The site visit is perhaps one of the most important steps of tax sale and tax deed investing. In this video we discuss the three major things you must pay attention to!
Transcript:
Hey, everybody! Casey Denman here with TaxSaleAcademy.com. And in this video, we’re talking about 3 things you need to look for when you do your site visits.
Now, some of these might seem basic, but it’s important you have an understanding of the big picture here. The first one is the city or the overall area that the property is located in. Check out things such as the crime rates, the unemployment rates. Look at the local grocery stores or the shopping malls. Check out the commercial buildings. If all the commercial buildings are vacant, it’s probably a good indication that the economy is kind of bad in this area. You need to know if the city is on its way up or on the way down. Also, check out the public perception of the city. Are you always seeing it on the news for high crime rates and high unemployment every single day? That could be an indication that you might want to change your investment objectives a little bit.
The second one is the subdivision that the property is located in, or if it’s in a city, check out 5 blocks every direction from where the house is located. Are you seeing things such as board homes? Is this in the area known as the “bad” area of the city? Is there any other issues that you know about? There are certain subdivisions in Florida, for instance, that I know are very prone to have sinkholes. And the last thing you want to do is buy a tax sale house and it has a sinkhole underneath and you lose the entire house, for crying out loud. You just have to have a general feeling about the area.
And the last one here is the specific property that you’re interested. Now this is going to vary from person to person and everybody has different objectives. But obviously, a few things you should check out here are number one, the neighbors. Is the neighbor next door, is he boarded? Does he just have junk everywhere? Obviously, check out the nearest neighbors. Check out the condition of the house.
Now all these properties, most of the time, you won’t be allowed to get inside. You’re just going to be able to drive by or even to walk by. But take a look at the walls. Are the walls crooked? That’s probably a good indication you have foundation issues. Look at the roof. If the roof looks in bad shape from the road, it’s probably going to be wet inside. Is there trash or is there debris in the yard? Either you or your buyer is going to have to clean that debris up. Which means it’s going to take a hit on your profit.
So again, these objectives kind of vary between each person. And even if you have a bad city or a bad subdivision or even if the house is bad, that’s okay. Just know what you’re getting into. There’s a lot of money to still be made in bad areas of the city, or even bad or poor or rundown houses, you can still make money on these. You just have to modify your expectations.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Well, I want to invest across the country or in an area that’s 4 or 5 states away, but I can’t do a site visit. I can’t check out the area or the city. I can’t check out the subdivision or the property. What do I do?” Well, in The Tax Sale Academy, we teach you how to get a local scout to do everything for you. We teach you how to train them and we teach you what you
should be paying them, which is very, very, very little, but you get that local knowledge and you get that site visit that you’re looking for without actually having to do it yourself.
For more information on how to get a scout to do this, for more information on site visits or for more information on the very lucrative tax sale business in general, head on over to TaxSaleAcademy.com. That’s “TaxSaleAcademy.com.” Have a wonderful day, folks! Bye-bye.