[imaspen1965]

I am considering bidding on tax lien property. After purchasing how difficult is it to clear the title and how long would I have to wait to flip the property?:confused:

[Fr_Chuck]

It will differ by state.

In some states you merely get a tax certificate which you have to hold for a period ( one to three years depending on state) during this time the owner has the right to pay off that certificate with interest ( about 10 percent)

So in those states you can't even do anything for that time.

In others you get a tax deed or special deed the day of the sale, and it is your property. And the deed you get is suppose to be a clear deed since the government sale is suppose to again clear any claim to the properrty.

You can of course have a title search done after you buy the property and if you find any issue go to court to clear it,
Personally I always just sell the ones I buy on a quit claim deed, and let the buyers do any title search before they buy.

Also normally you are not going to get anything nice and normally not anything that can even be fixed. On occasion you will get property of someone who died or went to a nursing home with no family. But most will be deserted property, that is often better bull dozed and the land just sold. Remember land that has a mortgage, the mortgage company is going to pay the tax before it sells and then just foreclose.

The other if 4 week before the sale they have 500 properties listed, the week before the sale there will only be 100 left listed, the rest would have paid the taxes at the last moment, and the day of the sale most likely only about 25 left. So there is no way to even look at most of the properties before hand, since you really don't know till the morning of the sale what is actually going to be sold or not.