Jefferson County, New York
Tax Deed Sale

The rural farmland and cheese factories created an excellent atmosphere for our last Buying Trip In Upstate New York. The City of Watertown is where we held the day of instruction. With only 26,000 residences, even the biggest city in this county is rather small.
We were there to attend a Tax Deed Foreclosure Sale. This county tax sale included 20 villages with plenty of properties that we toured on a bus the second day of the conference. However there were not any properties located in the City of Watertown. Some properties in the tax deed sale were located in the Town of Watertown, which is circumference of the City of Watertown. The city holds a tax certificate sale twice a year that includes a two-year redemption period and a 9% rate of return per annum.
This area is basically rolling hills and green pastures as far as the eye can see, and past that is water, lots and lots of water. Right on the border of Canada, reaching north on the west side of the county are several rivers, streams, lakes, canals, harbors and also a huge lake called Lake Ontario. There were numerous waterfront properties on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. This is what they call the Thousand Islands region.
The one area of concern for this auction was issues with the title of the property. According to the terms of the sale, the only encumbrances that would not be wiped clear from the property were first, the IRS Liens, and second, any mortgages that are funded by the Government. In spending one whole day at the County Office researching title to these properties, I found numerous mortgages associated with several properties of interest. These mortgages were recorded under bank and mortgage company names. This still left question as to whether the mortgage was held by the government or not.
However, if you were to research further into the bank or mortgage company, you may find that they went through bankruptcy and were now owned by the government, and therefore will remain with the property if purchased at the tax sale. After much warning to the clients and making them aware of the properties that might come with a mortgage, I was able to ask a question at the onset of the tax sale. My question was: Are there any properties in this sale that have a Government held mortgage, and which ones are they? The answer to my question was that there was only one, and they did disclose which one that was. Problem solved.
On the bus trip the next day we were able to drive around the county and look at around 15-20 properties that were being sold for auction. Many of these properties were still occupied. We were extremely conscious of this fact and stayed clear of the property lines in this case. There were a few houses we were able to enter and see the condition of the walls, floors, appliances (if any), roof, foundation, etc. We were able to see some of the beautiful sites of Sacket’s Harbor, and also do a little off-roading to get to some of the seasonal properties for sale.
The last day of the conference was to attend the auction. We all arrived separately, but some people sat together. It was a first auction experience for a lot of clients. The auction company (Brzosteks) that was hired to conduct this auction clearly had interest in the winning bid amounts. There were several comments made throughout by the auctioneer (Mr. Brzosteks) that he had a daughter getting married and needed the money. The bids on properties went very high, and occasionally even higher than the county assessment of the property, simply because he was very talented on getting individuals to bid.
We did have more than a handful of clients buy properties at this auction and get great deals. The best deal for the day was a client that attended from Spain, and purchased an apartment building in the Town of Ellisburg for $16,000 with an assessment of $204,000! What a deal!

Utah County, Utah Tax Deed Sale

Utah County, Utah Tax Foreclosure Auction

Today I attended the Utah County, Utah Tax Deed Sale. There were a total of 31 properties sold at this auction. The room was filled to the brim. One gentleman was in such a hurry to get to this auction - he parked behind a sheriff and almost got towed. He did however get a ticket. Two properties sold were buildable they went for $30,000 and $23,000. All of the other properties were strips of land and surprisingly also went for hundreds and even a thousand at times. Who buys a strip of land for $6,000!?!?!?! Especially purchasing a green belt for that much when the assessed value is only a few hundred... it's beyond me.

In this auction they were bidding up the minimum bid, and the highest bidder was the winning bidder. After the last winning bid was announced they adjourned for exactly one hour - so everyone could go get their money. If there were anyone that failed to pay the winning bid - they would re-auction the property at that time. It would be pretty genius to have someone bid a property up really high for you (if there was a lot of competition) and have them not pay - then attend the adjournment (which very few people come to) and get it at opening bid. What a great idea!

So glad this county only does the "bid down the interest" method on houses now. Hopefully some day they will do a "normal" auction like other Utah counties, with exception to Salt Lake County.

Washington County, Pennsylvania

Washington County, Pennsylvania

The last Buying Trip that we had was in Washington County, Pennsylvania which is about 28 miles south of Pittsburgh. This small county was having a Judicial Tax Foreclosure Sale with approximately 340 properties for sale. In touring the county we were able to learn some history of this area and what stood out the most was the abundance of mining in the last 50 years. The mining has substantially halted in the last ten or fifteen years, but had left extraordinary footprints. Many of the properties and houses we visited had subsidence issues. There were entire colonies where you could see hillsides caving in and what appeared to be sink holes, but were actually the underground mines caving in. These mines are no longer active, but there are rumors of oil companies wanting to drill in this area - it proves to be a region rich with natural oils and minerals.

This part of Pennsylvania was beautiful; very green and fresh. Many of the areas we toured had fantastic architecture. Old Victorian houses polka dotted the older down town neighborhoods. This was a area were the effect of the recent economy is present. In years past, most of the run down neighborhoods used to be flourishing and wealthy - now (according to neighbors) harbor less than ideal environments for a family atmosphere.

We stopped for lunch in Donora. Walking up the main road through town, we stumbled across a small Italian Bistro and decided to eat there. After a delectable meal, we loaded the bus and continued our tour of the county. Many of the houses we visited were open or accessible. It was very interesting to see what condition these houses were left in. Some were wrecked. Others were in great condition. One in particular looked move in ready.

The morning of the auction there was much excitement. There was a decent turn out at the auction, a little larger than normal for a county of that size (most likely because of the group we brought.) In going through the items to be sold, the auctioneer (which was the county attorney) announced townships and asked if there was any interest in that particular township. If there was no interest in the township he announced, he would move on to the next - as to speed through the 300 parcel list a little faster. Out of the clients we had attend our Buying Trip, approximately 2/3 of the group bought one property or more. Several of those purchases were houses. Most bids stayed under a few thousand dollars. Many properties went for opening bid.

The auction was exillirating. The clients that had never been to a live auction before showed excitement in attending this one. It was particularly interesting to know what these properties were worth, and see them purchased for literally pennies on the dollar.

Riverside County California, Tax Defaulted Sale

I just got in yesterday from a trip to California. A tax defaulted sale took place on March the 16th at 9:00 at the Riverside Convention Center. Because around 368 property owners were delinquent in their property taxes, and therefore those that did not pay in time, lost their property to tax foreclosure. Their property was sold to the highest bidder at the auction, free and clear.
It is so shocking that you can pick up a property for just the back taxes and own it free and clear (depending on the state legislation).
At the auction, there ended up being about 150 properties that were sold for back taxes. In California, taxes have to be delinquent for 5 years, before action is taken against the property owner to foreclose and collect the back monies.