Buying OTC Tax Deeds

In 2003 NRLL East, a little known subsidiary of LandAuction.com, swept through Florida purchasing thousands of tax deeds OTC and hired purchasing agents who attended tax deed auctions in nearly every county. This Irvine California based corporation, with limitless funds, formulated and executed a business model that worked brilliantly and created multimillion dollar profits for their corporation. In short, the purchasing agents would walk into a Clerk of Circuit Courts Office, research files, visit property and query the public records. Upon payment to the Clerk, NRLL would be issued the tax deed. Once purchased LandAuction.com would auction the property and their property auctions were huge. Many times having 600 properties auctioned in a month, and selling the properties without warranty of title. The buyers would sign a release stating that they were aware the property may have previously been purchased through tax sale. The fact is NRLL purchased many Florida properties for less than $ 1,500 and Land Auction.com auctioned the property and in some cases they sold for $ 15,000- $ 25,000. This process was both quick and effective.

Another Florida Deed OTC example. Marion County 2004, there were nearly 1000 unbuildable parcels zoned recreational available to purchase OTC. At first glance it would seem a hard sell and with many other opportunities at the time it seemed unworthy of investment. These small parcels were however accessible and could be used as campsites and short term RV parking. The cost to purchase these were approximately $ $ 150- 300 per parcel. Not seeing the potential was a huge mistake, after five or six weeks we returned to purchase these tax deeds OTC only to be informed they were no longer available. Each and every one had been purchased by another investor. A few weeks went by and then some of these parcels were listed for sale on ebay. It was amazing that a small unbuildabe recreational lot adjoining the Ocala National Forest would sell at auction for $ 1600. It is believed that these parcels were sold without warranty of title by quit claim deed or special warranty deed.

How to locate Florida Tax Deeds OTC

What is sought is the List of Lands Available For Taxes. The Clerk of Courts or Tax Deeds Office will have possession of this List. In many counties, at the current time, there are few Florida deeds available OTC but with the increased number of people not paying property taxes these numbers are increasing in many counties. Some Clerk of Courts offer a link to the List of Lands from their home page. To locate these links and clerk's offices you can use the click map found at below link under County Gov Auctions.

History of a Florida Tax Deed OTC

In the beginning of the cycle the property taxes were unpaid. The tax lien was auctioned and there were no bidders for the tax certificate at the annual auction. When this happened the tax certificate was issued to the county and carried an 18% annual interest rate. The certificate was made available for transfer from the county to investors and was also available for redemption by the property owner. Neither of these actions occurred, so there it sat for 2 lonely years not yielding tax revenue for the county. The county then applied for the tax deed and the deed was unsold at the auction. For 90 days following the deed auction the property is made available to government entities, after that it is entered onto the List of Lands Available for Taxes. The property deed will be made available for purchase for three years after which the tax deed is transferred to the BOCC (Board Of County Commissioners) and escheates to the county. After this, the county will either deem the property as surplus and sell it, auction it or issue it to the city. There are many opportunities to purchase the property as it moves through the cycle, but for the purpose here we will stay on target.

Florida Tax Deed OTC Files

The Tax Deeds Office or Clerks of Courts, depending upon who maintains the List of Lands, will also have the file for the property. In this file you will find all known mortgages, liens, judgments, etc .. which were encumbering the property just prior to the time that the deed was auctioned (see Owners & Encumbrance Report in file). The issue is that these files may have been prepared up to three years prior so there could be new liens, judgments and title issues since the date of report generation. It will be necessary to perform a title search to ascertain the updated information that you will need.

Florida Tax Deed OTC Question

Why did not an investor come forward and purchase the deed at auction? There are multiple reasons for this. The most obvious is that there is something terribly wrong with the property IE zoned DRA (drainage retention area) or is unbuildable due to size or location or sinkhole or lack of road frontage.

The truth is that most of the parcels available will not have these problems. The most likely of reasons are three, the property value at the time of auction did not greatly exceed that of opening bid OR there were liens which exceeded property value OR the property was homestead exempt.

The first two of these items may have changed over the course of time that the property sits on the List of Lands. The property value may have greatly appreciated and liens may have become void. The third item may have also changed but that need a little more clarity.

When the property deed was auctioned and the property being homestead exempt, the winning bidder would have had to pay 1/2 of assessed value. With the property residing on the list of lands, it is unlikely that the property retains that exemption. So, as of the last tax roll, if the exemption is dropped you can then obtain the tax deed OTC for far less than what the opening bid was at the tax deed auction. This is rare as most previously homestead exempt properties whose tax deeds are available OTC will also have other issues and most will be blighted.

I have purchased Florida Tax Deeds OTC and some have yielded spectacular returns, one in particular had a ROI of more than 700% in 120 days. Want Proof from the Property Appraisers Office and County Official Records? The See proof box .