Anyone Can Learn the Ted Thomas System and Be Successful!

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Anyone can get started in the tax certificate/tax deed business and begin making purchases at auction. This is true even for two nineteen year olds, Darren and Dustin who made their first purchase at auction four days after going to a Ted Thomas workshop.

The Ted Thomas workshops and system are both excellent ways to learn the tax lien/tax deed business. It’s not that difficult for investors follow the system, go out to tax auctions and make a few bids. It’s possible to bring in large amounts of profit purchasing tax deeds at auction with minimal effort.

Darren and Dustin are tax lien/tax deed investors who attended these Ted Thomas workshops and are still actively investing. They are two excellent examples of how investors become successful this tax deed/tax certificate business with a very small amount of effort. They were only nineteen years old when Darren and Dustin got started buying tax certificates and tax deeds.

‘No matter what. Afterwards we were gonna’ go out and do something…’ ~Darren

New investors may not believe it, but it’s true. These young investors are earning money purchasing tax deeds at auction and reselling the properties. Others can too. It’s not difficult.

While most looking into the Ted Thomas program have been stuck in careers they didn’t like or that just weren’t giving them enough income year after year, the efforts of Darren and Dustin show that anyone, anywhere can get started in the tax lien/tax deed business and be successful.

These two got started just after attending a three-day Ted Thomas workshop where they learned all about buying tax certificates and tax deeds at auction. They are real people who have truly gotten astonishing starts in the tax certificate/tax deed business.

Darren and Dustin made their first purchase in the tax certificate/tax deed business within four days. That’s an investment that they made in just a short period after attending their first workshop. However, not all investors will find they purchase their first properties this quickly, although they can still get their properties within an average of sixty days!

‘It doesn’t feel right because you’re wondering why everyone else isn’t crowding around, coming to take your property.’ ~Dustin

It’s true, when investors start going to their first auctions they’ll feel a little confused because it’s just so effortless to get started bidding and buying property. They’ll wonder why there aren’t more people crowding around these taxsales for a chance to get properties. In reality there aren’t many people who know about the tax certificate/tax deed business. It’s just not advertised. However, by taking part in the Ted Thomas system you’ll learn everything and we mean everything you’ll need to know to get started investing in tax auction properties from finding money lenders to investing your earnings for the future.

‘As long as you go do it, you’re going to get a result.’ ~Dustin

As Darren and Dustin have found, all you need is a little determination to go out to these tax auctions and enter bids. Investors will almost always find a property that appeals to them and that’s in their price range. Even more important is to get out there and try the Ted Thomas system. Don’t sit around and think, go do it!

How to Get Ready for Your First Tax Auction Sale

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When you are getting ready for your first tax auction sale you’ll need to remember a few key steps. Learn the tax certificate/tax deed language, figure out what bidding is all about and be prepared…

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You’ll find that tax auctions all over the country are usually quite similar. Most are held on the steps of the county courthouse. Most are open bid, rather than sealed, and nearly all of them are open to anyone who wishes to register. However, some places are different than others. The biggest difference in tax auctions between different states is whether one state is a certificate state and the other is a deed state. You’ll definitely want to know the difference and which one you’ll be attending.

What’s the Difference?

A tax certificate state sells the right to the tax certificates on a certain property. While a tax deed state just sells the deed to a property. In tax certificate states you’ll have to wait a certain amount of time, usually two years before you can apply for the rights to the tax deed on a property. This is so the owner of the property still has a chance to ‘redeem’ their property and keep you from getting the deed to it.

What to Look For?

You can find the location of any tax auction sale by calling the county treasurer’s office. They’ll be able to tell you when and when the tax sale will be held. Just be careful when inquiring on the phone what term you use. Some places use tax auction, other places use ‘foreclosure sale’ or ‘tax foreclosure sale.’ The person on the phone seems a bit confused what you are referring too, just be gently persistent in describing what you are looking for and eventually you’ll find the information you need.

It’s normal to be uncertain at your first tax auction, so it may be best to visit a few of them first, just to get a feel for the pace and involvement required at the auction. Pay careful attention to what other bidders are doing and stick around afterwards to see what happens when someone wins a property.

Research

You’ll find in your research that the minimum bid at auctions will usually be the back taxes owed plus fees and penalties. Sometimes these minimum bids are surprisingly low compared to the appraised value of a property.

