As a first order of business, I want to thank everyone who came to the California Seminar. Based on your input, the California Seminar was a strong success. Several of you also indicated that you appreciated the non-commercial nature of the seminar and the quality of the course materials.

Your compliments are appreciated. My partner and I both hope the seminar met your expectations and look forward to future opportunities with all of you. As you all seemed to notice, our seminars are intended to be a learning/interacting/researching process, not a sales pitch.

Based on your feedback, you would like us to take you through the whole process on location, preferably right before a tax sale. This is something I am excited about doing. My partner and I are already going to tax sales every month, so I am going to start posting locations where you can come meet us and go through the tax sale research process the first day and attend the tax sale the next day. Our first stop will be Travis County in Austin, Texas. At the end of this newsletter, my partner provides more specific information on why we think this is a great place to hold a hands-on seminar and then attend the tax sale. Here is the link for more information on the Travis County, Texas, Seminar.

October/November Focus: Illinois Tax Lien Certificate Sales

Most Illinois tax lien certificate sales are conducted in October, November and December. Although the starting interest rate is high, 36% per year, in some highly populated Illinois counties the interest rate gets bid down to single digits because of competition. If your goal is to bid on properties that have a good chance of going to foreclosure, then it is okay to bid down the interest rate, even to zero in some cases.

However, what if you want the high interest rate?

Go to unpopulated counties!

I have already called and visited some western Illinois counties with low population density and their response is that not many people come to the sales. Many of these counties do not even mention their upcoming tax sale on their website.

I want to remind you that if you want to bid in Illinois, you must pre-register 10 days in advance of the sale. In most cases, all you have to do is request a form to register.

Another tip: populated counties often charge for sales lists, so buying a copy of the paper where the sale will be published is often a good idea that will save you some money. Also, in many smaller counties, buying the paper will be your only option since the resources of these less populated counties are fewer and no sales information will be posted online.

Here is a list of sales dates I could find for Illinois:

Adams County: October 25, 2004
http://www.co.adams.il.us/treasurer/index.htm

Champaign County: November 4, 2004
http://www.co.champaign.il.us/treas/taxsale.htm

Dekalb County: October 25, 2004
http://www.dekalbcounty.org/Treasurer/treas_faq_delinquent.html

Du Page: November 22, 2004
http://www.dupageco.org/treasurer/generic.cfm?doc_id=1622

Kane County: November 8, 2004
list online: http://www.co.kane.il.us/treasurer/delinquent2004.htm

Lake County: December 6 and 7, 2004
http://www.co.lake.il.us/treasurer/taxsale.asp

McHenry County
http://www.co.mchenry.il.us/CountyDpt/Sheriff/PDFDocs/ForeclosureLST.pdf
foreclosure list I found for the sheriff's tax deed sale

Peoria County: November 1, 2004
http://www.co.peoria.il.us/display.php?dept=treasurer&page=deltax

Will County: November 3, 2004
http://www.willcountytreasurer.com/serv08.htm

A Tale From Travis and Tyler 

My general impressions of the Travis County tax sale were good. The sale was actually held at the Courthouse steps by the Sheriff's department. Other than parking, everything went smoothly. As suspected, nearly all of the properties with improvements were redeemed; however, one property made it through and might have been the best deal. Control Number 34 was listed with a minimum bid of $6,668.86. The property includes land valued by the County at $17,000 and improvements valued at $48,448 for a total value of $65,448. The winning bid was only $21,600, or one-third of its value. I purchased a lot overlooking Lake Travis (Control Number 11) for $4,500. The County's assessed value is $10,800. I believe it is worth more than that based upon on our previous research; however, to be conservative I still purchased a property for less than 45% of its assessed value.

Four to five properties were not bid on and consequently were "struck off" to the County. This means the County purchased the properties and will make them available on their "Struck Off" or "resale" list. To see Travis County's current resale list, visit http://www.co.travis.tx.us/tax_assessor/foreclosure/resales.asp. In one case, a property that was not bid on was reopened immediately after the sale and bid on. Keep this in mind, if you attend a Texas tax sale.

I have done some more research into Texas' sales, including stopping at several other counties on my way home. What I found was that not much information is available until after the 15th of each month. That is because most of the sales are handled by a few different law firms and many of the counties don't even know what will be available until after the attorneys make it available to them.

Here is where you can find more information on what will be available after the 15th of each month:

http://www.publicans.com
http://www.pbfcm.com
http://www.mvbalaw.com
http://www.rwblaw.net

The attorneys handle the sales, but any resales or struck-off lists are handled directly through each county.

The journey did not end in Travis County. Right after the tax sale, I had to race up to the City of Tyler, Texas, and meet the local Fox/NBC affiliate. Through our publicist, the Tyler affiliate wanted us to assist them with a story on tax sales. So on October 6th, I conducted a taped television interview with the show host. The program is scheduled to air in early November.

Best wishes,

Michael Williams