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

The Art of Eviction—or Not!

There will come a time in your new investing career when you purchase a tax deed or foreclose on a tax lien, and the property is occupied. This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

Before I explain the pros and cons, let me state that it is never my intent to put someone out on the street. I have gone out of my way at times to help people who were in a tough stretch as much as I could, but I did have to protect my investments at the same time.

I remember attending an auction a few years back, where a property came up for tax sale that I had not even looked at or considered purchasing. I did know the area so I was familiar with values, but I hadn’t done any research on this one at all.

When the item came up for bid, the auctioneer stopped and indicated that someone wanted to make a statement before the sale of the home. In this case, it was the current tenant. He explained that they had lived there for the past six years, the owner had died, and no one had ever come to see them about the property since. He had been maintaining the home, and he hoped that whoever bought it would allow them to continue to live there. Oh—and one twist—his wife was on disability and receiving a steady income from the state.

Now I was interested. Not just from an investment standpoint, but from a human standpoint. Here was a family whose world was about to be upended, and it didn’t need to be. I could purchase the property with an existing tenant and with the knowledge that ...