Be aware that property is usually sold at auction because the owner hasn’t paid the property tax in a long time. The property can also be up for auction in a foreclosure sale when the owner hasn’t been able to make mortgage payments in a long time. This can sometimes be several years in arrears, but its usually still way below the appraised value.

Also don’t forget to head out to take a look at the property you are going to bid on when you do plan on going to your first auction. This gives you a chance to see if the property is different from what you expected from the information on the property lists. It also lets you take the chance to photograph the property so you have a visual to look at when the bidding starts at auction.

Finding Out if You Want a Property

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Take the time to go check out any properties that look good on the property lists before tax auctions. This will help you decide if you really want that property at auction.

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Each and every investor who registers at a tax auction should have taken the time to research the properties they planned on visiting. If you don’t research what’s good and what’s not, you can really end up hurting yourself by purchasing a property that takes forever to sell.

The county officials putting together the auction provide investors with property lists which can be quite helpful for research. Each property list contains valuable information that can help you in your research;

• Minimum bid

• Parcel number

• Address

• Assessed value

• Improvement value

• Description

Get a plat map of the county area and use it to mark out the addresses of the properties up for sale. The plat map will show each property division there is in the county divided according to parcel number. You can coordinate this plat map with a regular county map to find the best roads out to the properties you wish to look at.

Some property lists will also contain the appraised values, and the improvement value of the properties. The appraised values are the estimated market value that the county assessor has placed on the property and the improvement value is the cost of improvements made to property, such as the addition of a house.

Checking out the Property

It’s very important to head out to actually look at the properties you are considering before the auction. Sometimes clerical errors result in the wrong information or outdated information being posted on a property list and the property ends up being less valuable than you realized.

For example, in one case a couple of new investors using the Ted Thomas system went to look at a property they thought would be a great buy because it was listed as having a duplex built on it. When they saw the property in person they learned that the duplex had actually burned down two years before. This practice of going to look at a property also applies to properties you didn’t feel interested in, but may decide to bid on after seeing them in person.

When at the properties make sure you take good notes and even take photographs as reference for when you are at the auction. Making up a notebook full of potential properties is a great way to keep yourself organized during the sometimes hectic pace of open bidding during those auctions.

Make a separate page for each property, plus the photograph in Polaroid or with a digital camera and keep your notes for each different property on their separate pages so there is less of a chance to mix up properties in your mind.

Getting Around the County When Traveling for Tax Auctions

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It’s easy to forget that you will need some transportation when you fly into an area to attend a tax auction. Don’t assume every town has a car rental place…

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Having a vehicle to get you from point A to point B and even to point C, D, and E and back again is essential for those investors in the tax certificate/tax lien business. Most investors like to travel to other places in order to maintain some anonymity and so they don’t have to worry about literally bringing their work home with them. Even if you opt to attend tax auctions in your local area you’ll still need a mode of transportation to drive around looking at properties.

Why? Because researching is necessary and saves you a lot of hassle later on! Folks, it can be tempting to just tell yourself, ‘Ah, I’ll just go to the tax auction. I can tell which of these properties are good from the property list.’ Don’t let yourself fall into that trap. Eventually you’ll need to get out there to look at the property and you may be in for one heck of a surprise when you finally see it.

So if you have the option, take your vehicle on a long drive out to the auction, if it’s close enough to get to within a decent timeframe. You also don’t want to spend all of your free time commuting. That’s what you are trying to get away from, right? If driving your vehicle out to the auction isn’t possible, use the internet to see if there are any car rental places that you can get to easily from the airport when you arrive. Some car rental places will even pick you up at the airport and many airports have car rentals right next door!

Type of Transportation

Always think about what kind of vehicle you’ll need too. Most of the properties you’ll be looking at for the many tax auctions you attend will be out in the countryside. Think gravel and dirt roads, no gas stations for miles and very few road signs when picking out your choice.

The better choices of vehicles should have something like four wheel drive or all wheel drive. You might even consider renting a small truck, but do be aware that they tend to use up more gas than other vehicles. Tell the rental company that you intend to do a lot of driving around the county so they can help you find the right vehicle for the trip. Also call or inquire online about a vehicle some time before your trip so the rental company has enough time to get the vehicle you need.

