Beware Tax Liens For Sale on Ebay

Not too long ago I received a question from one of the subscribers to my Tax Lien Tips newsletter. He was confused because he saw a tax lien for sale on e-bay that sold for over $4,000. The face value of the lien was only 228.28 with 5% interest on the lien amount. This was a Florida tax lien, so instead of having the opportunity to foreclose on the property, you would apply for the tax lien to go to a deed sale if the lien was not redeemed during the 2 year redemption period.

The e-bay listing said “Residential Home Near Ocean, Tax Lien Certificate.” It included one aerial photo of the property and a few pictures of the Fort Lauderdale, Florida beaches. The item specifics said “Residential Real Estate,” and made it look as though it was the real estate that was for sale by owner, until you read the description. The description clearly said this is a tax lien certificate. It had even stated that the seller of said certificate had never even looked at the property and recommends that you look at the property before bidding on the certificate.

I don’t think that the bidders clearly understood what it is they were bidding on. Perhaps, even though the listing said otherwise, and so did the description, they thought they were actually bidding on the property. Or perhaps they thought they would have the opportunity to foreclose on the property if they owned the certificate.

They may have misread the description of the item for sale where it said “The Winner may have the opportunity to move for a tax deed sale on said property, in less than two years, by contacting the county office and following all procedures.” I’ve highlighted those little words that the bidders apparently missed when they read the description of this item.

The description says that the winner may have the opportunity to move for a tax deed sale, not the tax deed. But I believe that whoever won this tax lien certificate, to the tune of $4,625.00 plus a 195.00 transfer fee, thought that they could move for a tax deed, which is not the way it works in Florida. But even if they could, the chances of this tax lien certificate not getting redeemed during the redemption period are quite slim. All the property owner would need to do in order to redeem this lien would be to pay the face amount plus the 5% interest and any outstanding taxes, which the seller lists as being only $203.27.

The seller of the certificate understood that this lien could be redeemed at any time and made provision for that in his terms of sale. The seller states “If the Tax Certificate is redeemed by the delinquent property owner prior to transfer to Winning bidder, then seller will substitute a Tax Certificate of equal or greater value to Winner. Otherwise, we will refund all fees including your final bid amount.” So, even if you knew what you were bidding on, and you did your due diligence on the property, you could be substituted with a lien on a different property and there is nothing that you would be able to do about it. My advice is don’t buy tax lien certificates on E-bay unless you really know what you’re doing!