In recent years the prospects of earning high interest rates of up to 16, 18, or even 24% through investing in Tax Lien Certificates has started to attract professional investors and even some mutual funds.
Therefore competition for Tax Liens is increasing. But the determined individual investor still does not need to give up and can instead use some creative techniques to still get the number of Tax Lien Certificates desired.
First it needs to be mentioned that the above said institutional and professional investors mainly attend Tax Lien Auctions in metropolitan areas, where values of properties and therefore the average Face Value of a Tax Lien Certificate tends to be quite high ($1,000 and up). This makes sense for them because they don’t want to mess with TLCs for $100, $200…
Therefore they show up with several people to one auction so that they have a higher chance that their bid becomes the winning bid in case of a draw of bidders.
Therefore here are some tricks you can when attending a live Tax Lien Auction to still get your Tax Lien Certificates.
- Go look for Online Only Tax Lien Certificates. True, competition is not less there but at least the playing field is level and everyone has the same chances.
- If you already want to go to a live auction, bring some friends and have them register too. Give them EXACT and DETAILED instructions on what they are allowed to bid on and up to (or better) down to what interest rate.
- Of possible pick a county that has some good valuable property but is not a metropolitan area. If the county is more rural than populated, the institutional investors might not show up or in less numbers.
- Sit up front and center or if this is not possible sit close to an isle. After all the Auctioneer and his auctioneering assistants are the ones who declare the winning bidders so you want to sit somewhere where they can see you well.
- If you live in an area where winter storms are common and there is a winter storm or heavy rain on Auction day, make it a point to GO ANYWAY. Because many bidders are only semi-serious so if the weather is bad, they might just decide to stay at home. If you do the extra step and still go, you can get the good deals.
As they say “there is never much traffic on the extra mile”