HOW TO BUY LAND BY PAYING BACK TAXES
Learn how to buy land by paying back taxes. Ted Thomas, America’s Leading Authority on Tax Lien Certificates and Tax Deeds, will reveal how to buy land by paying back taxes in the safest and most profitable way possible.
You can get any type of real estate without a mortgage at a deep discount with encumbrances removed, and Ted will show you how.
Today, I’ll answer your questions about how to buy land by paying back taxes.
I’m Ted Thomas. I’ve been an investor for the past 30 years, and I invest in tax lien certificates and tax deeds. I do that because I come from the real estate business, and I found this was a very lucrative business.
I found that out about 30 years ago, and I changed what I was doing, changed my strategy, and now I just do tax lien certificates and tax deeds.
It’s safe and secure, and it’s also a highly lucrative business that very few people know about, so you’re going to learn a lot today. So let’s talk about how to buy land by paying back taxes.
First of all, you’re going to discover that if you do this, you can buy real estate for 5 cents, 10 cents, and 20 cents on the dollar.
I was surprised to find that out, especially when I learned that the auction wiped out any mortgage on the property, and I could buy for these really low, low prices.
I have a lot of insights for you, and I’ll tell you about two mistakes to avoid, which is important to know if you want to learn how to buy land by paying back taxes profitably.
You can get started on the fast track today by getting the FREE Safe Haven course (valued at $197)!
HOW TO BUY LAND BY PAYING BACK TAXES – RESEARCH
Now, the counties aren’t always up to date. Some of them are a little on the old fashioned side. That means you have to do a lot of your work from the county records. Most of that you can do online today. So that’s a big change.
In the past 30 years, it’s changed a lot. In the years prior to that, we had to drive to the county no matter where it was in the nation. We had to go there, go in, and look at the records. Now you can do all of this online.
So what I’m telling you is if you’re watching me as a video on your computer, you could be doing this whole business sitting in the same chair.
Things have changed, and they’ve gotten better and better, or I should say easier and easier. So the counties have done that. They’re certainly not up to date right now, but they’re a lot better than they were a number of years ago.
You can do this business online. It’s a low-profile business. You can stay at home. You don’t have to travel a lot because you can do almost all of it online, and you can do it in many of the local communities where you live.
HOW TO BUY LAND BY PAYING BACK TAXES – TAX DEFAULTED PROPERTY
Let me give you some background on how to buy land by paying back taxes at tax auctions.
All 3,000 counties are authorized to sell tax defaulted property. Tax defaulted property means the people haven’t paid their tax, and now the county doesn’t have enough money to run things. So the county will take action.
About half of the counties will confiscate the property. The other half of the property will be in states where they sell tax lien certificates, so they issue certificate.
The thing you really want to know about is being able to buy land by paying the back taxes. That means you’re going to go in the tax deed states to purchase property.
When you purchase that property, you’re buying that land for just the back taxes. Will there be plenty of those? I can assure you there will be.
They’re going to be selling houses, agricultural property, small farms and ranches, and small office buildings. At 20% to 25% of all tax defaulted property auctions, you’ll be able to buy land for just the back taxes.
HOW TO BUY LAND BY PAYING BACK TAXES – RISK
I’ve been teaching my students how to do this for over 25 years. When I first started out, the counties were a little on the backwards side. They’ve improved this so we can teach you the whole process online.
Years ago, we were pioneers. We taught people from all over the world how to buy property by paying back taxes, but we had to travel there to teach them how to do it. Now we can do it all online, and you can learn everything online.
The average person is not qualified to teach you how to purchase property at a tax defaulted auction. When you purchase this property, you must do it right, or you’ll expose yourself to a lot of risks.
HOW TO BUY LAND BY PAYING BACK TAXES – AMPLE OPPORTUNITIES
The properties are in default. When these properties are sold at tax auctions, you’ll receive a tax deed, which is more than likely going to be associated with a quitclaim deed.
It will probably say right on it, quitclaim deed. This is important.
The auction business is a big one. It’s all over the United States. In every single County, they’re going to auction these properties.
In the average year, they will auction off two to two and a half million properties. So there are ample properties in default with unpaid taxes.
HOW TO BUY LAND BY PAYING BACK TAXES WITHOUT A MORTGAGE
When you buy those properties for unpaid taxes at the auction, you pay the bill right then and there, and they wipe out the mortgage. The county deletes the mortgage from the property tax file.
From the all files at the official county records, the tax will be deleted. That means it’s withdrawn. It’s deleted. It’s not going to be there. And now you’re buying property without any mortgage.
Everyone would like to own properties without a mortgage.
