When someone fails to pay the tax liability on their home then it results in tax foreclosures. A lot of things can happen from here to the property, but one thing is that it may be put up for auction for anyone to bid on. There are a lot of pros to this for some investors, but there are a lot of risks involved as well. Here are 5 reasons to avoid tax foreclosures sales when looking for properties to own.

  1. Little Knowledge: It can be hard to find out much about the home. Often times you will not be allowed to inspect the home for purchase and must just bid on the home based on what little information you receive before-hand or from the courthouse at the time of the auction.
  2. Competition: While sometimes excellent deals go under the radar at these auctions, other times the competition can be incredibly stiff. Doing a lot of research to find the best deals can be time-consuming, so it can be disheartening when margins are cut slimmer by competition.
  3. Clear Titles: Getting the title of the home can be a bit difficult from here. Knowing what company to go to and what paperwork to fill out can be difficult, especially in different jurisdictions. 
  4. Money: Getting a loan may or may not be tricky. Often the deals on these properties are good and may lead to better interest rates, but sometimes it can be hard to convince someone to give you the loan. These situations are best if you have more money upfront rather than less.
  5. Time: As mentioned above, you are not given a lot of knowledge about the property and the competition can be tight. It can take a lot of time to find out what properties are good and get a good deal at the auction. Do not expect tax foreclosures to simply fall into your lap all the time.

There are so many reasons to buy tax foreclosures at auction, but there are also cons. Looking at the cons in a different way you can see huge opportunities and a big list of pros, so make sure to study up and see if tax foreclosure auctions are a good place for you to invest.