Step 2 Get your databases of real estate at risk. 

    Now that you have chosen the geographic areas in which you wish to invest, the next step is to locate and acquire the databases of the real estate that is at risk, namely those properties where the owner is in danger of losing the property. 

    There are several of these databases available. You have heard of many of them. Every real estate investing guru says that you should be talking to “motivated sellers”. They will all give you a list of the types of the sellers that you should be looking for. 

    Some of the typical situations are: couples getting a divorce, landlords who are in over their head with management problems, someone moving or losing a job, someone who has two mortgages and can not afford both, foreclosures, etc. 

    All of these situations are real, they happen everyday, but where are you going to get a ready made database of any of these categories of motivated investors. A ready made database is defined as a database that you can order and have it mailed to you on a disc or downloaded to you in a file format that you can manipulate. 

    With the possible exception of the divorce and foreclosure categories, all other motivated seller categories are not databased. You must spend big money to advertise and hope that some of these motivated sellers will see your marketing and contact you. 

    This has never been my style. I want control. I do not care to let my financial future rest upon someone being aware enough to see an ad. I do not like the idea that someone in a stressful situation might have the presence of mind to believe that a stranger can help them. Worst, I hate the idea that they might condescend to call me on a whim. 

    I would much rather be in control of the marketing situation. Therefore, I concentrate on tax delinquent real estate and not on any other category. A main reason is that the databases of properties that are tax delinquent are readily available and from every county in the USA.

    There are 3332 counties in the US, not including the possessions, which have the same taxing laws as the US. So, if you wanted to invest in real estate in Western Samoa, or the Virgin Islands, you could do so with the backing of a US style legal system.

    Every county has a set of officials that is in charge of collecting taxes. They rule over an entire bureaucracy which helps them. The first thing they do is to collect the data as to which properties have paid taxes and which have not paid its taxes. I say properties, because it is the property that will eventually be used to pay the outstanding taxes. The owner may owe the taxes, but it is the property that is the collateral, in case the owner cannot pay the taxes. 

    The data that is collected is very complete. The Tax Collector has a record of all the monies that the properties owe, how much has been paid, the owner contact data as well as the tax lien certificate data, if it is a TLC state. If a tax foreclosure is in process, then property inspection files are maintained plus much more. 

    The Tax Assessor, who is now often called the Property Appraiser, has enormous amounts of data regarding the property, from lot size to property type to information regarding any structures. Foreclosure investors wish that their lists could be as complete. 

    All you need do is ask for the databases, pay the proper fee, and wait paitently for the information.

    The size of the database will astound you. In most counties with a decent population, the tax delinquent real estate database consists of thousands and thousands of properties. The number will be between 10,000 and 60,000  properties. Is that enough leads for you? 

Good luck,

 Mitchell Goldstein – Coach Mitch

518-439-6100 until midnight EST