In trying to create a second source of income. I am trying to learn about buying a tax deed, and then either rent the property or reselling it after I fixed it up. Here are some things I’ve learned the last few weeks before a certain auction.

Some states use a company to manage the selling of their properties. Tax deeds. I will reference the specific company. I am using as XXX

1. The spreadsheet on xxx is not as up-to-date as the APN links. You can waste a lot of time doing property research from the spreadsheet and then find that APN-links themselves indicate that the properties have been withdrawn by the homeowner. Pay attention to the APN information over the spreadsheet before you do excessive research.

2. A prominent amount of the properties exceeds the 10% recommended exchange-rate of the worth of the property to the bid amount.

3. A prominent amount of properties that you may have been interested in, are withdrawn a week before bid. Of the 14 properties within my price range four are still available. Depending upon who my fellow bidders are will see if I can get in those four.

4. One good way to avoid emotional bidding is on your spreadsheet of properties do a calculation in one of the columns where you multiply the amount of the bid by the worth of the property. Then you get a percentile. If it is over the recommended amount i.e. 10% and you know that property may not be a good investment. You make that decision before you look at it and become emotionally involved. You can do these calculations, all in one group by copying the formula down on each line of the spreadsheet and duplicate it on the other columns.

5. A lot of properties I look for on zillow do not show home information, I’m assuming that these are lots, not homes, even though it didn’t say ‘vacant’ next to the property in the original spreadsheet.

6. If you’re bidding for a property with a bid under $6,000, the worth of the home (maybe at $64,000) the real estate person will get about $1920 for the sale at their 3% commission. The more money they can make may motivate them to go the extra mile on your behalf. They might be motivated to help you create your support team. (Property manager, title search lawyer, and local contractors)

7. The higher the bid, the more properties that are still available a week before auction. The lower the bid, the more likely the property has been withdrawn.

8. Be cautious with xxx. They had to return my check and addressed the check to themselves that was sent back to me. So at the moment of my check sent from them that is addressed to them, not to me. At the moment, this makes the check worthless. Spend plenty of time in advance of the auction to get the money to xxx as if they mess up the check your money is in limbo. Also, with some of us who are quite thickheaded, instructions can be a little bit confusing in regards to how to make the deposit.

9. Be cautious of the hours as xxx is on Eastern standard Time, and does not accommodate for customers in the Western states. If you work during the day, you may want to call before work, but the waiting times can be lengthy.

10. The response time from xxx is sluggish. Be prepared to do anything far in advance as they may or may not respond to your emails or phone calls.

11. None of the properties on the spreadsheet will show a face photo of the property from zillow. Zillow only shows from the air. Still trying to find photos of facing the property. I haven’t figured out how to manipulate Google maps or Google Earth.

12. One real estate person told me that about a 50% chance of a home steel being occupied by the original homeowner and that a new homeowner will probably have to bribe the current resident to exit the home in order for you to move in or to make changes to the home.

13. Another real estate agent told me that the repairs of a home might range between 10,000 and $20,000. At the time he quoted this estimate to me. We did not discuss the worth of the property for the quote he gave me.

14. A estate agent said that some counties combines utilities, so there should be normally one source for utilities. When you turn them on, so that real estate people can show the house and contractors can work on improving the house.