Hello Rogue Real Estate Investors,

As promised, I want to keep you informed of upcoming tax lien and tax deed sales and, when possible, deliver tax sales lists for you to use. The next stops on your tax sale tour: California and Nebraska.

California

Depending on the county, California has tax deed sales year round. Many tax deed sales in California occur in March. Here are the dates and links for some tax deed sales in California for the next month:

Alameda County, March 15, 2004:

http://www.bid4assets.com/storefront/?sfid=165

Fresno County, March 1 through 3, 2004:

http://www.bid4assets.com/storefront/?sfID=155

Kern County, March 8 through 10, 2004:

http://www.bid4assets.com/storefront/?sfid=164

Los Angeles County, March 1 and 2, 2004:

http://ttax.co.la.ca.us/auction_intro.htm

Orange County, March 25, 2004:

http://www.ocgov.com/treas/Auction/intro.htm

http://www.ocgov.com/treas/auction/webquestions.htm

Riverside County, March 15 and 16, 2004:

http://www.co.riverside.ca.us/depts/treasure/tax_sale_information.html

Ventura County, March 26, 2004:

http://www.ventura.org/taxcollector/list.htm

Here are some additional comments for these California sales. First, for many of these sales you must pre-register. Check the websites using the above links for specific dates. Expect a lot of competition, especially for popular counties. Some of the counties allow online bidding. Again, check the websites for bidding dates and requirements. For the counties that allow online bidding, parcel numbers are offered in order and bidding for groups of parcels will be closed when the time for that group is over. You must keep track of dates and times. For the above counties, I have downloaded the sales lists when I could find them. They are available for free using the following link:

http://www.tax-deed-sales.com/California/list.html

Nebraska

Nebraska is a lesser-known state for tax sales, but don't let its obscurity fool you. The tax liens pay 14 percent per year, and because it is largely an undiscovered state for tax liens, competition is limited. All sales for all counties occur on the first Monday in March (March this year). It is virtually impossible for professional investors to corner the sales because no one can attend sales in all counties on the same day. Nebraska also adds a little twist to the tax lien process. The bidding is done by round robin. This means the interest rate does not get bid down. Instead, everyone who registers for the sale gets put on a list. When your number is called, you are matched up with a tax lien and you can buy it or pass. This is great for small investors because they are on essentially on an equal footing with all investors at the sale, and the interest rate stays at 14 percent.

My partner and I will be attending one of the Nebraska sales on Monday, March 1. Next month I will report back to you about the Nebraska tax lien sale we attended. Primarily because the state is still undiscovered, few counties publish electronic lists. However, I was able to locate an electronic list for Lancaster County (the county where the City of Lincoln and the University of Nebraska are located). You can download it for free using the following link:

http://www.tax-lien-certificates.com/lists/Nebraska

Speaking about tax lien sales, you might be curious as to how the Arizona tax lien sales went. My partner and I went to the sale in Yavapai County and were impressed. The sale was fair, the tax liens only got bid down to 6 to 8 percent on average, and there were many properties available. About 10 percent of the liens did not get bid down at all, and went for 16 percent. Overall, speaking with other Rogue Real Estate Investors attending Arizona tax lien sales, Arizona is still an excellent tax lien certificate state. Arizona also offers tax deed sales, and I am in the process of putting together a tax deed sale list for some of the Arizona counties. Here is a tax lien bidding strategy to consider in states where the lien interest rate gets bid down:

Tax lien bidding strategy

For raw land in rural areas where the amount of taxes owed per year is small (less than $100 per year), it is sometimes okay to bid the liens down to zero if you are trying to obtain the deed. This is because you will not earn much interest when the lien amount is small.

If you have done your homework and are sure the property does not have environmental problems or other potential issues that could make it hard to sell, a zero bid is fine. We used this strategy successfully at one of the Arizona sales, and we are fairly confident that at least one of our winning zero bids will go to deed.

Good luck,

Bryan Rundell