HOW TO BUY LAND BY PAYING BACK TAXES – DEEDS
When these properties change hands, they always change hands by the use of a deed. It’s a transfer device.
The county is going to give you either a quitclaim deed, or a tax deed, or Sheriff’s deed, or it could even be a treasurer’s deed.
All of those are nothing more than a deed transferring that ownership of that property to you, and there’s absolutely no mortgage.
Some of these concepts are not too complicated, but it’s easy to confuse them. Not to worry, when I finish I’m going to give you a gift that will give you the insider secrets of tax liens and how to make money with tax defaulted property.
I’m not an attorney, and I’m not a CPA, but I can tell you people mix this stuff up.
Sometimes the brokers will handle all the documentation. Sometime attorney will handle it all, but I can assure you, the county will handle documents and hand things over to you that are quitclaims, not regular deeds.
So they’ll give you a treasurer’s deed or a tax deed, and those are going to be basically quitclaim deeds, meaning they disclaim any responsibility.
HOW TO BUY LAND BY PAYING BACK TAXES – 2 TYPES OF AUCTIONS
Every year in all the counties, they can offer tax defaulted properties. In addition to that, in about half of the counties, those properties will go out at tax lien certificate auction. So there are two kinds of auctions.
At a tax lien auction, you do not get possession. At a tax deed auction, you will get possession of that property.
Think about what I said. You’re going to get possession of the property at rock bottom dollar. Hopefully, you can buy this with a 60%, 70%, or 80% discount. I’ve even seen people get 90% discounts.
When you buy at the auction, whether it’s a tax lien auction or a tax deed auction, there’s no mortgage. It’s been deleted, wiped out from the public records.
HOW TO BUY LAND BY PAYING BACK TAXES AT COUNTY AUCTIONS
All of this business is mandated by state law. In other words, the legislature makes the rules and then they hand the rules down to the treasurer of the county who instigates and takes care of everything.
Understand that a county treasurer can levy a tax, collect the tax, and if they can’t collect the tax, they have the ability to confiscate.
That is to seize the property, take it away from the owner, evict the owner, and sell it at a public auction for whatever they want to sell it for. Generally ,they’ll sell it for the back taxes and some fees.
Let me say that again. The treasurer can confiscate the property. When they’ve confiscated it, they’ll start the process of wiping out the mortgage, then they will sell it at a public auction.
Now, that could be on the courthouse steps, or it could be online, or it could be both at the same time. They’re going to sell the property without a mortgage, and whatever they get for the property is what they get for it.
That’s how to buy land by paying back taxes. People are also buying homes that way. They’re buying agricultural property, and they’re buying them for the back taxes at auction.
HOW TO BUY LAND BY PAYING BACK TAXES THE SAFEST WAY
Are there other ways? Yes, you could do other ways, through brokers or individuals, but this is the safest way to do it.
When the county has their auction, it’s going to wipe out any other liens on the property.
If you buy it from a broker or an individual, I can tell you right now those liens are not going to be wiped out.
You’re going to not only gain the property, which you thought was a bargain, but you’re going to gain all those liens and encumbrances. Any judgments, liens, anything that’s on the property, you’re going to get it all.
Whereas if you buy it from the treasurer at a tax auction, you’re now going to get a property that’s free of mortgage, and most of the liens will also be wiped out.
HOW TO BUY LAND BY PAYING BACK TAXES – A BUSINESS OF ABUNDANCE
There are about 5,000 auctions every year in over 3,000 counties. That means there are going to be plenty of auctions. This will always be a business of abundance.
I’ve been involved in it for 30 years, and it’s been around for 200 years.
Everything is laid out very specifically at the county records. You can read about the property, and you can inspect the property. You can’t look inside, but you can look at the outside of the property.
You can know everything you want about a property online.
I don’t recommend you buy any property without looking at it or having someone with boots on the ground take a look so that you know what you’re doing. All kinds of problems happen to people who don’t look at the property.
HOW TO BUY LAND BY PAYING BACK TAXES – DUE PROCESS
These are tax defaulted properties, meaning that the people defaulted on their tax, and the county has now noticed them, giving them due process of law notices and telling them the consequences.
They have lost the property. There is no redemption at a normal tax defaulted auction. There’s no redemption.
From a safety standpoint, you want to buy at a tax defaulted auction that’s conducted by a local sheriff, or by a county official, or even an ex-officio sheriff that the county has put in place to do exactly that.
Every County is authorized to sell these properties. The only way to buy one is at that auction. It’s the only time they will clear the mortgage from the property, and you don’t have to worry about it.