Most rental companies also require renters to be twenty-five years old or to have a credit card, debit card or check (usually in the amount of $300) that they can use for the security deposit on the vehicle. So, make sure to ask this beforehand. In return you should get a good working vehicle, insurance, and roadside assistance.

The Importance of Money at a Tax Auction

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The whole point of going to a tax auction is so you can pay for the rights to a tax certificate/tax deed. So if you aren’t properly taking care of your own money before and after the auction then you won’t be successful.

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You can usually find yourself making about $5,000 to $10,000 per property that you pick up at auction. That’s just an estimate, some make more per property and some make less. The point is, you’ll be handling large chunks of money and its can be easy to mess up with it.

Before the Auction

If you intend on going to a tax auction to bid on some properties then you should have the cash on hand to pay for those properties very soon after the auction. Sometimes bidders don’t realize this and they can’t get the monies together in time so they end up losing the property in the after-auction sale, when properties that bidders have won at auction go back up for sale to anyone who is still hanging around because the bidders couldn’t pay up.

Forms of Payment

An easy way to have that kind of money on hand is to just take cash out of the bank and carry it around with you. Well, that option has some problems. You may remember reading about Dustin and Darren, the two 19-year-olds who joined the tax auction business. They chose to carry a large amount of cash with them across the Canadian border and were thoroughly questioned by the border guard. Though they made it through it was a bit of a hassle.

You can also just keep the money nice and safe in a bank and write out a check or use your debit card to pay for the properties, but that’s only if the county auctioneer accepts personal checks and debit cards.

Another option is to have your bank issue you some cashiers checks in basic amounts. Say you plan on investing about $5,000 at the next tax auction you attend. Have your bank issue you five cashier’s checks for $1,000 each. You can use the checks to pay for your properties after the auction and if there is any change left from the checks the county will reimburse it to you or send it back to your bank.

After the Auction

Be calm and collected as you go about purchasing your tax certificates or deeds. Don’t jump around for joy though you may be tempted to do so. Also if you are paying cash or have large amounts in cashiers checks left on you even after purchasing properties, quietly put it/them some place safe.

You never know who will be attending these tax auctions, though it will mostly be other bidders you should always be careful when it comes to your money. Deposit any leftover money you still have back in the bank as soon as you can.

In the end you’ll find that the important point to remember is to be practical about your money. You may be investing it in tax certificates and tax deeds, but that’s not a reason to be careless.

How to Stay on Task and Out of the Bidding Frenzy at a Tax Auction

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A tax auction can be hectic and confusing for those unprepared. If you stay calm and have a plan you’ll do just fine…

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It’s really a good idea to go to a couple of tax auctions before you feel ready to purchase a property just to get a feel for what goes on at one. Some investors will be all business, not making small talk and referring to notes while they bid calmly. Others are just too excited to be at an auction and will start bidding on everything and, as happens sometimes, can end up actually bidding against themselves.

The former kind of investor is the type you want to be, not the latter. You don’t want to get caught up in the bidding frenzies of other investors who don’t know what they are doing. There are a couple of ways you can help yourself stay calm at auction.

• Research properties on the property list, make notes and take photos before auction.

• Keep notes and photos in an organized notebook.

• Decide your maximum bid on each property before the auction.

• Be aware of the other people at a tax auction, but don’t bid on a property just because they are.

Keeping an organized notebook with the property lists, plat map, photos and notes on each property you’ve looked at will be a great helping hand during auction. Don’t forget to note down that maximum bid you want to make on each property. Each maximum bid should be low enough that you can still pay for all your properties if you happen to win each one you bid on.

Others at Auction

This refers to the last point on the above list. It can be very easy to forget about what the rest of the bidders at auction are doing. Well, when they aren’t bidding they are watching you. Why? Because their looking to see if you have some secret system that helps you pick out the best properties. You do if you happen to be following the Ted Thomas System. So be careful not to get too intent on any one property at auction, as you are likely to spark off a bidding war of your own making.

Some investors will even see that you are real competition and try to distract you at auction while their partners bid on a choice property. Others will just not know what on earth they are doing and start asking you for advice, which can be extremely distracting as well. Politely, but firmly tell them you are busy.

Things to Remember

When you go to an auction be prepared for a quick pace. The auctioneer may just be the county treasurer, but s/he’s there to get some money for these tax delinquent properties and s/he wants to get this auction done quickly and move on.

