Tax Sale Auction Prep

Transcript:
Welcome to the Tax Sale Podcast, where tax sale investing is made easy.

I’m Casey Denman, a tax sale veteran, expert, and trainer, author of the tax sale playbook, founder of the tax sale academy and your host here on the tax sale podcast.

Thanks for joining me on today’s podcast, and as always, at the conclusion of this podcast, if you’re looking to learn more about investing in tax defaulted real estate head to taxsaleacademy.com. That’s taxsaleacademy.com.

On this podcast episode, we’re going to get into detail on last minute auction prep. These are all the little details to insure you have a successful auction.

But before we dive in, I want to make one note here – it doesn’t matter if you’re bidding in person or online, the process is just about identical for me. Although online auctions might be more convenient, I still treat it as if I’m physically going to an auction, even if that “going to the auction” means simply opening up my ipad. I want to be in a peak state and ready to jump on the best opportunities for me when I attend any auction, be in in person or online.

The first thing you must understand is that your auction prep starts well before the auction. What’s the saying, prepare to fail if you have failed to prepare. That’s exactly it when it comes to tax sale investing. You should be prepared . . . Like weeks before. By the time to auction day rolls around, you should already have read the laws, researched the list, determined values, your max bid amounts and everything else about any properties you’re interested in. Again, the day or the auction is NOT the time to start researching properites or determining max bid amounts.

One thing that always humors me is the guys that walk into a tax sale auction room with binders and binders of notes, I’ve even seen some with full size, blue print size plat maps. The day of the auction is NOT the time to determine what you’re going to be bidding on or your max bid amounts.

Ok, so anyhow. In short, perform your research as early as possible.

When you’re in this preparation stage, you’ll want to create a bidding log of some sort – it’s usually easiest to complete this long as you are researching. It could be digital or paper – I personally prefer paper, but maybe I’m just old school. Inside The Tax Sale Academy, we actually provide the exact template that I use to our members, but essentially you’ll want a list that has the auction lot number, the parcel number, the opening bid and your max bid. I also typically include some notes just for myself and these are really only there to fulfill my curiosity as I’m bidding – my bids are based only off the max bid amounts I have on my sheet and nothing else. This will be the piece of paper you bid off of.

In addition to this bid log, I’ll also take a complete auction list along with me. This helps me to follow along with the auction to make sure I don’t lose my place. There’s nothing worse than your property being announced while you’re using the restroom.

I typically put both the bid list and the sale list into a 3 ringer binder. You can buy the 1/2” three ring binders in bulk from amazon and have multiple in case you need them. I like using the three ring binders so I have everything together, don’t have to worry about anything important papers slipping out, so I have something to write on and I have some privacy for my notes.

Along with this information, it’s also a good idea to have any registration paperwork ready to go. You won’t need this in all counties, but some counties will require additional paperwork to register. This could be something like an affidavit stating you don’t owe any outstanding taxes in that county, or it might just be preregistration or something like that. Go ahead and have this ready to go.

Next you’ll want to triple check to make sure you have your identification. Most auctions will require ID in order to register and you don’t want to be turned away because you left your wallet or purse at home.

After that get your deposit ready to go. This is something you should have ready well in advance, just in case they require something besides cash. Many auctions will accept cash, others only want certified funds . . . figure out what your county wants by reading the rules ahead of time and be prepared.

So, you’ve got your auction list, your bid sheet, your ID and your deposit ready to go. What’s next?

Some people stress about what they should be wearing – their clothes. This is really a non-issue so don’t get worked up about it. You do need to dress nice enough where you’ll be confident making connection and you should be put together well enough where others would want to do business with you. But you don’t need to be dressed like a banker or attorney with full blown suit and tie or anything like that.

Now that you’ve got all your bidding materials together and you’re dressed, I have a few more things to bring with you.

I always bring my cell phone and make sure it’s charged up. Honestly, it can be a great way to kill time during auction breaks or it can just be nice to have.

I also always bring business cards just in case you ever need them, along with two pens to take notes, record winning bids and that kind of stuff.

If you feel the auction will be rather lengthy based on the number of properties, then you might want to check the auction or facility rules to see if you’ll be able to bring a snack and or bottle of water along with you. Nothing is worse than sitting in an auction room for 12 hours straight without a single thing to drink or eat. Believe me, I’ve done it before.
Once you’ve got all this stuff together, it’s time to put it somewhere where you won’t forget it the evening before. Whether that’s next to the door, in your passenger seat or wherever else, just do it the night before so you aren’t scrambling last minute.

Speaking of last minute, be sure to arrive wellll in advance of the start time. It’s much better to be early than it is to be late. There is nothing worse than standing in a registration line and they’re selling the very property you came to buy!

In addition to all of this, you want to be in as peak of a mental state as possible. This means you should be well rested, you should have had proper nutrition the day before and morning of the auction and you should be excited and ready to go. I know this isn’t a marathon or anything, but tax sale auctions are an extremely part of our business and it’s important you are prepared and ready to act on the right opportunity and your mental state has so much to do with this.

That’s pretty much it guys. In a nutshell, your auction prep should start well in advance and should be very thorough.

Hopefully this has helped you as you’re preparing for your first, or next auction.

Thanks so much for joining me on today’s episode.

And if you haven’t done so yet, be sure to pickup your copy of my free book, Tax Sale Playbook, which you can get at TaxSaleAcademy.com. The book itself is free, we just ask for your help covering the nominal shipping costs.

And as always guys, if you found this episode helpful it will mean so much to us if you take a few second to leave positive feedback.

Take care guys and make it a successful day.

See ya!