Investing in Real Estate Tax Lien Certificates: Case Study

In this lesson we will look at the basics of tax lien certificates in the state of Florida and discuss the fact that they are liens against the property in question.  We will also look at the different priority of certain liens and how they get prioritized.

This lesson will go over the difference between a tax lien certificate and a tax deed.  Many people get confused between the two terms since they are similar but they are two very different aspects of the property tax cycle.  And it provides two very different ways of investing in real estate. 

Using tax deeds as an investment in purchasing real estate is beyond the scope of this course but we will look at an overview of the process in this lesson.

This lesson will discuss the time line of events and important dates to remember during the Florida tax lien certificate cycle as it pertains to the property owner and for the potential investor that wants to bid on and purchase tax lien certificates.

In this lesson I will discuss my investment strategy for the upcoming auctions for the tax lien certificates that I want to purchase for this year.

In this lesson I will go over my budget allocation and my game plan by county in how I am allocating my investment dollars.

In this lesson we will look at some of the information that is public information and available on the county website.  We can use this information to select the items where we want to place bids.

This will be a continuation of the previous lesson.

In this lesson we will take a look at the websites for Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties which utilize the LienHub software owned by Grant Street.  We will also go into Dade County's site for the first time.  We will also discuss direct bidding versus proxy bidding.

In this lesson I will go through the registration process for Sarasota County and show how you can jump between other counties that are served by RealAuction.com.  We will also look at some stats from the prior year and you will find it surprising on some of the rates that were awarded in last year's auction.   

In this lesson I will show how to enter your W2 information that the counties will require because they will be sending you a 1099 for any interest that you earn on any certificates that you win during the bidding process.

In this lesson the W9 is completed for Dade County and we will take a look how you can tell is has been accepted on their website.

In this lesson we will start out on Pinellas County (BidPinellas.com) and switch over to Hillsborough's auction site (BidHillsborough.com).  The nice things about the LienHub portal is that you can switch between the counties that they service.

Submitting a Deposit for Auction

While we are in the Hillsborough site I will make my deposit for the upcoming auction.  Every county has different requirements regarding the deposit that is required, so be sure to know what they are prior to bidding.   

In this video we will look at all the valuable information that is available in Excel format that you can use for your selection criteria when placing your bids.  The amount of data that these counties make available is amazing.  Much of the data will be irrelevant for bidding purposes but could come in handy later if you need to file for a tax deed application. 

This video will be a continuation of the previous lesson where I will filter my selection to get ready to set up an upload file for Pasco County.

In this lesson I will show you how to get rid of the properties that have already redeemed (paid off) prior to uploading your bid information.  I did not realize this when I recorded the video, but if you were to upload items that have already redeemed, the county will ignore your bid.  It will not generate any type of error during the upload process.  But it will notify you with regard to the number of bids that were removed.

In this video I will filter the data using my selection criteria for Pasco County.

In this lesson I will show how to upload bids to one of the counties served by LienHub.com (Pasco County).  They call it upload bidding so you can upload multiple bids from a CSV file. 

In this lesson I will make some last-minute changes to my bids and delete them the night before the auction takes place. 

In this lesson I will show how to upload bids to one of the counties served by RealAuction.com (Polk County).  They call it bulk bidding so you can upload multiple bids from a CSV file.  They also have the option of using a TXT file but I did not show that step since I am more familiar with using CSV files.

In this lesson we will look at Pasco county the night before the auction takes place and I will still refine my selection by eliminating a few items I do not want to include for the auction.

In this lesson I will show you how you can analyze the results of your bids post auction.  I will be looking at my bids for the tax lien certificates for Pasco County which is one of the counties that is on Grant Street's platform called LienHub.

In this lesson we will look at the winning bids and the distribution of how they came out for Pasco County.  In Florida, for the tax lien certificates, bidding starts at 18% and can go all the way down to zero percent.  We will look at some of the reasons why some of them may end up at zero, even though it is a relatively low number.

Even though Florida is considered one of the best places to invest in tax lien certificates, there are mistakes and errors that can occur.  We will look at a few in this video lesson.

In this video we will look at how I did compared to my original budget, how many certificates were won and the number of bids along with the face value of what I had to bid to win those tax lien certificates.

In this lesson we will look at the opportunity that you have where you can purchase county-held tax lien certificates at a rate that earns 18% if you are willing to accept more risk.  There is an example of an email I received from Sarasota county, which is on the real auction platform.  We will also look at Hillsborough county which is on the Lien Hub / Grant Street platform.