With over the counter tax liens, Ted Thomas reveals an amazing way to get tax-lien certificates that pay you the highest rate without having to compete with other bidders.
Watch the video above or read the summary below.
The topics Ted’s going to cover in “Over the Counter Tax Liens” are:
- Tax Lien Investing Is a Profitable Business
- There Are Millions of Tax Lien Certificates Available
- Tax Lien Certificates Pay High Interest Rates
- Tax Lien Certificate Auctions
- Buying Surplus Tax Lien Certificates Over the Counter
- Where to Find Surplus Tax Liens
- Buying Tax Liens Without Bidding
- Buying Tax Liens Over the Counter is a Headache-free Investment
- What Are Surplus Tax Liens Called in Your State? Terminology Varies
- What Kind of Investment Are Tax Lien Certificates?
- Why Do Counties Sell Tax Liens?
- How Many Tax Liens Can You Buy Over the Counter?
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Tax Lien Investing Is a Profitable Business
This article all about over the counter tax liens and over the counter tax deeds. I’ve been around this business for about 30 years, and the last 25 or so, I’ve been teaching people how to buy tax lien certificates. Those are tax liens, and tax defaulted properties, which are called tax deeds.
The big question everyone really wants to know is how to make money. So I’ll teach you how to make money as I go through this lesson today.
I have a lot of other people that help me do this. I have four coaches, and I have three facilitators helping me all the time.
Today we’re going to talk about over the counter tax liens, and the reason why we’re going to talk about that.
There Are Millions of Tax Lien Certificates Available
First of all, there are thousands and thousands of tax liens. I shouldn’t say thousands; there are really millions. Like in the state of Florida this year, they’ll have over 1 million tax lien certificates available.
Here’s a state with only about 20 million people, and about a million of them didn’t pay their taxes on time. So you can buy those tax lien certificates and earn all the way up to 18%.
Tax lien certificates have been around for decades, and everything that I teach you is over 200-years old. I didn’t invent the system, I just learned how to use it 30 years ago because I was looking for a safe and a secure way to make money.
After a number of years of making notes and writing letters for people and making little booklets, I ended up teaching by using CDs and DVDs. Of course, now we can do it all online, so you can actually take online training.
Why would you want to buy a tax lien certificate? Well, first you’d want to do that because you would invest your money with the government, and you’d get a check back from the government.
Tax Lien Certificates Pay High Interest Rates
The second reason you’d want to do it is the wonderful returns you get.
For example, 16% is a good rate, 18% up to 24% and even 36% is possible, depending upon which state you buy it in. So you’re getting the idea. You can make a lot of money with tax lien certificates.
Today I’m talking about over the counter tax liens. So what is that all about?
Tax Lien Certificate Auctions
Well, there are regular tax lien certificate auctions, which they will announce online. They’ll announce it at the County. If you’re one of our clients, we have databases that could get you right to all the auctions, daily.
But the point is that counties will advertise that they have tax lien certificates. It’s not unusual for them to put that in a newspaper, and in a place like Miami, Florida, they’ll have 65,000, even 85,000 certificates to sell.
So that could take days to do that. Well, in the old days, it did take days. Now they do it online, which speeds it up.
Buying Surplus Tax Lien Certificates Over the Counter
The point is there are a lot more tax liens certificates than you would perceive. So what happens? Can they sell them all? No!
If they don’t sell them, what they do is they take those extras or leftovers or surplus, whatever you want to call them, and they put them on another list. That list has a lot of different names, which I’m going to go over with you in the next few minutes.
One of the names could be the over-the-counter list. Another one could be surplus lands list. Another one could be just surplus list. Another one could be the strike off list. You’re getting the idea.
Now, I don’t know what they’re going to call over the counter tax liens in your particular state, but whatever that name is, you might not know, and a lot of people around you won’t know.
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Where to Find Surplus Tax Liens
If you go to the County and say, “I want to buy over the counter tax liens,” that means you’re actually buying something that did not sell at the auction. It did not sell, so it’s on the list.
If the person you’re looking at doesn’t answer the question when you say you want to buy over the counter tax liens, then say, “I’m looking for the list of properties or the list of tax liens,” whichever you’re trying to do. If you’re trying to buy tax liens, say, “I’m looking for the tax liens that didn’t sell at the auction.”
The reason they didn’t sell is not because they’re bad; it’s just that not enough people showed up at the auction. There are always going to be leftovers. So you want the leftovers. You want the surplus. You want the scavenger list. You’re getting the idea.
Now, if the person you’re talking to is giving you that blank-eye look, you just assume, well, they don’t know what they’re talking about. That’s not unusual because the lowest level is the one that you’re going to be dealing with at the County.
In that case, what you want to do is say, “Could you get the treasurer, and I’ll ask the same question?”
When the treasurer comes out, which they usually will, because you might be a voter; you see treasurers are voted in. They’ll come out and say, “Hello, I’m the treasurer,” and more than likely be a female today.
And she’ll say, “How can I help you?”
Then say, “I’m just looking for the properties that didn’t sell at auction.”
And she might say, “Oh, you want the surplus lands list.”
So they’ll take you to that, and even though it’s not land, it will be tax lien certificates. They’ll have a list of those certificates that you can buy, and don’t be surprised if there are 2,000 or 3,000 or 5,000 on that list. Now, that list will actually show you a property number.
