Tony Martinez
Appearances
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
We have a saying here at USTLA, it's called price solves all issues. If we can get them at the right price, we can solve just about anything that would pop up. Now, again, we can't overstate that. We can't not do research. We know going in, we're going to walk through the property and I'm going to have a rehab estimate before we make the acquisition.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Well, if there's 300 properties on the list, most of the properties on the list, and I say most, over 50%, and far more than that, you're not going to want to buy them. They're burned out, right? They're industrial properties. They're raw land in the middle of nowhere. Every derogatory, you understand, tax sale properties have problems, period, end of story.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
More problems than any other category of real estate out there. So what we have to navigate are all those crappy properties and weed them all the way off our list and end up what we call our short list of things that are possibilities.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And there's just no way, you know, just some random person, just because they happen to have a million dollars is going to grab a list that we grab and be able to identify a million dollars worth of properties to acquire and just go out and buy it in bulk.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
I think the best thing to do, I have a free crash course online. And the way I designed it is, you know, I take all the, you know, again, I'm just going to tell it like it. There's so much crap information out there. Sure. And so many fake gurus in the taxing space. The one thing I do to separate myself is I just put out information that's better for free, that's better than what they charge for.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
We show people exactly how to invest in tax foreclosed real estate. And we actually do it. I've completed over 2,500 tax deed property acquisitions since 1992 until now. And the difference for us is we have the irrefutable public record documentation to prove it. I mean, we have every single deed that's been recorded with our names on it. And that's from my own portfolio.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And so if they go to freecrashcourse.com, that's freecrashcourse.com, there's a three-module training that I put together. And I promise you, if they'll watch one module, the first module, They will learn more valid information in that one module. It's not even 30 minutes long than they will find anywhere else on the internet.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And real case studies, copies of deeds, I mean, real validation, showing exactly what we do and how we do it.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Yeah, freecrashcourse.com.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Well, there's there's. The way our lists come is that the challenge is like some lists don't even have, you'll have a list of 800 properties and there's no physical address. So we have to start with a property number and take that property number. And from that property number, one of those digits, right? It can be a two digit or three digit is gonna tell what type of asset class it is.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And it's gonna tell whether it's land, a single family, residential, industrial. And so we have to kind of dig and do some research, find the key to that property number. and then sort our list based upon that to start off with. So our list and the other challenge for us, lists vary from county to county. What they put on the list is going to vary county to county.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And so really, you have to understand what each column means. And so that's one thing that's very different, because it's not just like, hey, here's a list of great properties with all the information that's going to be the same on every single list.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Um, but you know, again, that's just something that some of this, and I know it sounds like, oh man, this is just like too much of a pain in the ass to really do. And it really isn't, man. It's just, it's new. People aren't familiar with it. So it sounds like a big pain in the ass. Um, and it can be, if you don't know what you're doing, of course, it's going to, of course.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Like, yeah, but if you and I sat down for a few hours and I pointed everything out, at least in that market, dude, you'd go, okay, I got it down. I can sort this list. And then once you sort the list for us on tax sale properties, we have a 14 point. research process. So you have to go through 14 more points once you identify the property. And part of that is the analysis.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And that's really gonna tell you, okay, this is worth pursuing a little bit further. And then when you get that final price quote comes in, now you can get all your actual numbers in place. And it doesn't take forever. And that's one thing that we do in our, you know, in the trainings that people invest in here at USTLA. We'll do a live training like this, a Zoom training.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And we actually walk people through the, we do a live demonstration. We download a list right online and we walk them through the actual research process. And this will be for an actual upcoming auction, right? That's going to be coming up in the next 30 days. And we show people exactly how to do the research. And that's a big,
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
That's not investing other people's money for them. And so that's a big part of it that I think is really important in today's marketplace with so many, you know, I don't know how to say it gently, but just fake gurus in the marketplace. Sure.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Yeah, we start all of our beginners and even people who have... experienced investor in real estate. We have what's called the basic strategy. It's a bunch of criteria for it. We start everybody off at over the counter first.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
We just want someone to get a really great deal under their belt, build their confidence, give them a way to have a big win up front and not only just have a big win, but really start to master that research process. A lot of people just, I will tell you, dude, I can't remember, and I seriously can't remember the last time I bought a property at a live auction.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Yeah. So, I mean, we have three main things that we do with our properties. A lot of them we just sell. We sell a lot of properties. We're actually wholesaling to wholesalers right now. Wholesalers are looking for great deals. They're struggling to find them. I'll give you some examples. I actually pulled some up on my computer. Specifically to talk to you about. Recent acquisition, $7,560.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
All we do is we clean them up, right? We clean them out, do the landscape, and then turn around and sold it for $30,000. I love that. That's great. Second one. So our new clients do a lot of sell-as-is because a lot of times, you know, they're not – our clients, you know, probably like your students as well, they're not necessarily living –
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
in the neighborhood where they're doing these deals, right? That's right, that's right. And our clients aren't either. And so to get a person comfortable investing out of state, it's best to start them off with just a sell as is, right?
