I can't believe they did it (part deux)

[the old grind]

During the last decade's financial crisis, residential properties were scooped up on an industrial scale by long term investors and big money players, at severely depressed prices out of forerclosures and short sales.

The balance of home ownership ownership in North America is shifting from individuals and families to profiteers who can weather economic downturns that most taxpayers cannot.

I understand how that works. Take say a 10% cost of upkeep over five years the asset is held, .. until the economy rebounds. Sell at 2x cost of investment as you write down an inflated expense of upkeep, and pocket the rest.

Gotta go evict a tenant for being two months behind on rent. A promise is a promise. "Read before you sign, or don't cry to me, peasant!"

 

[Trillium Farm]

I would have hired a lawyer, there can't be any absolute legal law that would allow this!

 

[aczlan]

I would have hired a lawyer, there can't be any absolute legal law that would allow this!

There are two ways to avoid this:
1. Make sure your mailing address is up to date with your town
2. Get verification from the town that your taxes are all paid and that there is no outstanding balance
Both are cheaper than getting a lawyer involved.

Aaron Z

 

[MossRoad]

You ever own rental property where the renters don't pay? It's horrible. When I was young, maybe 8 till into my 20's, I helped my dad clean up several of my grandparent's rental properties after the renters destroyed them. So yeah. You don't pay for 2 months, you're out. I have empathy for people that fall on hard times. However, I have to make my payments, too. So, you're out. I lost money on you for 2 months. Consider it a charitable contribution. Free place to live for 2 months. But you still have to go. That's business. No hard feelings, but you have to go.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Not in Ontario. Those mean Rich People can't put the disadvantaged out on the street. But, the Government will throw the Rich man out on the street for not paying his taxes.

 

[MossRoad]

So my grandpa was a barber. They bought a 2 story house around 1915, walled of the interior stairs, added an external stairway to the 2nd floor on the back, lived upstairs, rented out the 1st floor, and he opened his barber shop in the garage. They paid the house off in about 5-6 years, bought another 2 story house, did the same thing to that one, so they then had the barber shop, their apartment, and 3 rental apartments. 5-6 years later, they bought a 3rd 2 story house and did the same again. By the mid 70's when grandpa was in his 80's, he'd had enough of renter troubles, so they built a new house next door to us, and they decided to sell the rental properties on land contract. The purchasers kept defaulting on the land contracts for unpaid taxes. My grandparents would evict them, pay the back taxes and sell them again. Grandpa died in 1979, and grandma lived for another 17 years. It took 16 years for them to sell those 3 properties due to people kept not paying the property taxes. The last one, a man came to my grandma and told her he couldn't pay the taxes and wanted to return the house. She asked who he was? He said he was person A and bought the house from person B with her permission. She knew nothin about it. They looked at the paperwork and her signature was forged by person B. She didn't know person B either. My dad's lawyer found the paperwork for person B, and found he bought it from person C with a different forged signature from my grandma. Person C was the person my grandma had sold the house to.

So my dad and his lawyer decided to let the property go for at the tax sale, because the property was not worth the hassle anymore. So they went to the tax sale, and guess who was the winning bidder on the house? Person C!!!

He was a local city cop. After they all signed the papers, my dad's lawyer introduced himself to the cop, showed him the forged papers, and told him to write my grandma a check for the original purchase price plus legal fees within a week or he'd file charges, which would end the cop's career. And that was that. Grandma got her money. I got a lesson in rentals, land contracts, legal weaseling, unscrupulous people, etc...

It's one of the reasons I decided not to be a landlord, and why I appear to have no sympathy for people that can't pay their bills. I do have sympathy if there's a good reason. But I still have to honor business agreements. Nothing personal, but a contract is a contract.

 

[goeduck]

A lot of points to be made, and I wish more guys would move to MI, esp any that can help us long term residents better understand just how things work here.

Anyone who skimps on paying taxes should avoid Michigan and any other state that has such a law. I wish they would change it in the event those losing property then become homeless and move to the West Coast and live on our streets in our moderate climate.
:shocked:

 

[the old grind]

I'll agree with Moss :thumbsup: that there is little sympathy for people who carelessly sign up for stuff way over their heads, then try to weasel out of promises kept (taxes, contract payments) with any and every excuse or trickery imaginable.

Richard and others helped me to recognize that a thousand people gypped like the guy (in SE MI) that SA started us out with in post #1 are lost among hundreds of thousands of deadbeats nationally. Thank you, gents.

IMO this is why such abuses seem small and go unnoticed by the masses. Those trapped by local ordinance and such circumstances have little but a paid lawyer to rely on to help 'fight city hall'. What? Try to get a home equity loan for that against a house you're suing to recover? How about try getting a lawyer that'll go in like Billy McBride for what you'll be able to pay him, against the odds HE accepts for that much, and while you might already be underwater and staying in a camper.

 

[goeduck]

This thread has me looking at the local foreclosure list and I see one on there that (if it is still there come auction day Jan6) I WILL BE bidding on. Nice 2 acre parcel with a shop and a crappy mobile home. $8500 back taxes due on an assessed value of $85,000.

 

[paulfun9]

This thread has me looking at the local foreclosure list and I see one on there that (if it is still there come auction day Jan6) I WILL BE bidding on. Nice 2 acre parcel with a shop and a crappy mobile home. $8500 back taxes due on an assessed value of $85,000.

I have actually purchased homes that have delinquent taxes at auction. Like the one you are thinking about they all have real delinquent taxes not some piddely 10 dollars due and our state doesn’t keep the excess if the winning bid is higher than the taxes owed.
People here think that we should bring the hammer down on any back taxes but when I look at that list I start to wonder that with as many low dollar amounts that there might actually be something else wrong with the system. You see I know my tax bills are not as easy to understand as the next jurisdiction over and the bill from my other properties on the other side of the mountain are also confusing for many but the town north of me has a very simple easy to understand statement. Call these people sometime and try to get clarification and most would come away more confused after talking to them then they were before.
So again for a few thousand go ahead and take the property, take your money and give what is left back to the previous owner but for ten to a hundred dollars I feel the local government shouldn’t be overspent so much that they would even need to bother. If they are then maybe you should start to be much more critical of you governments spending!