Transcript:
Hey there, it’s Casey Denman here from TaxSaleAcademy.com and I’ve got a quick tip for you today. It’ll really help make your entire operation much more efficient.
SO, I’ve got a confession to make. I’m entirely guilty of going down tax sale research black holes way too often.
I’ve always mentioned that research is the most important part. But can you actually do TOO MUCH research? Well, yes you can, especially if you have no intention to buy a property. If you’ve ever researched and I mean really researched tax sale properties, you know that there are some extremely interesting ones.
A couple of years ago came across a whole bunch of properties in one area. They were all owned by one person before they were tax foreclosed. I found out his name, then searched for this person online to see what happened. He was a local real estate investor who had been doing some extremely shady stuff and had some issues with the local housing laws and had been arrested for a variety of housing related laws. He ended up taking his life and the properties subsequently went through tax foreclosure. But that wasn’t the end of my research. I proceeded to spend another 3 hours learning about this guy, his business, how he operated, looked up the arrest records, the court dockets, read all the articles online . . . for what? I wasn’t even going to buy anything he lost. It was intriguing to me, but a complete and utter waste of time.
The same can be said for that super intriguing mansion that’s has an opening bid of $300,000. You begin to research it, the owner, the owner’s company and everything else remotely related to that property because it’s intriguing, despite the fact that you only have $1,000 to invest. So now you’re researching a property you can’t afford and you’re killing time.
Now, doing practice research is a great way to learn how to properly research and how to do it efficiently. But, learning the former owner’s dog’s name is probably a bit unnecessary.
So as you sit down to research a new tax sale list work on combining your accuracy with efficiency.
Here’s my process to eliminate wasting time while researching:
I’ll first always scan over the list – are there properties out of my budget? If so, I’ll cross through them. Are there properties that are in certain subdivisions I recognize and don’t want to invest in? Cross through them. Are there properties that have odd legal descriptions that indicate they’re strips of land or otherwise worthless? Cross through them. In some areas, right of the bat you can eliminate half of the properties just by doing this.
From there you take another look and see if there some of the properties are in the same area or subdivision. If you see ten properties in one subdivision, it’d be wise to go ahead and research the subdivision. If you determine that it has $500 month HOA fees you don’t want to pay or that nothing can be built in that subdivision then we can go ahead and cross those off. The same can be said for different areas of a city. If you find a number of properties in one specific area of a city, then research that area. Odds are that you might not like what you find and then you can cross of those properties.
From there, it’s business as usual. Research the properties, going through the processes we’ve discussed in other videos and what we teach in the academy of course. The goal is to start of with basic surface level research and filter out the properties as you go deeper and deeper with your research. It should look like a layered funnel – the entire list goes in the top with each layer filtering out properties that don’t hit certain criteria and only the most profitable properties that fit your investment objectives coming out the bottom for you to buy.
Hopefully this has helped you out on your path to tax sale success. This is certainly something that everyone struggles with from time to time. But avoid those black holes, learn to research accurately and efficiently and you’ll be building a successful tax sale business in no time.
If I can help in any way, there are a bunch of links down below in the description. Many are completely free resources. We also offer an entire academy with a step by step, comprehensive training program to teach you about tax sale success and you can become a member by going to TaxSaleAcademy.com. Again, that’s TaxSaleAcademy.com. Take care, bye bye.