Buying Tax Liens Without Bidding
So why do you want to do this? Well, you want to do this for a number of reasons, because there is no bidding at that particular time. The bidding already took place at the auction.
If nobody bought at the auction, now it’s on a list for whatever the maximum rate is for the state. Let’s say you were in Arizona; the maximum rate is 16%, then you could say, “I want that one,” and you could point to it and give them the number.
Before you do that, you could take the number, go right to a computer in that office, and you could see the property.
You can actually go out and drive and look and make sure that there was some good solid asset there that you are buying. You never want to do anything without looking at the property or having someone do it for you.
Buying Tax Liens Over the Counter is a Headache-free Investment
Here’s a business that doesn’t have a lot of headaches. Why? Because you’re going to invest with the government; you’re going to get a check back from the government.
Now, we’re taking it to one step higher. We’re going to go in, and we’re not even going to go to the auction. We’re going to wait until the auction is over and just buy them over the counter.
You can get as many as you want. Some people are going to buy 10, 100, as many as they choose, and you’ll always get the highest interest rate.
If you’re not impressed with interest rates being at 16%, 18%, 24%, up to 36%, well, you need to rethink that. The banks are paying less than 1% on a savings account. So where are you? You want to certainly be a lot higher than that, and you could easily get 12%, 16%, 24%…
These certificates always work. Why does it always work? Because they’ll always have a surplus, and you’re not going to invest with a broker. You’re not going to invest with some investment company. What you’re going to do is you’re always going to invest directly with the government, and you’re going to get checks back from them.
What Are Surplus Tax Liens Called in Your State? Terminology Varies
All right, so counties will sell tax lien certificates, and they will sell tax deed properties. Now let’s review the list of what they could be called. I said surplus lands, but they could be called leftover lands, could be strike off list.
In South Carolina, they call it the forfeited lands commission properties. Wow. Is that a mouthful? Let’s say that again, forfeited lands commission property.
I’ve had people buy on that forfeited lands list for \$2,000 and a few years later sell it for \$100,000. Would that be something worth learning about? Well, of course it is. And we’ll have regular classes on that. Not necessarily today, but you’re getting the idea.
Here’s my message. My message is there are thousands of unsold tax lien certificates, and in many counties, there will still be hundreds of tax-defaulted properties.
What Kind of Investment Are Tax Lien Certificates?
What kind of investment is this? If you’re buying tax lien certificates, you’re buying a passive investment.
What do I mean by “passive”? Passive means you’re sitting on your rusty dusty. You’re not doing anything. What you did is you raised your hand at the auction. You bought a certificate, which is nothing more than a piece of paper. That’s all a tax certificate is.
You don’t have any responsibility to fix the property or collect rent or clean it up. You own that tax certificate. You just take it home, just like now, I just put one in my desk. It’s there, and it can stay there until the people come in and pay. 95% to 97% of all the people will come in and pay the tax.
Why Do Counties Sell Tax Liens?
Why is the government selling these tax certificates? Because the government needs money.
You see a tax certificate means someone did not pay their property tax. If they didn’t pay their property tax, how is the local government going to pay the police department, or pay the firefighters ,or pay for the schools?
It’s not going to happen. They won’t be able to do it. They’d have to shut the government down, or they’d have to shut the schools down or something. So what they do is they issue tax certificates. If they can’t sell them all, they put them over the counter because they still want to sell them.
How Many Tax Liens Can You Buy Over the Counter?
This is a viable business. It’s been going on for well over 200 years. You can buy over the counter tax liens, and you can buy over the counter tax deeds.
What are you going to pay? Whatever the back taxes are, and they’re going to tell you what it is. You pay that; you get a certificate, and you earn the absolute highest rate that’s available in the state.
This question always comes up. Can you just buy one or two? You can buy as many over the counter tax liens as you want. I would tell you if you’re brand new, buy one or two and not spend a lot of money, and let’s see how this whole thing works.
I know it works. It’s worked for 200 years, but just start slow.
If you’re going to buy property, when you go and you want to buy property over the counter, they’ll sell it that way. Don’t buy multiple. Just buy one. Buy one, and figure this whole thing out, so you can get it sold. But don’t start buying.
I’ve also had people that have bought as many as 40. Can you imagine 40? I had one student, he’s now actually a coach, and he didn’t even sell one. He had a lot of money, so he just kept buying every time he’d go in. And I would say, “Buy and learn to sell.”
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed Ted’s lesson, “Over The Counter Tax Liens – Best Rates, Zero Competition!”
If you want to pick up tax lien certificates at the highest interest rate without having to compete with other bidders, then over the counter tax liens are a viable solution. They’re so abundant, you’ll have plenty of choices available.
Just go to the local county and select the over the counter tax liens that you want, but be sure to do your homework.
We can help you with that. We can teach you how to weed out the losers to find the winners. Armed with the right knowledge, the sky is the limit with this amazing opportunity. So learn the process, which we’ll teach you. We have classes to teach people all the time, so you can come and learn from us.
Get started today by taking advantage of this Free Gift from Ted. Act now, it costs you nothing and will give you a big head start!
Ted Thomas is America’s Leading Authority on Tax Lien Certificates and Tax Deed Auctions, as well as a publisher and author of more than 30 books. His guidebooks on Real Estate have sold in four corners of the world. He has been teaching people just like you for over 30 years how to buy houses in good neighborhoods for pennies on the dollar. He teaches how to create wealth with minimum risk and easy-to-learn methods.
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