Online Tax Lien Investing Cycles

Tax lien and tax deed investing, just like many other types of investing, follows cycles. These cycles are a result of the fact that most counties only conduct tax sales once per year. What really drives the cycles or “seasons” of tax lien investing are the online tax sales. Some would be investors are under the assumption (thanks to unscrupulous wealth building “gurus” who suggest that you can invest online anywhere in the country) that you can purchase tax liens online in most states. The fact is that there are only a handful of states that have online tax sales and out of these only three have more than 2 counties that conduct regular online tax sales at this time.

These three states conduct their sales at different times during the year. The Arizona online tax lien sales take place from February through March, The Florida online tax lien sales are held in May through June and the Colorado online tax lien sales are spread out from September through November. Hence the seasons for the online tax sales are winter, spring and fall, with a month or two in-between.

To pick up the slack in-between the online tax lien sales, you can always participate in the online tax deed sales. Except for the Florida tax sales, which are held through out the year; some Florida counties have a tax deed sale as often as once a week. Most states have a specified time of year in which the tax sales have to take place. The Michigan counties all have their tax sales in late fall. California counties spread out their tax sales out through out the year. Each county has a sale once a year, but unlike most other states in which the counties all have to have their tax sales at a specific time of year; the California counties stagger their tax sales throughout the year. You can find a tax sale somewhere in California every month of the year except for July and December.

So here’s how you can invest in tax liens and tax deeds online throughout the year. Because I’m writing this article in March, you can start with the California online tax deed sales that take place in March and April. There are about 8 California counties that have tax sales during these months. In May and June you can move to the Florida online tax lien sales. July is a good time to take a break and get all your paperwork and tracking in order, and start getting ready for the Michigan online tax deed sales. You can participate in the Michigan online tax deed sales from July through November, but you may want to switch over to the Colorado online tax lien sales in October until the end of the year. Only about 6 or 7 Colorado counties have online tax sales, but they are spread out from October through December. Come January you can participate in either the California tax sales or the Florida online tax deed sales. And in February you can jump into the Arizona online tax lien sales.

So no matter where you live you can invest in tax liens and tax deeds online year round. You just need to know the seasons of online tax lien and deed investing.