Each year, the Manatee County Tax Collector holds an auction to sell tax certificates. This year's auction is on June 1st, 2010. When you bid on a tax certificate, you are bidding on an interest rate that the property owner will have to pay you on the outstanding tax bill. You get a lien on the property for the tax bill you pay, plus the interest rate your winning bid specified. The lowest interest rate bid for a particular tax certification wins the auction.
Manatee County has 8,499 such tax certificates listed for auction in 2010. The benefits are that you can earn up to 18% interest on an investment, that after two years you can request a tax deed sale, and that if there are no other bidders, you could become the property owner simply for the amount of your initial investment plus any tax burden then owed on it. But there are risks as well. To do well bidding on tax certificates, you need to do some research to make sure that the property is actually valuable, and that either someone else is likely to pay up or to buy the property itself if it comes to auction, in which case you get paid your investment with interest. If no one pays or no auction happens for seven years, you would lose your investment.
You need information, and you need it fast.
The Manatee County auction page provides a download of four pieces of information for each tax certificate: the batch number (what order the tax certificate auctions close in), the advertisement number (for the public notice in print media), the property ID number, and the tax certificate face value.
You could spend hours and hours tracking down promising properties. Or you can get ahead of the curve with a little help from the data I've compiled.
For $300, I'll provide you with a comma-delimited text file (mctc2010.csv or mctc2010_dos.csv), suitable for import into any spreadsheet application you like. In addition to the data in the auction download, it will have the available data from the Manatee County Property Appraiser pages concerning:
- Zoning designation (from "Profile")
- Acres (from "Profile")
- Living/Business Area (from "Profile")
- Total Under Roof (from "Profile")
- Primary Address Location (from "Profile")
- Hurricane Evacuation Zone (from "Profile")
- Exemption Status (from "Profile")
- Owner's Name (from "Profile")
- Acres (from "Land")
- Total Just Value (from "Values")
- Total Assessed Value (from "Values")
- Previous Year Assessed Value (from "Values")
All the data here is collected from public sources. The compilation I provide, though, is copyrighted by me. You can dig this information up yourself, with enough time and energy, or if you have the programming skills I've developed over the last couple of decades. What I offer is convenience in eliminating properties you don't want a tax certificate on, and an early indicator of which properties should be of interest to you. You owe it to yourself to make good investing decisions. But nothing says that you have to suffer to do it.
If you know what you want as a report that may go beyond the items listed above, I'm available for custom programming to collect it.
The restriction I place on the compilation is that one purchase only is viewed by those bidding under one "master" bid account in the auction. That can cover up to a dozen sub-accounts. If you think that you deserve to make a profit on your investment, then I ask just that you extend me the same courtesy.
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The following shows the header plus three example entries. You can copy and paste this into a spreadsheet, then parse as comma-delimited text, to see how this is laid out, or just download these as a sample CSV file.
Batch,Adv#,Property ID,Face Amount,My Bid,Zoning,Acres (If Available) [Profile],Living/Business area [Profile],Total Under Roof [Profile],Primary Address Location [Profile],Hurricane Evacuation Zone [Profile],Exemption Status [Profile],Owner [Profile],Acres [Land],Total Just Value [Values],Total Assessed Value [Values],Previous Year Assessed Value [Values] |
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Purchase of this data compilation is subject to the following terms: 1. There is no redistribution right granted. One purchase of this data compilation shall apply to only one "master" account and its sub-accounts registered in the Manatee County Tax Collector 2010 auction. 2. The material provided has been prepared to be accurate to the best of my ability to relay the material found in the public online sources. However, by purchase you agree that your sole remedy for any defect found is limited to a refund of your purchase price. 3. Purchase via this form indicates acceptance of these terms. |
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The Tax Certificate Auction Advantage |
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Data Compilation, comma-delimited CSV in MS-DOS/Windows format$300 (USD) |
Data Compilation, comma-delimited CSV in Unix/Mac OS X format$300 (USD) |
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Files will be delivered by email to the address you provide via PayPal within one day, weekends included. |
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Manatee County requires payment of half the assessed value of a property with a Homestead Exemption to the former owner in a tax deed sale. If you are investing in tax certificates with an eye toward possible property ownership via a tax deed sale in the future, you need to be aware that more (and substantial) investment is required for properties with Homestead Exemption.
I am not an expert in tax certificates. I am an expert in accessing and collating data.
Please call the Manatee County Tax Collector's office at (941) 741-4832 to get more information on the details of the tax certificate auction.