Facts
- A lien is not an enforcement action taken by the IRS.
- Approximately 4 to billion dollars in unpaid property taxes are offered for sale to the private sector on an annual basis and having said that, there are some states that do not transfer or assign delinquent real estate taxes to the private sector.
- Tarnishing your credit history, tax liens are said to have adverse effects on your credit report, however, there are a few perfectly legitimate ways to remove them.
- In some cases, buying a tax lien certificate does become less than a perfect investment.
Fictions
- Guaranteed payment: Don’t be fooled by this myth and invest in tax lien without knowing anything, there is nothing like guaranteed payment in liens. Yes, there are laws to protect the lien holder, but that does not mean that you will get paid for sure. Your assurance is the real estate property that you hold a lien against. If the property owner doesn’t disburse the amount he/she is supposed to pay you along with the interest accrued for that particular period, you can always foreclose the property and get paid. There are certain pitfalls in it and that is why it is important to do your due diligence on tax sale properties!
- If you have heard that liens are one-time investment, then there is no big joke than that. Once you purchase a lien, things aren’t over, but you should keep paying the subsequent liens. This will help protect your interest in the property and moreover new ones will have primacy over the older ones. Hence, you should reserve a chunk of cash for it separately.