HOW TO BUY LAND BY PAYING BACK TAXES – WHY COUNTIES SELL LAND
Why is the county doing all this? The county is interested in money.
What do they need money for? They need money to pay the county employees. They have to pay the police and the fire departments, hire school teachers and build the schools. You’re getting the idea.
The county has a lot of bills. That transitions to everything from hospitals to collecting the trash.
They are going to collect those taxes. That’s why there will be 5,000 tax auctions this year.
If a property owner fails to pay tax, they forfeit their rights of ownership. That’s the law of the United States.
If a person defaults on their taxes and won’t pay, they forfeit the property to the local government.
So when you go to one of these auctions, be prepared because you’re going to be able to get discounts of 60%, 70%, 80%, sometimes even 90%, and you buy all the properties without a mortgage.
HOW TO BUY LAND BY PAYING BACK TAXES – WHAT TO BUY
Is it better to buy improved property or vacant land? Everybody’s different.
When you buy vacant land, you eliminate a lot of risk. What kind of risks do you get rid of?
Well, vacant property burns down. Vandals get in it. Squatters get in it. It’s always deteriorating, so it needs maintenance.
If you’re going to buy property, and I’m not negative on that of course, but I’m going to tell you, it requires maintenance and someone to take care of it. So you’ll have something to do every single day and every single week.
If you buy vacant land, I’m not excited about that.
However, if you buy residential lots, now you get in a good position because it’s rare that we find very many bidders, and you’ll get properties for rock bottom dollar. I recommend you start by buying residential lots, not vacant land.
Why no vacant land? What does it appraise at? How do you know? If you’re a person that lives on a farm and understand all of that, then you might want to consider it. I don’t buy vacant land because I don’t understand it.
HOW TO BUY LAND BY PAYING BACK TAXES – WHEN TO BUY
People ask if can they buy before the auction. Yes, you can buy anything anytime.
You could go to the people and buy before the sale, but do you want to buy the property and get the mortgage? Do you want to get all the liens? Do you want to get all the problems? Then go ahead and buy it before the auction.
People do that all the time. Then after they purchase it, they find out there are liens, encumbrances on the property.
I say, let’s stay safe and secure. Let the auction take place. Buy at the auction because the auction deletes the mortgage and many of the other encumbrances.
Let me continue on and tell you that I have a free gift for you. It’s called Safe Haven. The Safe Haven course gives you information on how to buy land by paying back taxes and profit from it.
It teaches you a lot about tax deed properties that you can buy for discounts of 60%, 70%, and 80%. Safe Haven is a great course and a good place for you to start. Get your FREE Safe Haven course now.
HOW TO BUY LAND BY PAYING BACK TAXES – MISTAKES TO AVOID
I see two big mistakes made at these auctions.
Mistake number one is people buying without looking at the property. That’s a huge mistake. What happens if it burned down? What if it’s next to a chicken farm? What if it’s next to the railroad track where you can’t resell it?
You need to get boots on the ground, yours or someone you trust.
The other big mistake that takes place at auctions is people get all excited and start bidding, but they don’t have an exit strategy. I’m recommending that you don’t buy a property if you don’t know what you can sell it for.
That’s an exit strategy. If you don’t know what your exit strategy is, don’t buy it.
CONCLUSION
We hope you enjoyed Ted’s lesson, “Learn How to Buy Land by Paying Back Taxes,” in which Ted explains the 2 types of auctions, the deed transfer, and what you can expect from a tax defaulted property auction.
Researching county records is easier now than ever before because you can do it online. Even the auctions themselves are now increasingly online, making this a business that you can do from home.
You can get bargain properties for 60%, 70%, 80%, even 90% discounts, and you get them without a mortgage and with most of the encumbrances removed.
This is why Ted switched to tax lien and deed investing 30 years ago and stayed with it. You can make amazing profits from tax defaulted property investing too.
There’s no one more qualified and dedicated to teaching you how to buy land by paying back taxes than Ted Thomas, America’s leading authority on tax lien certificates and tax defaulted property investing.
Ted is famous for teaching his students how to earn 6-figure incomes within a year of completing his training.
Ted Thomas is the only one who provides full support and the best training with home study courses, personal coaching, Q&A webinar sessions, live workshops and web classes.
If you want to learn more about how to buy land by paying back taxes, you can begin your education today for FREE with Ted’s Safe Haven Investor System course (valued at $197).
Safe Haven is 2 hours of streaming videos and a 100-page illustrated manual that teaches you how to buy tax lien certificates and tax defaulted properties. So get on the fast track, and get your FREE Safe Haven course today.
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