In 2003, NRLL East, a little-known subsidiary of LandAuction.com, toured Florida purchasing thousands of OTC tax deeds and hired purchasing agents who attended tax deed auctions in almost every county. This Irvine, California-based corporation, with unlimited funds, formulated and executed a business model that worked brilliantly and generated multi-million dollar profits for their corporation. In short, purchasing agents would enter the Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, investigate the files, visit the property, and consult the public records. Upon payment to the clerk, the tax deed will be issued to NRLL. Once purchased, LandAuction.com would auction the property and their property auctions were huge. Often 600 properties are auctioned in a month and sold without a title guarantee. The buyers would sign a statement stating that they knew the property may have been previously purchased through the tax sale. The fact is, NRLL bought many Florida properties for less than $ 1,500 and Land Auction.com auctioned the property and in some cases sold them for $ 15,000 to $ 25,000. This process was fast and efficient.

Another example of Florida Deed OTC. In Marion County 2004, there were nearly 1000 recreational zoned nonbuilding parcels available to purchase without a prescription. At first glance, it would seem like a tough sell and with many other opportunities at the time it seemed unworthy of investment. However, these small parcels were accessible and could be used as campgrounds and RV parking in the short term. The purchase cost was approximately $ 150- $ 300 per package. Not seeing the potential was a huge mistake, after five or six weeks we bought back these OTC tax deeds only to be informed that they were no longer available. Each and every one had been acquired by another investor. A few weeks passed and then some of these packages were put up for sale on eBay. It was surprising that a small undeveloped recreational lot adjoining the Ocala National Forest was sold at auction for $ 1,600. These packages are believed to have been sold without warranty of title by means of a waiver claim deed or special warranty deed.

How to Locate Florida OTC Tax Deeds

What you are looking for is the List of Land Available for Taxes. The Clerk of the Courts or the Office of Tax Deeds will have possession of this List. Few Florida deeds are available OTC today in many counties, but with increasing numbers of people not paying property taxes, these numbers are increasing in many counties. Some clerks of courts provide a link to the Land List from their home page. To locate these links and the clerk’s offices, you can use the click map found at the link below under County Government Auctions.

History of a Florida OTC tax deed

At the beginning of the cycle, property taxes were unpaid. The tax lien was auctioned and there were no bidders for the tax certificate in the annual auction. When this happened, the tax certificate was issued to the county and had an annual interest rate of 18%. The certificate was made available for transfer from the county to investors and was also available for the property owner to redeem. None of these actions occurred, so it remained there for 2 lonely years without generating tax revenue for the county. The county then applied for the tax deed and the deed did not sell at auction. During the 90 days after the auction of the deed, the property is made available to government entities, after that it is entered in the List of Land Available for Taxes. The title deed will be available for purchase for three years, after which the tax deed is transferred to the BOCC (Board of County Commissioners) and removed to the county. After this, the county will consider the property as surplus and will sell, auction or issue it to the city. There are many opportunities to buy property as you go through the cycle, but for the purpose here we will stay on target.

Florida Tax Deed OTC Files

The Office of Tax Deeds or the Clerks of Courts, depending on who maintains the Land List, will also have the property file. In this file you will find all the mortgages, links, lawsuits, etc. known who were encumbering the property just prior to the time the deed was auctioned (see Owners and Liens Report on file). The problem is that these files may have been prepared up to three years before, so there could be new links, lawsuits, and title problems from the date the report was generated. A title search will be necessary to determine what up-to-date information you will need.

Florida Tax Deed OTC Question

Why didn’t an investor show up and buy the deed at auction? There are multiple reasons for this. The most obvious is that there is something terribly wrong with the IE property zoned DRA (drainage retention area) or cannot be built due to size or location or sump or lack of road frontage.

The truth is that most of the packages available will not have these problems. There are three most likely reasons: the property’s value at auction did not greatly exceed that of the initial offering OR there were ties that exceeded the property’s value OR the property was exempt from housing.

The first two of these items may have changed over the time the property is on the Land List. The property’s value may have appreciated greatly and the links may have been taken down. The third element may have changed as well, but that needs a bit more clarity.

When the title deed was auctioned and the property was exempt from homestead, the winning bidder would have had to pay half of the appraised value. With the property residing on the land list, the property is unlikely to retain that exemption. So, starting from the last tax record, if the exemption is removed, you can get the OTC tax deed for much less than the initial bid was at the tax deed auction. This is rare, as most previously exempt home properties whose tax deeds are available OTC will have other problems as well, and most will go bankrupt.

I have bought Florida Tax Deeds OTC and some have shown spectacular returns, one in particular had an ROI of over 700% in 120 days. Want proof from the Office of Property Appraisers and County Official Records? See the test chart.