County Treasurer's website:

Properties which have taxes due at the end of April each year will be advertised as delinquent in the local newspaper. Should a property have continuing delinquent outstanding taxes at the end of three years the Treasurer will take a trustee deed to the property and begin the process to sell the property at a tax sale. Each year several properties begin this sale process but in actuality, in Carson City, only about one parcel is sold each decade. If there is to be a property tax sale, the local newspaper will give notice on or near the 25 of January each year.

If you cannot locate information about a tax sale in some of the less populated counties, I did find a link for all the County Treasurer's Offices in Nevada. You can use this link to investigate or call for more information:

http://cltr.co.douglas.nv.us/nevada%20treasurer's.htm

Happy Investing,

Bryan Rundell