If you’ve won the tax deeds to some properties you’ll need to start deciding what you want to do with them. To earn your profit you’ll need to either resell it on the real estate market or start renting it out.

Start Selling that Property as Soon as You Buy it at Auction

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You’ve had a successful bid at tax auction and won your first property. Profit comes to those to keep working, so don’t let that new property lie around doing nothing. Put it back on the market.

New investors can feel overwhelmed with the idea of actively selling a property they’ve won at tax auction. Yet, with a little attention to detail, some proactive steps and a willingness to make a deal anyone can market and sell their first property for a profit.

Don’t Leave Town Just Yet

You may have the urge once you’ve attended your first auction and made a big purchase to run back home to think. Unless you live nearby, you can’t afford that option. Land that sits around doesn’t earn you any money. You’ll have to make your profit by reselling that property you won at auction for a higher price than you paid, hopefully, market price.

Methods to Market

There are a couple of steps you can take to begin marketing property almost as soon as you buy it.

You can track down the owners of adjacent properties and send them all a form letter. In this form letter you’ll say that you’ve recently purchased the property and wanted to give anyone in the area first crack at buying it before you put it up on the real estate market. You can even offer to let it go for a less than market value price in exchange for a quick sale. In the letter be sure to include your contact information so interested parties can track you down even after you’ve left town. Setting up an email address, specifically for your tax auction business can be a good, cheap way of letting others contact you.

Another simple method for marketing that property is to place a small ad in some of the local papers. A classified ad won’t cost you much to run for a week or two and it has the potential to be seen by lots of local buyers.

Flyers posted in every laundry mat, Movie Theater and local library can be another way to reach the local public about selling that property before you head out of town. Create little tear off strips at the bottom with your phone number and email address.

You can also look into creating some quick listings at sale by owner property sites on the web. They are quick and usually free. Plus you can leave them up as long as you need. This is a great way to reach potential costumers outside the local area.

Last, but not least list your property with the local real estate agent. He or she will do all the work for you while you can head on out of town to continue with life. Just remember that a real estate agent is only likely to really push your property to new clients for the first month or so. If it doesn’t sell after that they get a bit lax in showing it, because it’s not new. So remember to keep calling and keep that property fresh in his or her mind.

Attract Private Lenders in the Tax Auction Business

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If you want to make a real career out of your interest in the tax certificate/tax deed business you may as well start attracting private lenders. How do you find them? Luckily, just about anyone can be a private lender…

Private lenders can give investors the extra funds they need to really rake in the profits in the tax certificate/tax lien business and on the plus side you new investors needn’t look very far to find them. Just about anyone can become a private lender for your fledging company, a friend, a local acquaintance or even family.

Why Go Private Lender?

Making investments in tax auctioned properties with your own funds or money lent by a bank can be a good way to start and gain experience in the tax auction world. However, once you’ve tested the waters and found just how much room there is for expansion in buying tax liens/tax deeds you’ll want to quit your job and go full time. Your own money may not be enough to allow you to do that and a bank can be very slow in giving loans out. That’s doubly true when the bank finds out you’ve quit your job. They are hesitant to lend money on new investments.

A private lender doesn’t look at your credit and doesn’t look at what other jobs you have. They’ll want you to focus entirely on the process of buying tax deeds and reselling them for a profit.

How to Find Them: Throw a Party

As was said before, anyone can be a private lender. You can find private lenders in family and friends or in the local community. Its up to you to show them that you have some success in the process and that you can repeat that success.

A very easy way to attract a lot of potential private lenders is by throwing a party. Yes, a luncheon can be a great way to draw a lot of people to one place. Get knowledge of the luncheon out in the local area by having it advertised in the paper and even advertised to everyone in the neighborhood by sending out special invitations. You’ll only have to give your business presentation once, so it can be very professional. Try setting up a PowerPoint show to make it a lot easier for the crowd to see.

The luncheon can be a powerful attractor of potential investors who are enticed by the idea of free food. They’ll also be enticed by your offer of paying them interest on the loans they made on a monthly basis or in full with repayment of the loan when you sell the property.

Placing an ad in the paper is also a good way to just advertise that you are on the look out for lenders for your investments. You may want to consider keeping one in the paper on a semi-permanent basis until you get a regular line up of lenders backing you. Once you do have lenders expressing an interest, you’ll be able to spend more time earning money instead of looking for it.

