Wednesday, July 25, 2018

How To Buy Property for Unpaid Taxes


Property Tax Lien investing is often advertised as a high income, passive investment that anyone can do.  Conduct a few hours of research and show up at the county auction and earn unlimited passive income.  Well, that’s complete bullshit. 

I’m sure you have seen books and courses on television touting the unlimited wealth you can generate for very little work.  The fact is that there are better and more ethical ways to make money on property through unpaid property taxes.

First I’d like to explain why I do not bother with purchasing tax liens. Only about 6 percent of delinquent tax liens end up in foreclosure, and of those, only one half of one percent is successful in that they are not redeemed (before foreclosure is complete).  That’s because most properties have liens and the taxes will eventually be paid by the lien holder.  Additionally there can be a ton of fees and if you are in the rare position of acquiring one of these properties, you are basically stealing it from the owner and evicting them as a final f#*K You.

I just can’t do it.

In the event that you find a property that has no lien, there will likely be so much competition for the property, if it has any true value, that the bidding will take down the interest rate to below an acceptable investment return.  Not to mention that you will likely be pitted against law firms and other sharks that have done a ton of due diligence.  It Sucks, and is not for the faint at heart. 

My approach is somewhat different, but it has allowed me to purchase many valuable properties over the years.  It can be a grind at times, but it also doesn’t screw the current owner out of their bounty.

 

There are over $14 Billion in unpaid property taxes every year and it is all public information.  They’re easy to find and once you learn the most efficient way to review them you can literally look through hundreds in an hour.  My favorite way is using a GIS viewer as I can probably look at over 400 properties in an hour which includes any lienholders.  I compile a list of all properties with unpaid taxes over multiple installments and begin to prioritize them by value. 

 

Value can mean a lot of things to a lot of people.  It could be proximity to another business, zoning, or ability to combine with another property in the future.  At the end of the day it’s still location, location, location. 

 

Let me give you an example of a plot of land I acquired using this technique.   The attached picture is an aerial view of multiple properties I acquired over approximately one year.  During a standard search I found close to 50 properties whose taxes were unpaid.  I prioritized them and this one floated to the top of my list (Property #2).  Why?  Because it was on a busy street, the neighbor has commercial zoning, and although it is small and difficult to develop, it has several opportunities to potentially combine with neighboring parcels.





I approached the owner to see if he was interested in selling.  The owner is paying a ridiculous amount in penalties every month from the unpaid back taxes which generally mean that he is in some type of financial trouble and is likely willing to listen to an offer.   This is the biggest difference with my approach.   The owner doesn’t get screwed.

 

But before I committed to the deal I quickly did research on the surrounding lots.  Property #1 was completely worthless.  Garbage!  It was landlocked by other properties and oddly shaped and therefore could not be developed on its own.  However, when combined with Property #2 it became very valuable.  I did a little research on it and discovered that the county owned it for unpaid taxes.  The property was so bad that a tax lien was never purchased against it.  It was going to be sold at a deed auction in the fall of that year.

 

 Excellent!  

At this point it was worth making a deal with the owner of Property #2 given the great price, location, and knowing I would be able to acquire the adjacent land within 6 months.  So I purchased the property for an unbelievable price and immediately paid the back taxes owed. 

Now, while waiting for the tax deed sale on Property #1 I did some research on Property #3.  As you can see in the picture it was an abandoned alley and easement.   Both can be acquired through the county with appropriate justification using a “Petition to Vacate” application.  I have attached an example petition from Cape Coral, Florida.  I have gone through this process myself many times, but I would highly recommend using an attorney.

 




I hired an attorney to complete the process and within a year was granted both the easement and the vacated alley.  In the mean time I purchased Property #1 at the deed auction for the opening bid, as I was the only bidder.  Now I have acquired this large plot of land for almost nothing but some hard work and well planned strategy! 

While in the process of combining the PIN numbers and applying to re-zone the property, the adjacent property owner made me an offer I could not refuse.  He had a commercial building and needed the land for expansion.  When the dust settled I made over 10X my original investment! 

I know you thinking this is once in a lifetime thing, but it’s not.  It happens all the time.  There are a lot of people in financial trouble which is indicative of their unpaid property taxes.  Many of which would be delighted to get an offer to unload the property and not have to worry about coming up with cash to pay the taxes.   




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Wednesday, July 18, 2018

How To Start a Business With Minimal Investment






My brother in law had a great idea.  Hell, everyone has a million dollar idea.  My mother in law has four, my barber has at least ten, and the guy that details my car begs me to invest in one of his many. 

Ideas don’t matter, they’re everywhere. 