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Yeah. So I'll just tell you two more. This is actually one of my clients. I wanted to show some or talk about some of my clients did. And he's actually, he's been a client for a few years now. So he's a little bit more advanced and knows what he's doing, but he sold that last property, bought it for 75, 60, sort of for 30. This is all in one month.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Bought a second one, and he paid $8,026, and sold it for $22,000. And then the third one, he sold that month. He bought it for $8,851, sold it for $30,000, and all in one month. I mean, that's like $70,000.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And listen, man, and I know we're on a podcast, right? But if we were, where I could actually show, I could show the picture of the property, the actual deed, what he paid for it, and then all the closing statements for each one of those deals. Like we don't showcase studies unless we have the supporting documentation.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
We have a, you know, we just have a big thorn in our side where there's so many guys that are so full of crap in the marketplace. And it would just help people. If they can't prove it, why would you believe it?
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Yeah. So the other thing we do in that crash course is things like, you know, when you buy a property for call it $7,500, well, it's public record. Well, Zillow pulls, you know, when Zillow shows what a property is sold for, right, they pull from the public records.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
So I show, like if I talk about a client bought a property for $7,500, I show that it showed up on Zillow that it was actually acquired for $7,500. So when they go through this crash course, You guys that are listening, when you go through this crash course, I want you to call me on it. Any case study I show you, you'll see the supporting documentation.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Sometimes I'm showing you the actual deed and what the acquisition price is right on a recorded deed. So everything's there, man.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Yeah, listen, so many of our new clients are just frustrated with the general real estate investment marketplace. And really, the people who already know, right, have put in quality effort, right, they're already driven, they work hard, they're willing to work hard at something, and they're looking for something where they can work hard and it's worth it, right?
