No tax liens for me this month
Sadly, I won’t be participating in the tax lien auction that’s coming up this month.
I did all the research for it: found a property that I’d really like to obtain a lien on, and found a whole slew of tiny liens that I’d like to bid on in hopes of getting them at high interest rates. I probably spent 8 hours doing the first stage of research. (The second stage, which I won’t be doing, would consist of actually driving out to view the properties in person.)
Despite having this promising list in my hot little hands, I’ve decided that I just don’t have the money to participate AND achieve my other goals. And since buying tax liens is not an emergency, I can’t use my emergency fund for that.
So I was forced to make choices. And it comes down to pushing harder on one aspect of my business, sending money to my Roth, and some other things beating out participating in the tax lien auction.
I will still buy another tax lien this year if it is available, but that will have to be in June.
This focusing thing is HARD. But I suspect the results will be better than doing things willy-nilly all of the time. At least I hope so.
Good call. I think most mistakes happen when adding one too many items to the juggle. There’ll be another time.
What is a tax lien auction?
Middle Way, it’s an auction held by the county. People bid on tax liens that are available when owners don’t pay their property taxes for a certain amount of time. (I believe it’s more than a year, but I’d have to double check.) The bidder who wins the liens has the right to collect interest if and when the lien is repaid. If it’s not repaid, they can start foreclosure proceedings after 3 years of holding the lien.
Bill, that would have been a good idea! But the auction is Monday. Oh well, missing one auction won’t kill me.
Why not use a self-directed IRA to buy tax liens?
would you like to do a guest post about tax liens?