Info in title. I got my first delinquent property tax list, and I’m finding some plots of land I think would be good. I see the amount of unpaid property taxes. How can I start to get a feel for how much to offer? For example, if a property is say, half an acre with $300 unpaid taxes. How would I go about calculating a good starting number to offer?
On top of that, what are some metrics I can gather to see if an area is good to invest in? I know there’s no “perfect answer” but what do you use to get an idea of whether or not the return on a property will be worth the effort put in?
@land_master lots of big questions here. We’ve got several full lessons and videos dedicated to answering these things in the course, but I’ll try to give you something to chew on below…
what are some metrics I can gather to see if an area is good to invest in?
See these blog posts:
https://retipster.com/market-research/
https://retipster.com/best-markets-land-investing/
what do you use to get an idea of whether or not the return on a property will be worth the effort put in?
See this blog post and forum thread:
https://retipster.com/offerprice/
https://retipster.com/forum/topic/1316/using-offer-price-range-rather-than-fixed-price-in-land-offer-letters/
One thing worth noting… when I’ve used the delinquent tax list in the past, I’ve typically sent out neutral letter postcards, asking them to respond. This gives me an opportunity to see the property information, understand it’s unique attributes, it’s value and see the seller’s level of motivation and THEN I’ll make the offer with the benefit of all that knowledge.
Based on how you worded your post, it sounds like you may be taking the blind offer approach? This can work too, and it has some advantages over neutral letters (namely, time savings) but if you go this route, you’ll have a wider margin of error because you won’t be looking very closely at each property before making your offer.