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
You know, that's really the people who are doing really well in our program right now.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
So I'm going to know going in a really, really good idea. When that price quote comes back, I'm going to know my numbers. The vast majority of our properties that we acquire right now, the total purchase price when we buy directly that way, they range from about $4,000 to about $20,000. That's total purchase price. Yeah, that's insane.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Oh, that's a great question, man. There's so many differences. Let's start there. There's tax sales that a lot of people go to. And right now, in my experience, the tax sales are so competitive. As you know, it's a tough market out there for real estate for a lot of people right now to find kind of distressed real estate, if you will.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Yeah, I wouldn't rely on those lists. And the reason why is there's no way for us from pulling that list to know where in the process those properties are at. If you're not getting them directly from the county, I'd be concerned.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
The big variable is this. Those tax liens, in a lot of those states where you see those tax liens, they might only be one-year delinquent under property taxes. they're gonna pay it off. And that's really, it does not point to a motivated seller at all.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Understanding, if it's a decent property, I mean, if it's a decent property and it happens to be a person's primary residence, I can tell you right now, they're paying it off. right? No one loses.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And I'll just tell you in general, when you start talking about houses in the 300 and 400 and 500 and $600,000 above price point, and it's a person's primary residence, you get zero of those that don't redeem, right? They all redeem. No one in their right mind is ever going to lose a valuable property like that for a few thousand dollars in back taxes. It doesn't happen. Now, the reason why people
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
think that that's a possibility is because there are some jerks out there implying that that's the case. And it's just not. It never has been.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
It would be a better filter. But again, you're still gambling because it could be a first, you know, they can be just delinquent one year.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Yeah. You would really spin your wheels for a long time on those lists. Man, when you started talking about, you know, for me, and especially after all these years, I'm just going after properties I know I'm going to acquire. I'm not playing this, you know, let me look at a lien and hope someone doesn't pay their property taxes. That's just not reality.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Again, the way it's being portrayed in the marketplace is bull crap. And what I mean by that is, listen, People are, you know, there's literally ads out there right now by other people saying, average Americans are getting rich because they're earning these double-digit returns on taxing certificates.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
I can tell you right now, people aren't getting rich from double-digit returns, because think about it. Let's say you had $100,000. And most of my clients don't start off with $100,000 cash sitting in the bank, but let's say they did. And you invested in a tax lien certificate and it paid 18% interest. Okay, so you made $18,000 for the year. That's below the poverty line in America.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
So people hear the word tax sale and they naturally assume like I can get a bargain. And you just have so many people showing up to these tax sales that just, they don't know what they're doing. And they're literally bidding these properties up to values that just don't make sense.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
If you wanted to earn a six-figure income, you'd have to invest a half a million dollars to earn a six-figure income, earning interest only. And so there's so many other variables on top of that. That's if you got the full interest rate. When you go to a tax lien certificate sale, you're bidding on the tax lien. And what that means, like in Florida, where you live,
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
They open the bid at 18%, but then they bid it down. And the person willing to accept the lowest interest rate is the successful bidder. Well, historically, if you average it out across the board in the state of Florida, you're looking at a 5% interest rate. Wow. Yeah. Wow. That's a known statistic.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
You're not. And here's the other challenge. Let's say you invested in a taxing certificate in Florida. And let's say you got the entire 18%. Well, it's annualized. So if the property owner redeems in month six, you got 9%. And then you have to go figure out reinvesting the capital again.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And so I would just tell you right now, there is no one truly getting rich investing in the tax liens against properties. If they are, I'd like to see the math on how they're doing it.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And again, so the other challenge with that is, so people are going to sit around and wait two or three years. Right. It's hoping, just hoping, please don't pay your property taxes. Right. And that's just, you know, from a wealth building strategy standpoint, sitting around and waiting, hoping for someone to not pay their property taxes is not a good strategy.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
You have to fund it.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
So we've developed strategies over these 32 years where we're acquiring properties without having to go to a tax sale. There's multiple strategies in different markets where we're actually buying properties, tax defaulted properties, directly from the county and not having to compete at an auction.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
No, there's no real regulations. When the price quote comes in though, you have 10 days to fund it. They give you a 10 day. So what we do, we do all the research in advance and all the way down to like, we know we're going to buy it. If this price quote comes in and the price comes in not ridiculous, then once it comes in, we know we're going to fund it.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
That would be where they can get my crash course. They just want to go to our website and just look at, there's a bunch of general information about investing in taxing. I mean, high quality articles there that explain the process and more information. They can just go to ustaxlingassociation.com, ustaxlingassociation.com. Just Google it.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And we'll pop up and just click on our website and you can get a bunch of information there as well. And then the crash course will give them a really, really great overview of exactly the strategies we teach.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Yeah, it'd be great for them to see it.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
So there's a very, very big difference between any other type of real estate investing, including bank foreclosures, than the strategies that we employ here at USTLA. And I'll just give you the name of what, and the name of one is called over-the-counter tax deed property acquisitions is one of our number one strategies that we teach and that we employ ourselves.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
This is a strategy where counties just have massive, massive excess inventories, properties that went to a tax sale at one time and didn't sell, and they just build up these massive inventories, and they reach the point where they're just liquidating properties. Now, if there's a flying ointment, it's this. There's too many properties on the list.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
For example, a property we just acquired, the list had 7,000 properties on it. Now, the challenge with the plus is there's 7,000 properties. The minus is there's 7,000 properties you have to try to figure out how to do the research on to find the great properties. And that's where our expertise comes in. So that difference is massive compared, you know, everyone else.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
People talk about off-market properties. Every property we acquire is off-market. They never hit the MLS. Right. They never show up. Once they're on the OTC list, they never show up to an auction ever again. How did the property get to that list again?
