Those late night infomercials can be so captivating. You, yes you, could be rich, with NO MONEY DOWN! You, yes you, could buy a house like this for less than ten thousand dollars. You! People JUST LIKE YOU.
It all seems too good to be true, but they certainly do spark one’s imagination. Think of it, being able to buy a home for so little, and not being mortgaged to the gills from now until eternity. Such fodder for dreamland. If only.
If it’s so easy, why isn’t everyone doing it?
One can do some research and learn that the information being sold by these infomercial services is generally public information, and to be very wary of those behind the infomercials. That being said, I’ve been looking, the old-fashioned way, without subscribing to one of the fanciful web sites, and I’ve found a few properties that I’m interested in. These are properties in which the owners have failed to pay their real-estate taxes, and if the money isn’t coughed up by the prescribed date, the homes go to auction. The FAQs state that it is actually rare for a home to go to auction, and that the owners most often find a way to scrounge up the funds at the eleventh hour. There are also plenty of ‘buyer beware’ warnings, and all sales are final.
While part of me is giddy with the thought of the possibility of buying a house for as little as the back-taxes owed, another part of me is suspicious of the whole scenario. It just doesn’t seem right. Who would let a multi-hundred thousand dollar investment go for less than ten or twenty thousand dollars? There is an unpleasant smell to this mix. The hidden expense which is the cost of exploitation. Exploitation of imaginary sweet and elderly non-English speaking people.
I say this because I noticed that the owners of the properties I’m interested in have Asian names. This then begs the question as to whether they actually know they are in default. I picture sweet little elderly people who don’t read or speak English, not knowing how to tell the tax bill from all the other junk mail that arrives on a daily basis.
This isn’t to say that Asian people are not savvy. I myself am part Asian. A BADASS [squared, even].
A+B*A*D+(A*S*S)^2
- A-American
- B-Born
- A-Asian
- D-Descent
- A-Always
- S-Soul
- S-Searching
- A-Also
- S-Self
- S-Serving
And most of the Asian or Asian-descent people I know are sharp as tacks, to say the least. Even so, what is the story behind these tax negligencies?
It feels like maybe there’s bad juju in pursuing this avenue. Personal gain at another’s expense. Is that the bottom line? If so, I’m not comfortable with that. But then again, does that make me a fool, to throw away a perfectly good and incredible opportunity?
I don’t swim well with sharks. But I’d love to own a home, outright, in a better school district.
Torn. Do I waste any further time and energy on this possibility, or listen to the nagging suspicious voice in the back of my head and scrap it here and now.
