The auction went well for me this time. I bought 7 parcels out of the 9 I really wanted. Now I have a portfolio of 13 properties, of which at least 2 are keepers but many still sight unseen in person.

I've concentrated on remote desert and mountain lots, either worthy as a ranch and/or "bug out" destination or on distinguishing terrain like buttes rising out of the otherwise flat mundane desert floor. I also got two amazing but landlocked mountain canyon acreages that I have special plans for. These are unicorn wild mountain parcels within hiking distance of the 7-8 figure foothill mansions bordering the vast LA urban sprawl. Might be a cool "primitive build" opportunity.

The first titles have rolled in with the last expected ~60 days out. I'll invest a bit of sweat equity and take some great photos, then get to work marketing them. I've noticed my "competition" in land and tax sale flipping is absolute shit in this department; hopefully my time to shine.

This is a numbers game; one expects some properties to turn out to be turkeys so you hedge your bets. At least 2 of the most plum properties should each sell for more than I paid for all of them, and most of the rest will probably average around half that figure. There are a lot of overpriced yet completely useless, and tons of bland remote parcels you'd be lucky to sell for what you paid bottom dollar at the tax auction. Looking at you, California City! Pick well though, and the upside potential is crazy. One of the properties I bought for under $6k has a very old thus low assessor value of $35k.

I will offer ea$y qualifying owner financing if they make a down payment greater than my cost and a bit of gross profit. I will offer hard-money level mortgage interest rates and no prepayment penalty. Thus, some of the properties will return an immediate profit, others will provide passive income for my semi-retirement.

$5,035 Bid deposit made, terabytes of information (mainly imagery) combed through researching prospective purchases, much driving to dusty desolate places completed. There's good money potential in this, but don't mistake that for easy money. Ready for the auction next week!

I've wanted to do this for 20 years, and studied a LOT starting way back then. Glad to finally have the liquid capital available so I can jump in and be a player! I'm just hoping the entire Western monetary system doesn't collapse around me right as I hit a new stride. It's gotten to the point where this is a very real possibility within the next year. Used to be it was a running JOKE to show different investment portfolio recommendations based on certain financial indices, with the bottom two recommending increasing percentages into ammunition and yams. Now, that isn't really even a joke anymore!

Hope there's enough time to do a few years of this first!

Welp, it's done. Bidding was fierce on some of the properties I was interested in. Won the parcel next to the train setup, will be interesting to meet that clan. Also got a remote desert parcel, and a landlocked acreage within a wilderness area with creek, steep cliffs, and slot canyons/levels/possible caverns. Was bidding heavily on another plum mountain property, but a lot of deep pockets wanted that one too and I helped add $15,000 to what they ultimately paid.

Hoping I can flip the cheapest for more than I paid for all three. I'm a new player in this space but I've invested TONS of time researching past sales, prices reached, and the fate of some of the sold properties in the years after the sale, so I have some factual basis behind my pipe dreams here. Some investors pulled a demoltion permit the week they received their tax deed. Will be putting in literal sweat equity over the next few months as these are high desert properties.

I'm working on pivoting from my long career in auto repair to flipping tax sale properties. Last month I picked up 2 parcels in one county, now I'm bidding in the biggest county of the nation where auctions are closing this week.

This is actually a LOT of work. Like the equipment auctions I also participate in where the cameraman doesn't go out of his way to depict the giant hole in the side of the engine block, you've got to do a lot of due diligence. Spent a couple of days driving all over that county last month, never saw so many rat droppings and meth hoards. Some of the pictures, if you look carefully, show a suspicious amount of sunlight peeking through the boarded up windows.

Was looking at a parcel where the neighbor set up a huge model train set, G scale or larger that people can actually ride on, that spreads over several acres of hilly terrain but looks like it has seen better days. It has detailed trestle and other bridges and a roundhouse! Got to deeper looking and found a fire swept through and burnt the area to a moonscape, also burning to a crisp another parcel nearby I had looked at in the 2017 sale and kicked myself for not having capital to buy.

If this auction goes well, I hope to end up with a property to live at and develop into a little homestead, and at least 2 to flip. After 54 years living in Los Angeles, I'm winding down my affairs in the city and looking to live a simpler and more satisfying life, before I REALLY get too damn old to enjoy some of it.