Zero Risk Real Estate: Creating Wealth Through Tax Liens and Tax Deeds

Chapter 5

Taking Control of Your Property

Buying real estate is not only the best way, the quickest way, the safest way, but the only way to become wealthy.

—Marshall Field

One of the most difficult parts of the tax lien or tax deed process is taking physical control of the property. When you purchase a tax lien, you need to keep in the back of your mind whether you want to own the property if the owner fails to redeem it. Each investment should be made with this very question in mind.

Owning property comes with certain responsibilities and, of course, some additional costs to maintain the property. If you are a little squeamish about foreclosures or having to evict someone, another route might be to simply sell or assign your interest over to another investor. If you want to maximize your profits on the deal, however, and there are former owners or tenants who are living at the property, then you may have to evict them.

In this chapter, we’re going to dive into the foreclosure process from the investor’s point of view. We will learn how to deal with the art of eviction, what to do when confronted by previous owners, and how to handle claims by other interested parties.