Choose a Private Lender for Your Tax Certificate/Tax Lien Business

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Want to build up your tax certificate/tax lien business but don’t have the cash? Choose to seek out private lenders and save yourself some hassle…

It’s easy to get started in the tax certificate/tax lien business. All you need is to win a few bids at auction, but you’ll also need some start up capital for your investment venture. Private lenders, as opposed to banks, can give you that extra funding to buy tax auction properties and fix them up for resale.

Why Not a Bank?

Banks aren’t required to give anyone a loan and they can be quite picky about who they give a loan too. This is because banks have strict policies that look at a loan applicant’s credit and possible methods of repayment. Honestly, they are also less likely to give loans to individuals rather than larger companies.

Plus there are a lot of hoops you’ll need to jump through just to get approved by a bank. Most banks want two years worth of pay stubs, tax records and a lot of paperwork filled out. Not to mention the length of time you have to wait just to hear back from them. People apply for loans at banks all the time and they just don’t have enough staff to get to all the applications in a timely manner. This is not a good practice for the investor in tax certificates/tax liens.

Benefits of a Private Lender

The private lender can save you a lot of cash, whether you opt to approach an individual or go to a hard money lender.

A private lender can give you the money you need quickly. That’s an important benefit of going with private lenders. You may have all ready purchased a house at auction, but it needs repairs before you can sell it at market value. A private lender can give the funds needed for these repairs in only days, so you can get that house fixed up and sold in the short time frame needed to make a quick profit.

In addition private lenders don’t usually look at your credit rating or whether or not you have another job to help make payments. They’ll want you focused on the project you need money for, not a separate job. The credit rating will only give an indication of how someone handles their own money, not how well they can sell a property on the real estate market. A lender will only want to see that you know what you are doing and perhaps ask that you’ve done this before with lesser priced properties and your own money.

When you finish one project and repay a private lender you don’t usually need to go through a long involved process to get another loan. However, when you go through a bank you’ll have to go through the entire application process all over again. That’s more time waiting for the bank and less time earning a profit.

Polite Behavior is Half the Bid at a Tax Auction

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Everyone knows that auctions have unspoken rules on behavior. In fact those unspoken rules can be part of what makes a tax auction intimidating for new investors. However, you can learn to bid with the best of them…

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The cheap prices, the call of the auctioneer, and the possibility of earning a quick profit are all enough to cause even the most experienced of tax auction attendees to engage in a bidding war and even bid on properties they wouldn’t normally consider. It’s easy to get confused at auction and even end up bidding against yourself, or to be loud in conversation and distract other bidders, or even to upset the auctioneer. Yet, with a little awareness and some practical steps you’ll be bidding better than the old tax auction pros.

A Few Quick Tips

• Try to position yourself towards the center of the auction area or even right up front.

• Focus on the task at hand; don’t get distracted by conversation or cell phone calls.

• Stay calm at the auction.

• Listen carefully to the auctioneer’s words so you know when to bid.

• No sudden movements unless you want to look like you are bidding on property.

• Don’t bid randomly.

Putting yourself towards the center of the auctioning area will make you more visible to the auctioneer. So you feel less concerned if it seems like the auctioneer hasn’t seen your first bid and less likely to get into a frenzy to get his or her attention.

Being distracted increases your chances of missing bids and good property and it can annoy more serious bidders at the auction. Turn off your cell phone unless you absolutely need it to converse with a partner about bidding on properties. Don’t let others draw you into conversation either. They may just be making small talk or trying to pick up tips but they may also be trying to distract you from bidding on a choice piece of property. It will keep you from hearing everything the auctioneer has to say.

Unless you are using paddles to bid on properties try not to make movements that could be construed as bids. You’ve heard lots of jokes about unlucky people who’ve accidentally bid on and won very expensive properties just by waving to a friend at auction. Most of the time a good auctioneer will be able to figure out who is bidding and who isn’t, but it’s better to avoid those kind of movements so the auctioneer has less to worry about.

Last but not least, you may be tempted to just start bidding randomly in the hopes of winning something. This can happen a lot to the new investor and can even be a temptation if you are having a hard time following the auctioneer’s words. Don’t give into temptation. You’d be a lot better off to just sit back and try to win something at the next auction.

Follow these tips, use a little common sense and you’ll find yourself bidding like a professional at your first auction.