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
In the markets where I would say the highest level experts in, it'll start off as what's called a tax lien certificate, which means the person didn't pay their property taxes. It comes up for what's called a tax lien certificate sale. And at that sale, what's happening is they're not selling the property yet. They're just selling the back taxes. They're selling the debt.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
So people like you and I can come down to the tax lead certificate sale and put up the money in essence, what you're doing. is you're paying someone else's back taxes for them. In return, you receive what's called the tax lien certificate, and that taxing certificate pays interest rate.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
The difference here is in a lot of states that have very low interest rates and long redemption periods, thousands and thousands of those taxing certificates don't get purchased at the auction. Those taxing certificates go back into the county's inventory and they sit there, right?
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
While the redemption period, that grace period that the property owner has to come in after property taxes, for example, could be, most of them are right around three years. Every day that they sit at the county's inventory, the redemption period for that taxing certificate is expiring.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
So what ends up happening is when the redemption period expires, all those taxing certificates are still sitting in the county's inventories, not generating any revenue. So what'll happen is either the county will foreclose on the property themselves, or they'll sell them off to another entity, either a county entity or a state entity, which converts it from a taxing certificate to a deed.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And then what we're doing is we're stepping in and just buying the deeds directly.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
You're going to be targeting lists at different counties. And again, it's not an easy, quick explanation on targeting markets and lists and finding the list, but just in general, what a person would be looking for, the easiest way is
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
is if you're speaking to a county or a county official is just finding out like, what do you do with all the properties and all the tax and certificates that don't get purchased at auction? That's really the big question that needs to be asked. And it takes a lot of research to do that. The difference for us is we've spent, I actually made my first tax and certificate investments in November,
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
of 1991. So we've tapped into, we've been doing research ever since. So just identifying, you know, great markets to work in, knowing how to do the research. And again, just asking key questions. And so some counties do have these over the counter lists and a lot of counties don't. So it's just a matter of doing the research to find the right markets.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Ironically, some of the very same markets you just mentioned, but ours are really based upon how the law, because the difference for us is, The laws that pertain to property taxes are completely different in every market. So it's not like that. If you know fixing and flipping in Texas, you know fixing and flipping in Oklahoma, right?
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And laws, rules, regulations, it's not like that in the tax sale market, which is a plus and a minus. It's a plus for us because, you know, Again, no offense, but people in general are lazy and they're not going to go do the research to figure out the differences. That's right. We're OK with that. We love that, actually.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And so for us, sometimes it is the type of laws, rules and regulations that a particular market has. And then another one is. based on inventory. Like sometimes the tough thing for us to answer the question for market conditions, they shift, right? They shift based upon what's available on the list, you know, this year. So I did a bunch of investing in Billings, Montana, right?