The daunting and excruciating process of bringing an idea to a viable, profitable product or service is where all of the value is.  And that’s why so many people fail.  Because they don’t have the knowledge, patience, and drive to execute.  They don’t have the chops to get up and work through the pain and rejection every day to make it work.  They ultimately give up! 

Now back to my brother in law.  He had a million dollar idea.  Had no idea if anyone would buy it, but convinced himself that people would beg for his product and pay whatever he wanted, because he liked it.  He had no prior experience but somehow convinced his wife to pony up the 401K and credit cards to chase the dream.

And I’m sure you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to guess what happened next.  That’s because I guarantee you know someone that went through a similar process. 

Having no start up or project management experience, spending on the dream went out of control.  He started having some doubts about the sales forecast after obtaining some unfortunate information.  This was due diligence he should have done prior to starting.  His wife was freaking out because it had become a make or break situation for their future.  The fear and pressure was so insurmountable that he was hospitalized after a nervous breakdown.  And then they just stopped! 

I don’t think he has ever been so relieved over anything in his life.  He lost his house, wife and 401K and filed bankruptcy, but he was now a free man.  How did a dream turn into a prison sentence? 

The reason I am writing this blog today is because this all could have been easily avoided.  My favorite read that outlines the process of a proper start up once you are convinced of your million dollar idea is the “Lean Start Up” by   Eric Reis.

I’m sure most of you have heard of the book but if not, spend the 20 bucks and save your ass.  I won’t go into too many details but the two most important take-aways for me were the Minimum Viable Product and the Continuous Feedback Loop.   

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is the process of building the bare minimum product or service to test the market.  Hell, in some cases the MVP could be nothing but a phone call or sales pitch to see if anyone is interested.  If executed properly this should give you enough feedback to build the most basic model and that concept should be designed with as little capital as possible until interest and momentum can be built.





I have built several MVP’s over the years that gave me enough information to decide whether the idea had legs or not.  Some so ridiculous and aesthetically embarrassing that I don’t want to mention.  But guess what, they worked!  80% of them sucked but I had so little invested that dumping them was Ok.  The other 20% did well and 5% did great! 


Once your MVP has been established proceed to your continuous feedback loop of Building – Measuring – Learning.  This allows you to make adjustments and build upon your product INCREMENTALLY through continuous feedback.   If the model is working well, build on it.  If it’s working but not great make subtle changes, measure those changes and continue to adjust or pivot all together. 





Simply put, this process allows you to bring your idea to the market without going broke.  In other words, LEAN!  I’ve left out a ton of shit, so again, please spend the 20 bucks and read the book before you taking money out of your 401k.  Hopefully the wife will stick around too.

See more innovative and life changing ideas at MrWallStreet.com

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Monday, July 9, 2018

How to invest in parking spaces

 



Investing in parking spaces is not for the faint of heart, but in several situations can produce excellent returns.  The reason I loved it was because there wasn’t the hassles of renting an residential space.

 

Do your homework up front as if you were purchasing an investment property. 

Calculate your annual gross rental yield and compare it to the risk free rate.  I always like to see a yield of above 12%.  Calculate the CAP rate and P/E ratio.  CAP has to be above 8% to make it worth my time.  This is nothing new for the seasoned real estate investor. 

The most important thing is comps.  How desperate are people for spaces and how much are they willing to pay.  It doesn’t take much effort to figure this out, however it is essential.  Get your ass out there and look for spaces to rent.  See how difficult it is to pick one up.  If its easy and people are willing to negotiate, find another area.  This is where the money is made so don't be lazy.  SpotHero and SPACER are great resources to provide data and comps.

Income first, appreciation second.  However, appreciation can take off in certain scenarios especially around new developments.  It doesn't hurt to spend some time at the county building and find out what the parking allotment around new developments and do a little math with existing demographics.

Parking spaces have many complexities.  They are often deeded with condos, there can be several restrictions and you cannot get a mortgage for them. It's a cash game unless you want to embark on some P2P lending.  It’s these same difficulties that that make these investments interesting since they keep most investors away.

From the NY times:  Marc Wisotsky and his partner, Jackie Lew, bought two spaces in 2005 in a parking garage near their home in Park Slope, Brooklyn, for around $45,000 each. They used one and rented out the other for $600 a month, pocketing $310 after taxes and the garage fee.  It was a tidy, reliable income, Mr. Wisotsky said, but the real payoff came when he and Ms. Lew sold their extra space last year for $285,000. “We could have gotten more — the prices just keep going up and up,” he said. “There are never as many parking spaces as residential units being built.”

Check out this ridiculous story.  Makes me want to get back in the game! 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-05/hong-kong-car-owners-get-squeezed-with-765-000-parking-spaces