City of Boston Real Property Tax Payments Page


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Delinquent Tax Properties – Buying Liens at Tax Sale or Deed Sale May Not Be the Way to Go

If you’re looking to make money from delinquent tax properties, there are several ways to do it. First, get clear on why you want to get involved with tax delinquent properties in the first place. There are two basic ways to make money by attending tax sales: interest on tax liens that you can purchase, whose owners end up paying you off, or by acquiring the properties directly at rock-bottom prices.

If you’re interested in earning an above market interest rate on your money, consider going with tax liens. Half or so of the states in the US sell tax liens to recoup back taxes on delinquent properties. After you buy a lien, the owner of the property (and other parties with an interest) will have a certain period of time, called the redemption period, to pay of the lien with interest and reimbursement for your legal fees.

If you don’t really want to end up with property and are just looking for the interest, buy liens on nice properties in good areas. Most of the time, the lien will be bid up close to retail value, but usually you do end up getting the stated interest rate on the entire amount of your investment. By investing in nicer properties, you’re almost guaranteed to earn your interest. Over 95% of properties in the best condition and highest value end up being redeemed. If you are going to invest this way, just make sure you don’t overpay for the lien in the rare event the lien doesn’t get redeemed. In that case, you would apply for a deed after the redemption period and become the owner of the property for what you paid for the lien.

If you’re looking to acquire property, you may attend a tax deed sale, where deed/immediate ownership of the properties are offered. Here you will be bidding against many other people and the price often reaches near market value. You may have to bid on low-end properties just to have a chance at getting one. Also, you’ll probably need to hire an attorney to wade through all the legal work that goes along with acquiring property this way (same with a lien, as well).

Does this mean it’s hard to get tax delinquent property for cheap? Not at all. If you’re looking to acquire property easily and/or make lump sums of cash fast, the way to do that is to buy tax delinquent properties from the owners, without going to the auctions/sales, before they are lost to the lien holder or sold at deed sale at the end of the redemption period… a process I fondly refer to as “deedgrabbing.” Now, you won’t need to wait to get your property, and forget all the research needed to buy tax liens or tax deeds. Just see who is about to lose their property to tax sale, and contact them a month or less before! Most of the delinquent tax properties that have made it that close to the sale/auction are free and clear, because mortgage companies will pay off taxes for homes with mortgages rather than lose their interest in the property. And at this point, often the owners simply don’t want the properties anymore, or can’t afford the upkeep and responsibility. You can easily buy these properties, and immediately resell for huge profits- or keep them as rentals, and start to build your real estate empire!

The Trail of Lights fizzles out this year after budget cuts force it to the end of its road — while property taxes and water rates will increase.
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As many as 60 percent of us pay TOO MUCH on our property taxes.
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Use This Secret To Buy Back Tax Property for 0 or Less

Sick of competing with other bidders on back tax property? Hands-down, tax sale property is the right investment. But there’s a right way, and a wrong way, to purchase it. The right time to buy tax property is after the tax sale. Here’s how to do it.

There are a lot of pitfalls to buying back tax property at tax sale – namely competition. If you do win a bid on a property, you have to pay for it right then – in cash. Overall, attempting to buy back tax property at the tax sale is not a good idea. The easiest way to get tax property is to buy it once the tax sale is over.

Making a deal to get the property from the person about to lose it is the way to do this. When to contact them is perhaps the most important thing. If you approach them early on, they may avoid your call altogether. By about 10 months after tax sale, the owners get it that they must sell. This is a bad scenario for the seller.

This is exactly where you want the seller to be when you buy. Offer them 0 to sign over their back tax property deed. When you sell, you can give them a percentage of the sales price. This is a lifesaver for the owner – and you’ll profit big too. This is the easiest, and least risky way to buy property.

Then, by just paying the back taxes, you own the property. Can’t pay the taxes? Sell before the end of the redemption period. Find an buyer in a matter of days by selling the property for a rock-bottom price. Want your profits now? Let the new owner deal with the tax issue.

You’ll also run into owners that don’t live at the property – landlords and people who inherited properties, and no longer want them. Psychologically, they don’t see the property as valuable – they want it gone. Ask if they’d mind deeding it over to you. Offer to toss in a few hundred dollars for their trouble. Once the deal is done, you can liquidate the back tax property or pay the taxes, just like you would with any other seller.

This is the best way for new investors to buy back tax property. And in a struggling economy, it’s always a great time to get into foreclosure investing!