Zero Risk Real Estate: Creating Wealth Through Tax Liens and Tax Deeds

What To Do First

If you haven’t already done so, the first thing you need to do is check your receipt and paperwork to match your purchases to the right parcels. Check the PID, also known as a PIN, but both are the number that the county uses to identify that particular piece of property, legal description, and auction lot numbers to be sure that they all correspond to your purchase, including the total amount paid. Mistakes have been known to happen, and the quicker they’re caught, the easier they are to fix.

This receipt is sometimes the only thing you will get to substantiate your purchase, so protect it. In other transactions, you will be sent an actual tax certificate for your records, which then needs to be returned if and when redemption takes place. Other times, these certificates aren’t needed and make great paper airplanes.

In the case of a tax deed, shortly after the sale, you will either receive a tax deed in recordable form, or the county will record the document for you. If it is sent to you in recordable form, then it is your responsibility to take the deed down to the County Clerk’s office and have it recorded. There is normally a small recording fee you must pay to the county (around $8 to $10 a page).

Whether you record the deed yourself or the county records it for you, it will be mailed to you about 15 to 30 days after it’s been officially registered and recorded in the County Recorder’s office, but don’t be surprised if it takes some counties a little longer. ...