The Treasure and Tax Collector keeps an inventory of tax defaulted land, and improved properties that have back taxes owed.
Land investors looking to find motivated land sellers, and potentially acquire an property below market prices, might consider this investment strategy. Below is Riverside County, CA inventory of tax defaulted properties, mostly vacant land, acreage and some homes needing to be fixed up – Fixer Uppers. By contacting the current owners of these tax delinquent property owners, you may be able to purchase the property directly from the owners.
Inventory of Tax Delinquent Land and Homes for Riverside County, California
Some pointers, suggestions that may come in handy.
1. Choose an area you are familiar with. Do you like being near a lake? Do you want a hillside lot, or flat and level? Make up your mind to become an exert in one of the Cities, within the County near you. Download the Inventory PDF file. You will see the Cities the tax delinquent parcels are located in. Look for Lake Elsinore, did you find it?
TRA 005-000 IN THE CITY OF LAKE ELSINORE
Only one parcel here, and more in the following section TRA 005-005. Keep in mind, that the owners are still the owners, and have a right to pay off the back taxes anytime, and many do, with many companies or Corporations intentionally wait to pay their taxes at a later date.
This is the property information at the time of this writing. In this example it is an 80 acre vacant parcel, since “Structure Value” is $0.00. (note – all information needs to be thoroughly research to make sure it is accurate, and correct. Don’t assume anything. All information provided by the Treasure Tax Collector, is presumably correct, but not guaranteed, and there maybe be mistakes (it is tax delinquent after all, and may have any number of title problems)
Assessment# 363090007-8
Advalorem1 $12,292.62
Specials1 $4,781.62
Redemption Amt2 $160,402.78
Land Value1 $1,224,000.00
Structure Value1 $0.00
80.00 ACRES IN POR SE 1/4 OF SEC 4 T6S R4W FOR TOTAL DESCRIPTION SEE ASSESSORS
Here is the break down of what this information tells you about this acreage.
The size 80 acres. If you are more familiar working with square feet, or yards, or metric? Here is a land area converter. To read the legal description, and find the exact location of the land, here is the Township and Range of a Section of land, in a PDF diagram that you can print and review. Basically all land is broken down from Tracts, consisting of Township and Ranges, which have 36 sections to 1 Tract. One Section is 640 Acres.
Most legal descriptions are abbreviated. With our example we can now find the 80 acres.
T6S = Township 6 South
R4W = Range 4 West
There are allot of taxes owed on this sample parcel. Keep in mind that the displayed information doesn’t give you any existing open Trust Deeds or other liens that may be attached to this parcel. You will need to get this to evaluate if it has some equity.
To further investigate this parcel, It would be wise to get the Parcel Map from the County Assessors Office. Here is where the “Assessment number” is used. Riverside County Assessors Office http://pic.asrclkrec.com/
2. Get the Plat map, do a Screen Capture, and print, the Plat map on one side, and the Assessors land information on the other.
3. You now need to evaluate, how to contact the current owner, to make your offer. If the property doesn’t present to have what your looking for either in the plat map, or location and road access, move on, and research another parcel. The assessor mailing address is where the property tax bill is being mailed to. You can make your offer here via snail mail, or maybe finding a phone number on the internet will surface for you to call.
4. The document last recorded maybe the Trust Deed, or other document that may help you decide if this property presents itself as a potentially profitable property to buy from the owner.
5. It doesn’t pay to go through all this work, to make an unrealistic offer to the owners. Keep in mind that they have put money into this investment, and for one reason or another, are deliquant temporarily, and there is a good probability they will pay off the back taxes, if it isn’t too much.
One way to get an idea what the land owner may accept for their property is to suggest listing the property online, to a land for sale by owner website, offering an land affiliate commission for you. Become an affiliate, and you can earn a monthly commission for all the land listing you recommend to the site. Offer to take photos of the property, may present a way to earn some extra cash, and find out how much the owner may accept for the property.
6. All land auction properties that you come across, may not be worth making an offer and buying, even if the owner would quit claim it to you for $1.00. One reason is that the real estate market has experienced a dramatic decrease in property values, and many of these properties have loans amounting to more than what the land owner can sell it for or way below the assessment valuations. Basically all equity is already eaten up by the secured note holder, and the amount of back taxes currently owed, to redeem it.
7. Be persistent. Know the location you want to invest in, and you will know what you can turn a property around for, or improve, or hold that will appreciate in value over time.
Written exclusively for Land-News.com
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By: WGG
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