Over the past five years, investors have accounted for more than 10% of the home sales in:
- Tempe
- Carefree
- Phoenix
- El Mirage
- Tonapah
- Glendale
- Scottsdale
- Avondale
- Paradise Valley
- Apache Junction
- Mesa
- Fountain Hills
Surprised?
From the category archives:
Investors
I was a real estate investor before I became a Realtor, and one of the areas that I studied was tax liens. I was a member of AZREIA, read lots, and took one of those multi-day classes from a seasoned investor and CPA. As part of the class, we attended the Maricopa County Tax Lien sale, which at the time was a three day event.
From the class, I learned that research was critical to make a savvy tax lien purchase. And, when we walked into the standing-room only auction hall, I could see that there were a whole lot of people in the room who’d been coming for years, plus many newcomers like me. The pros, which I’ve been told were primarily commercial institutions, had huge notebooks of computer printouts and were very methodical in their bidding. It was very fast moving, and more than a bit daunting.
In Arizona, an investor, who purchases a tax lien, is bidding on the interest rate, and the bidding goes down. The winner pays the tax bill, and then receives interest on that investment, if and when the property owner pays their back taxes. Rates started at 16%, and in that particular sale, bidders were quickly bidding down, often to as low at 6%. The winning bidders then were required to pay the entire tax bill, interest, and fees by the end of the next business day.
Some bidders were bidding on tax liens, because of the guaranteed interest rate, and others were hoping to gain ownership of property, which a investor can acquire through the foreclosure process, after purchasing the tax liens on a given property for three consecutive years.
The reason for this post is that when I was visiting and confirming the county sites for my post on home ID theft, I stumbled across a new feature of the Maricopa County Tax Assessor’s office. The GIS map has been a very useful tool for me as a Realtor, but it was news to me that there’s now the ability to map out delinquent and unsold tax liens.
For investors, this find at the Maricopa County Tax Assessor’s GIS Map is a great time saver. Using the check boxes on the left you have a choice of mapping out unpaid property taxes and also unsold tax liens.
If you not an investor, but are interested in learning more about Maricopa County Tax Liens the Tax Lien Tutorial and Tax Liens – Frequently Asked Questions are great places to start.
The Maricopa tax lien sale is usually held in early February. I’ll post the date when it is available. In the mean time, you have a new tool to start your research now.