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And then just the list, you know, the properties that were coming up in the future years just weren't that good. So we just started investing there. You know, I've done a bunch of investing. I mean, hundreds of properties bought and sold in Nebraska, right? But I haven't invested in Nebraska in 10 years, right? And so it just kind of shifts based upon what's available in the marketplace.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
So that's one thing. And that's very simple, too. It's not that difficult to figure that out because... You can't, you know, list of tax-free certificates and list of tax-foreclosed real estate, they're required by law to be made available to the general public.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
So if there's an auction coming up, the county has to make it easily available, readily available to the general public at least 30 days prior to the auction. So that's not a, you know, that's not a big secret.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And the, so being able to just contact the county, figure out when their auctions are and request their list and seeing if there's anything good on it, doing the research, seeing if there's anything good on it, that's another part of it. And then certain markets, they just have a history of having massive inventories. And so, you know- Is that good or bad?
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
It's actually good and bad. The bad thing is for someone new who doesn't know what they're doing, doesn't know how to do the research, you know, they download a list and it has 18,000 properties on it. There's just, you know, they're going to be stuck for a little bit, right? And so it does take an expertise and it doesn't take a high level. Listen, you don't need an MBA to do this.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
What you do need is you do need systems and you do need processes based upon the markets that you're in. And that thing, you know, that is what we do here at USTLA. And so, but right now, I'll just tell you in general right now, let me tell you where we have active acquisitions going right now. And so this would mean, I'm talking 2024, 2025.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And that doesn't mean that in 2026, they're going to be exactly the same. But I'll give you a general sense so people will know. We have holdings in Ohio. We have holdings in Missouri. We have holdings in, and I'm talking about recent acquisitions. We have holdings in Alabama, like you talked about, Mississippi, like you also discussed. Off the top of my head. Yeah.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And we'll continue to, those are markets that I can tell you right now that we will definitely be focused on for 2025. We've done some very, very small acquisitions in Michigan in 2024. Yeah. And we're going to be looking in Michigan this year and we'll see how, we'll see how that goes.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
No, it's actually, it's actually, they're still either County or state entities.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Yeah, in those markets, like you just discussed, the way it works is you do all the research, looks like a great deal. And once we've done all the research, what you're doing, you're submitting an application. So you fill out this application, you submit it. Let's say it's a state entity or a county entity. Doesn't really matter.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
And what they're going to do is they're going to send you back what's called a price quote. Now, depending on the market, that price quote, all they're really doing in certain markets is they're punching that address in and they're pulling up all the back taxes, penalties, and interest owed. Your price is the back taxes, penalties, and interest owed, not a penny more, not a penny less.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
Other markets, they take their tax assessed value, which is super low because it's been sitting there for so many years, right? With no taxes being paid on it. And they take, it's 50% of the tax assessed value. So sometimes the tax assessed values on some of these properties, the tax assessed value could be $22,000. It could be $18,000.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
So we're still acquiring, even when they consider it a tax assessed value of $22,000, We're acquiring a property for $11,000 free and clear with no mortgage on it and no liens on it.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
In a general sense, we have a saying here at USTLA, it's called price solves all issues. If we can get them at the right price, we can solve just about anything that would pop up. Now, again, we can't overstate that. We can't not do research. We know going in. So when we do our research process, we're very thorough. We're super, super meticulous. We have current photos of the properties.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
If it's vacant, we're going to have pictures all around the property. We're going to have a an aerial photo, a current aerial photo of the property. you're not supposed to really walk in them, but if we can get in them, we're gonna walk through the property and I'm gonna have a rehab estimate before we make the acquisition. So I'm gonna know going in a really, really good idea.
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
I've been doing it for a long time. More and more people are starting to find out about it. There's other guys out there teaching people information about investing in tax liens. I find it to be not a whole lot of credible information. I mean, actual people who there's people teaching and there's people like myself, we teach, right?
The Science of Flipping
The Hidden Gem of Tax Lien Investing with 33-Year Expert | Tony Martinez
When that price quote comes back, I'm gonna know my numbers. The vast majority of our properties that we acquire right now, the total purchase price, when we buy it directly that way, they range from about $4,000 to about $20,000. That's total purchase price. Yeah, that's insane.