My friend signed me up for a real estate seminar, and I knew it would be nothing but a sales pitch, but we figured we might glean a few tips. We mostly buy houses at the foreclosure sales, but are always up for learning something new.
Supposedly, the seminar had something to do with Dean Graziosi, but I’m not sure that it had anything to do with him, except that he might have licensed the use of his name. I’m not sure. One of the speakers showed a picture of him with Dean Graziosi.
The main thing for sale seemed like a pretty standard beginning real estate investor’s course over a weekend in Denver. I think the price was $1500 or maybe more. I don’t remember. The thing that was different about it was that if you bought a house within a certain period after the class, they would refund your money. That got my attention, as I’m sure I could buy a house within a couple weeks of the class, but I figured it was too basic a course to spend my time on.
After that, the class took a break, and at least half the attendees left, and they introduced a tax lien course. The deal with that was that it was $1000 (if I remember right) but they would refund your money if you bought six tax liens within a few weeks of that day. I went for it.
One of the things that convinced me was that they will go out and buy tax liens in bulk, for a discount, and sell them to the students, possibly also at a discount. Most of the liens could be immediately foreclosed, and you could own the property. That sounded very cool, and I was hoping I could buy a house for a few hundred dollars. Even if it was across the country, I could buy it for pennies on the dollar and sell it for nickels on the dollar.
As it turns out, I researched quite a few of their offerings. Many of them were in Syracuse, NY, and they could be immediately foreclosed. In fact they could have been foreclosed years ago. And I’m certainly not an expert on Syracuse real estate, living half a country away, but I found some houses that were listed on the MLS for $5000 to $15,000. With all the back taxes you’d have to pay, and fees you’d have to pay, you’d have $20,000 in the tax lien houses. Maybe some of them were worth it, but how would I know unless I somehow convinced a realtor to go look at them, or went out there myself. I certainly didn’t want to overpay for a house 2000 miles away.
I found other similar deals among the tax liens they had for sale. I researched some deals in Kentucky, and it was much the same type of thing.
So, I had to figure out how to buy 6 tax liens on my own, and pretty quick, so that I could get my money back. One of the tips during the seminar was that many counties had unsold tax liens, and would sell them. I decided to go that route. I bought 6 liens from the neighboring county. I had to wait 6 months or so to wait for the time to come when I could apply for the deed. That’s what I’ve done, and now they county says they won’t begin that process for a few months, because they’re behind schedule. I’m not too happy about that, but that has nothing to do with Tax Lien Tutor.
As far as the course materials, it was almost all pretty basic investing information. Not even that much information about tax liens. The tip that I ended up using to find the tax liens I bought wasn’t in the course material–just a free tip in the seminar. But, I was also able to call and ask questions of the people at Tax Lien Tutor. They were pretty helpful.
I guess the big question is whether I got my money refunded. I did. I painstakingly made certain all the documentation they required was in the package I sent them, and I only made it a couple days before the deadline. I called and they said they received everything they needed. I called a couple weeks later to ask where my refund was, and they said it would be sent in a few weeks.
I’m not sure why it took them so long, but I did receive my money.
Would I recommend Tax Lien Tutor? I think the most important thing is that they did keep their promise and returned the money. I have a chance to end up with 5 extremely cheap houses that I wouldn’t have without them (one of the liens I purchased was paid off). I’m earning 10% on all the money I have invested, so I hope those 5 don’t pay off, but even if they do, it would be a very successful investment. The houses are junkers, but I can certainly make money on them, because I’m going to have less than $3000 in them all told.
So I have mixed emotions about it. The materials weren’t that great, but the results have been great. Could I have done it without them? I think I did for the most part, but on the other hand, I wouldn’t have done it without them.
So, the most important thing is that they kept their word on the money. Their website is taxlientutor.com.
We bought our 2006 Chevy Trailblazer used in February 2009. We purchased it because my wife was due with our first baby a few months later in May, and we needed something with four doors. I think we got a pretty good price on it. It had 60,000 miles on it, which as far as I’m concerned is almost like new. I had obtained a carfax report on it beforehand, and it came back clean. The dealer also provided a report that agreed with my report.