Delinquent Tax List

[Scout26]

The local paper had the insert today with this list. 

Is this what their talking about on those late night infomericals where they show people who bought property for "pennies on the dollar"

Can I just take this list, a couple hundred bucks and head over to the assessor's/ county clerks office, pay the deliquent amount and then start tossing widows and orphans out on the street ?

[Euclidean]

Collecting a debt from someone often would cost more than the debt is worth, and they don't have the money to pay you anyway, so I can't imagine taxes are any different in that they'll probably take what they can get.  I'd want to speak to an attorney about it however.

[mtnbkr]

Dunno if people still do it, but there was a business fad a few years ago called Factor Brokering.  You'd buy a debt from a company for less than face value and collect it yourself. 

Chris

[K Frame]

I'd have to say (caveated) that no, you can't.

Normally the next step after advertisement is filing of a lien for delinquent taxes (may be part of the newspaper listing).

Then there's a certain amount of time that has to go by.

Then the property goes up for Sheriff's Sale. That, again, is advertised, normally in conjunction with a bunch of other properties.

A certain amount of time has to go by again. (during any point in this process the original owner can pay off the taxes due to release the lien and retain control of the property.)

Then, finally, the sheriff's sale would be held. Since they're advertised, you'd end up bidding against others for the property.

[Len Budney]

The local paper had the insert today with this list. Is this what their talking about on those late night infomericals where they show people who bought property for "pennies on the dollar"

Yes, but beware. I can't speak to IL law, but I'm very familiar with FL law. In Florida, you are not buying the property; you are buying the debt. You pay the overdue tax bill, plus penalties, interest and fees. The property tax collector then places a lien on the property in the amount you paid. If and when the property owner pays the tax bill, the money is passed on to you--including interest in the amount specified in the lien, where FL has a statutory minimum of 5% of the unpaid tax.

In short, you pay $100 to clear the tax debt. Eventually the property owner gets around to paying, and they pay at least $105, all of which is passed on to you.

If the bill isn't paid within two years, you do not get the property. As a lien-holder, you can only force a sheriff's sale, and after the sale you only get the money you have coming to you. You can of course bid in the sheriff's sale, but there you have no advantage over any other bidder. The bad news is: you must pay off all lien-holders other than yourself when filing for a sale, in effect making yourself the holder of all outstanding liens; and if the sale price doesn't cover your liens, you eat the loss.

Generally speaking your strategy shouldn't be to try and accumulate the property; it's a risky game. The ideal scenario is to find a millionaire who hasn't paid the $100K tax bill on his $20M house, and buy the lien. Within a few weeks he'll get around to paying, and you pocket $5K. He certainly isn't going to let the house go, so you'll certainly get your money. The only catch is that in Florida, competition is quite fierce for those liens, so you well might not win any of them. If you have some cash you can spare, it's worth a shot.

--Len.