Wednesday, April 30, 2008

What Methods Should One Use?

The methods for making money in real estate are myriad. To name a few: REIT's (Real Estate Investment Trusts), buying undervalued real estate to rehab and resell, buying a property and making it into a rental and other options as well. Whether you buy the property through tax liens or through tax deeds, you will need to decide how you want to conduct your business.

Rehab was out for me. I am not a carpenter and to really make that work for you, you should be able to do much of the work yourself. I had to evaluate what I could do financially and physically. I went with tax defaulted land. And it worked out great!

I wanted to work at it from home. That meant -- my computer. That made the entire U.S. accessible to me. But I was not ready to buy houses sight unseen. So I purchased nice vacant lots in resorts that had exciting amenities and Property Owner Associations. I learned to negotiate with taxing authorities in a few counties in a few states to buy their tax deeds on defaulted properties.

As I got better at it and more comfortable with it, I did purchase a few houses. That was much more complicated but the profits were much greater. When you start at the beginning and purpose to learn each step of the way, you can grow into more advanced areas and techniques.

Along with the direction that I will be providing, I am going to direct you to products and professionals so that you will be able to go forward avoiding the pitfalls that many fall into. Some of them will have actual tax lists that provide you with the actual defaulted properties and the taxing authority that you will buy from. They will have tax lien lists and tax deed lists. You can do this business locally or nationwide.

I have used mostly tax Deeds in my business, but other investors prefer Tax Lien Certificates. You can use both. Stay tuned ...

How to Get Land Dirt Cheap

Investing in real estate has been historically and continues to be the fastest and easiest route to wealth for those who were not born with the financial resources to get there by another route. This blog is all about reaching that goal through buying and selling tax deeds and tax lien certificates. These are properties that taxing authorities are selling as a result of owners who are in tax default. The owners have let the property go and the taxing authority now sells them through land auctions and negotiation.

The properties can be held as an investment for appreciation or it can also be exciting and fun to locate a property and purchase it way below value then turn around and sell it for a nice hefty profit. One would think finding such deals would be difficult and rare. But I am here to tell you that those deals are a daily occurrence and may be even in your very own back yard.

However, even if you live in an area where very few of these properties exist, in this age of internet and airplanes they can be delivered right to your finger tips. Tax deeds and tax liens are available in every state in the U.S. They can be bought and sold by letter, by email, by phone and by the internet.

I have files of transactions I have made in the past few years that absolutely transformed my bank account. Properties I purchased in other states and didn't have to leave town to do it. You can do it too.

So, let's get started . . .