Transcript:
Hey guys, it’s Casey Denman here from Tax Sale Academy.com
Thanks so much for joining me on today’s livestream.
Before we get started, I wanted to take a minute and remind you about my book, The Tax Sale Playbook. It is the ultimate guide to buying and selling tax defaulted real estate and it is a free book. You can head to www.TaxSaleAcademy.com to pickup your copy. Just complete the information, cover the minimal shipping cost to get it from my warehouse to your door and you’ll have it in your hands in just a few days.
On today’s livestream we’re talking research. When it comes to tax sale investing, it comes down to these three words . . . research equals results.
Again, research equals results. It’s that simple. Your research will absolutely, without a doubt, determine the results you’ll receive as a tax sale investor.
The truth is that everyone wants to talk about the prestigious stuff. You know, all the catchy stuff like the types of properties available, going to auctions, and how much money you’ll be making.
But it all boils down the research. Research is everything. Lousy research will produce lousy results. Great research will produce great results.
So, here’s what we’re going to do. In today’s livestream, we’re going to be discussing a tools you can use to research. Obviously, inside the academy we go into deep detail on how to maximize each of these tools, but there’s only so much I’m able to do through a livestream.
So let’s get started . . . we’re going to briefly touch on seven different tools you can use for your research.
Property Appraiser Records. As you know, just about every piece of real estate has a tax bill. This tax bill is based on the value of the property. The more valuable the property, the higher the tax bill. Now, the value is established by the county property appraiser’s office. This si know as the tax assessment. It might or might not be comparable to the actual market value, but that’s a discussion for another day. What’s important to understand is that this value isn’t just determined out of thin air. What happens is a county employee goes to the property, values every improvement based in it’s size, type, condition, etc. The value is then determined and this information is filed into county records as the appraiser’s report on the property. And guess, what? That information is public record and typically easily accessible. It’s a wealth of information that you need to research. In fact, this will usually be the first place I start!
GIS. GIS or geographical information system is an incredible software. First off, it can be expensive and is not always available in every single county. But, basically imagine that you’re flying in a plan, you look down and there are property lines drawn on the ground around every property. And you also have the ability to see other “layers” as they’re called. These layers could include flood zones, school zones, street names, recent sales history in the area, literally so much stuff. It’s an absolutely incredible resource.
Plat Maps – Every subdivision is broken down from a large piece of land into lots. These lots could be 5 tenths of an acre or they could be 50 acres. But the point is they’re subdivided, and typically the county will require plat maps to be filed for these properties. If GIS is available, the plat map is essentially overlaid onto map. In areas where GIS, however, is not available then you’ll need to review the plat maps if you’re looking at lots in subdivisions. These will allow you to determine exactly where you’re property is located . . . which is pretty important, in my opinion.
Google. First off, we’ll talk about google the search engine.. Using the search engine google is an incredible tool to provides lots of information. You should google the area, the address, the parcel number. Just google everything about the property and read through the results.
The next great feature google offers is there mapping program, known as Google Maps. There are two primary types of Google Maps that we utilize. The first are the standard google maps. They’ll allow you to figure out where your property is in relation to the rest of the world, you’ll be able to get aerial photos with pretty good resolution, you can measure distances and all sorts of other stuff. Great resources. In addition to the standard use of Google maps, there is also something known as Street View. Now, it’s not always available in every area, but when it is available, just picture a large camera on top of a car that drives around taking 360 degree photos…because that’s exactly what it is. Through the magic of Google, these photos are geotracked to the exact location and you can essentially walk up and down the street looking around.
MLS – The MLS or multiple listing service the database utilized by Realtors. Nearly every property that has been listed or sold through a Realtor in that area will be shown on the MLS. Since most tax sale investors are not Realtors, you won’t have direct access to the MLS. But, fortunately, there is a tool called IDX. IDX or internet data exchange is the software that takes the MLS and displays it to the public. So, find a local realtor with an IDX capable website and utilize it for your research.
The next one. Ahhhh. Zillow. Consumers seem to love it. Realtors seem to hate it. As an investor, you shouldn’t really love it or hate it. But . . . you should absolutely utilize it. It’s a great tool to learn more about the market conditions in an area. It’s also a very user friendly tool that’ll allow you to move through different areas whether virtually or physically by using their mobile app so you can learn about each individual area you’re investing in. Zillow.com – browse area. Great resource.
However. Please. DO NOT USE THEIR VALUATIONS IN YOUR BUSINESS. Again. DO NOT USE THEIR VALUATIONS IN YOUR BUSINESS. You should never, ever, care about what Zillow says a piece of property is worth. It’s computer generated. Maybe it’s right, but often it’s wrong.
Local Websites. Most towns of any size have local websites of some sort that will be great resources for you. It might be www.jonesville.com or it could be a local real estate company’s website. Whatever it’s called, you’ll likely come across some very valuable information simply by searching the small websites specific to that area. You can also locate some incredible information by browsing social media and searching for pages related to that county. And it doesn’t even necessarily need to be real estate related. But perhaps it’s news or schools. If you make it a habit to check these resources, you’ll eventually come across information you can utilize in your business.
So there you have it. Seven tools for your research, which ultimately, equals your results.
They were property appraiser reports, GIS, plat maps, Google/Google Maps, MLS, Zillow and the local sites.
If you want to learn more about any of these specific tools, I’m pretty sure we’ve shot detailed videos on just about all of them on YouTube and we are very detailed on how to get the most out of each of these tools and how to be efficient, productive and accurate when using these tools inside the tax sale academy.
That’s it for today! I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s video.
As always, for more information be sure to head on over to TaxSaleAcademy.com. While you’re there you can also register for your free book. Just take care of shipping and we’ll get it in the mail to you.
Take care folks.