Tips For Buying Tax Foreclosure Properties

When you buy property, you aren’t just buying a building and the ground it is on.  You are also purchasing a great big mortgage, which will seem to grow a life of its own.  Mortgages are strange financial bodies made up of the principal, interest rates, taxes and fees.  Paying off one body part of the mortgage doesn’t necessarily mean you have paid off the other parts.  Your home or business property can be seized because of lack of paying the taxes on the mortgage or the annual property tax.  The government is the seizer in this case and any property seized is called a tax foreclosure.

Now That’s Clear As Mud…

You can profit from somebody else’s misery with tax foreclosures.  Let the previous owner learn a valuable life lesson with tax foreclosures while you gain property for a fraction of what it’s worth.  Just like buying any property, no matter if it’s a tax foreclosure or not, you need to keep your common sense about you so you don’t wind up learning a valuable life lesson, too.

Common Sense

There are free listings of tax foreclosures all over the real estate industry.  You can specialize in just one area or search through properties all over the United States.  Be prepared to do a lot of traveling if you go the latter route, especially if the property you want is listed as being sold “as is” or “where is” basis.  Never assume – always inspect carefully any property on tax foreclosure lists you want to buy.

Also, in this inspection, you need to see if people are still living on the property – whether as renters or as the former soon-to-be-kicked-out owners.  The previous owners might not be willing to accept that they lost their home to the IRS.  Before you buy, be sure you know who has to do the evicting.  Keep in mind that angry evictees may inflict some property damage before they depart.

You also need to research the history of the property and land it’s on to find out if it has had a dodgy past, such as having its roof blown off in a tornado.  That repaired roof needs to be doubly inspected to be sure it won’t cause costly problems for you later on.  You can find out the information at the court houses of the county the property is located on.  Sometimes (but not always) real estate agencies will provide you with the property’s history for free.