Hi everyone. I’m new to land flipping and having some difficulty obtaining delinquent tax lists. I’ve reached out to about 10 counties so far and only obtained one (small) list. The county officials I’ve spoken with all seem to think I’m referring to the list of properties for the tax lien sale rather than the ones that owe money on an existing tax lien. When I clarify what I’m looking for, all but one claimed they didn’t publish the list.
italicised text
Has anyone else run into this issue? Am I maybe asking for the wrong thing or is it the states I’ve chosen to start with (Wyoming and Colorado)? Thank you in advance!
@mmehring96
Yes, i had the same problem with tax lists. The other issue I ran into, was the county wanted outrageous amounts of money for the list. My home county said $1,000 dollars for the list! I have sense stepped away from delinquent tax lists at this time. But will revisit them in the future possibly.
@mmehring96 Wyoming is a non-disclosure state, which could have something to do with the difficulty you’re having there.
As for Colorado, I’m not sure about that one. I don’t recall the last time I tried to get it from there, but I’m not sure why they would withhold it, aside from just the normal issues of county employees being difficult or incompetent. How many different counties have you tried in CO?
@gwilkins234 $1,000 for a list?? Wow. Was that a flat-rate, or the total after tallying up the cost per parcel? I’ve encountered a few outrageous ones like that in the past (counties that would charge $2+ per parcel, etc), and those counties make the decision pretty simple, “No thanks!”
Hey Seth,
Yea, I live in NY, so everything here is expensive. I am not sure if it was a tallied list or not. The email just said $1,000 for the list and I said thanks but no thanks. I will find other ways to get property to start. I also have had some issues with counties calling or emailing back.
@retipsterseth Also, just to be clear, it is ALWAYS the County Clerks office who would carry the list, not to Real Property Office?
@retipsterseth Hey Seth, thank you! I had a feeling it was something to that nature. I tried 5 counties in each state. Interestingly, the one county where I got the list was in Wyoming - which gave me some encouragement to keep asking.
I’ll have to re-think my strategy then. I like those two states because I don’t have a ton of capital and the cost of land seems low out there. But if I can’t get tax lists, maybe there are greener pastures.
@mmehring1 oh interesting. Well, it’s good to know that non-disclosure states aren’t impossible to get this kind of data from.
If you’re looking for cheap, you could also try some of the rural counties in New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona, among other places.
@mmehring96 Wyoming and Colorado are “tax lien” states. From what I’ve seen, counties that issue tax liens will not provide delinquent tax rolls. From what I can tell, these counties don’t seem to have an active list tracking who’s delinquent on their RE taxes (someone please correct me if you’ve had a different experience). Personally, I’ve had better luck with tax deed states.