The 16% Solution: How to Get High Interest Rates in a Low-Interest World with Tax Lien Certificates, Revised Edition

With all of the hype and recent infomercials lately touting tax lien investing as a way to get rich quick, this book is very refreshing. Right from the beginning Mr. Moskowitz sets the reader straight, giving honest and straightforward information. I was really impressed with the forward to this second edition where he likened the chances of someone getting a property for pennies on the dollar from a tax lien to someone winning one million dollars from a one-dollar lottery ticket. Yeah it happens every now and then, but it's not likely. And then he tells you what you can expect from tax lien investing - "super-high interest combined with safety."This book is divided into four sections. In the first section Mr. Moskowitz explains what tax liens are, why they are such a safe investment, and why now, more than ever before you need to include them in your investment plan. At the end of the section he has a chart that shows how tax lien certificates compare to other investments in terms of income and growth potential, risk avoidance, safety, and liquidity.Section 2 talks about how to buy tax lien certificates; how to choose a state and county to invest in and how to choose the properties to buy tax liens on. It also covers bidding at the auction and buying over-the-counter and assignment liens. There is even a chapter on how to get local officials to help you do your due diligence (This doesn't always work in every county, but it's certainly worth a try).Section 3 of The 16% Solution talks about how you get paid on a tax lien certificate and how to foreclose on the property. Mr. Moskowitz explains how a tax lien certificate is redeemed, how to foreclose on a tax lien, and what to do with the property once you foreclose on it. Section 4 talks about avoiding and managing risks. Mr. Moskowitz explains just what the risks of tax lien investing are and how to avoid them. That's something that most tax lien investing "gurus" never tell you until you give them thousands of dollars for coaching. I recommend that anyone interested in tax lien investing read this book for this section alone. Buy this book and save your thousands for investing in tax liens!Also included in the book are a couple of appendixes with helpful information. In Appendix I there is a chart of state laws for all of the tax lien states. Georgia is included even though it's technically a redeemable deed state. This chart is a good tool, but remember, just because a state has laws that allow it to have tax lien sales doesn't mean that they actually have any. There are at least a couple of states on this list that either have only a couple of counties or municipalities that have tax lien sales, or have hardly any properties available in their sales.Appendix II has some more detailed information for 14 of the tax lien states (these are the states that have an interest rate of 16% or higher). Some of these states are covered more thoroughly than others. My guess is that the states that are covered well are the ones that Mr. Moskowitz personally invests in. The states that are covered thoroughly are: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, and Iowa. Detailed information on the other states is lacking. If you are investing in one of the above-mentioned states or planning to invest in one of these states I recommend that you purchase this book. Also if you are planning to invest in tax liens on commercial or industrial properties there are helpful forms for avoiding environmental problems in Appendix III.This book is great for beginner investors in tax liens, it does not have information about tax deed investing, but it does have detailed information for 4 of the more popular tax lien states, and one redeemable deed state, plus general information for the other tax lien states. It also discusses investing online and purchasing leftover liens.

Well if you've found your way to this area you're looking for an answer to the question; Is this real? Well it's real and this is a good book to get answers to many of your questions regarding Tax-Line investing. I will warn you now though that much of the information is dated but the general premise is really good info.Good luck, I hope you decide not to join us after you read the book. (smile)Follow-up; I first entered comments on this book back in 2001, in 2007 I still believe this book is an EXCELLENT primer on teaching you about Tax Lien Certificates (TLC). Since my originally finding this book and commenting I see that a lot more people are finding this book and some of the comments are scathing.Here's a follow-up, this book tell you how to do it. You have to go do the work. An experience that we had has taught a lesson regarding TLC's. You should use these as the illiquid part of your investment portfolio. Recently, we received payment for a TLC purchased in 2001. Now, the payout was quite significant but it took 64 months to get it back. The day after we bought the TLC the company filed for bankruptcy protection. The good news as the book explains; tax obligations don't go away. So you're going to get paid or get the property, but it took an awful long time. But don't forget as long as the loan is outstanding they owe you interest. I our case the avg. annual return was 9.5%, better than the equity market over the period.Long/short: this is a great investment. Even though many of you that have done tax lien investing already know that some of these TLC redeem very quickly, the new investor should consider this an illiquid investment.

LOVE IT, A LOT OF information. If the anthor can give some detail example and cut some unusefully information that will be perfect.

A good book for beginners in that step-by-step general methods are explained.Good for the experienced lien investor in that a state by state overview is provided in the second one half of the book for states offering 16% or mote.Good information on environmental issues, protection, and what to look for in properties rThat may have environmental issues but the author does point out that with rare exceptions, you should not have any issues with residential properties, mainly commercia.

This book was a my first stab at educating myself on tax liens, and I thought it was excellent. It is professionally formatted and annotated, and it will make a good book to refer to as I plunge into the murky investment of tax liens. It is written for first-timers, and it explains tax liens from the ground up.Mr. Moskowitz provides state-specific specific information about tax lien auctions in several participating states including Colorado and Arizona. He also has some good advice on how to avoid tax liens that are backed by essentially worthless properties. I will also follow his advice to employ a tax lawyer if I need to foreclose on a property. I would have liked some advice on how to claim the interest income on my 1040 form.I will participate in my first auction in November, after making a road trip to visit possible tax lien properties in October. I won't comment on whether the "16%" monicker is realistic - I assume that I'm not the first person to hear about the relatively high returns on tax liens, and Mr. Moskowitz himself points out that investors sometimes pool their money to buy tax liens. But with my money market account paying 0.75%, even 8% interest is sounding pretty sweet.