Tax Certificate Investing

Tax lien investing is the act of buying the delinquent tax lien on a property which is in the first lien position or has first priority from any liquidation of the collateral which secures the loan.
Tax certificate investing. Purchasing tax lien certificates is one way to get real estate exposure in your portfolio without actually investing in property. The taxing authority assigns a fixed rate of interest to each certificate. The holder of the certificate collects interest on the tax debt until it is paid in full. So investing in tax lien certificates provides investors with a virtually guaranteed interest rate.
Purchasing a tax lien certificate gives the investor the rights to the tax related debt associated with a property plus interest. Individual states can offer tax liens or deeds. In all but two states the tax lien issuer collects the principal interest and any penalties. And collects the lien certificate if its not on file.
The property owner must repay the investor the entire amount of the lien plus interest which can range anywhere from 5 to 36. With tax deeds the investing emphasis is on possibly securing a below market property through the tax foreclosure process. While sophisticated investors can make decent returns by investing. Pays the lien certificate holder.
As with any investment there are risks in buying lien certificates. Investing in tax lien certificates is an alternate way to include real estate in your portfolio without having to don a landlords cap. One of the biggest benefits of tax lien investing is the much lower capital requirement than other forms of investing to get started. Tax lien certificate investing can be more complicated than owning mutual funds or stocks however and it may be better suited to some investors than others.
When property owners do not pay their property tax bills tax lien certificates can be a safe collateralized complement to a balanced portfolio but only if. In fact family offices and institutional investors have been investing billions in tax lien certificates for decades. Often the agency will elect to sell such a certificate to a private investor in order to get some of the money due to them without having to pursue the property owner.