Hello everyone and Welcome to another
episode of Selling Greenville your
favorite real estate podcast here in the
upstate of South Carolina I am your host
Stan McCune realtor here in the greater
Greenville area of South Carolina and
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doing all of those things today we are
going to be talking about the annual
Greenville County tax sale which is a
very interesting very interesting
thing that that happens every year
that the county of Greenville puts on
but this year was the first year in
several years that they have actually
done it and they just did it yesterday
I'm recording this on Tuesday the 9th
they just did this yesterday Monday the
8th and they didn't do it last year
it was canceled because of the pandemic
they didn't do it the year before
because apparently and I don't remember
this but apparently there was a very
random Frost sing or something event
Ice event that if you guys know
Greenville at all you know that the
slightest winter weather that we get
shuts everything down and so
apparently that year they did not you
know back in 2019 they didn't hold it
the the tax sale due to some kind of
winter weather event and so the last
time they had it was 3 years ago in
2018 and so they published the list
obviously it was a massive list of
people that are behind on their taxes
and and here's how it works and I don't
know all of the intricate details I
might get some of this wrong but but at
least 90% of this is accurate and let's
just be honest I've never been behind on
my property taxes before so I don't have
firsthand knowledge of exactly how all
of this works but the long story
short is this if you are delinquent on
your tax on your property taxes I
believe it's for a year then you
start to get notice from the county that
if you don't pay up your taxes by a
certain deadline then your your property
whatever it is can be sold at auction at
the tax
sale and so if your property is sold at
the tax sale you still have it you
still have it for basically another year
but during that year you have to pay off
the taxes and I believe if if I'm not
mistaken you also have to pay back the
entire bid amount not just the tax
amount but the entire bid amount
whatever it's sold for including
interest and the interest is 1% well
it's basically 12 if you wait the entire
year you're you're paying an entire 12%
the way they work it it's kind of weird
it's a pro-rated quarterly 3% so you
know if you pay it off in the first
month after it sold at auction you have
to pay a 3% tax not to exceed the your
entire tax liability so you know if the
property sells at auction for $500,000
but your tax liability was only 2,000
your your interest that you're paying is
not going to be 3% on 500,000 it's only
going to be $2,000 if that makes sense
but that's the only way that you can
redeem and you have a year to do that
and so it's a great option for people
that go to the tax sale that just have a
lot of money floating around that that
they need to do something with they can
potentially purchase property and then
they if if it gets redeemed then
they're getting back something close to
1% interest per month at minimreally
1% interest per month or they get
the property one or the other so this is
my first year going to the tax sale and
experiencing all this and so they
published the list several weeks in
advance of 1,200 properties 1,200
properties and here's here's the way the
list works it had a what they call an
item number which makes no sense I I
don't even know the numbers weren't in
any discernable order or sequence but
an item number then the tax map number
then the name of the of the owner of the
property owner and then the amount of
taxes that were due excuse
me notice
that's not a lot of information not an
address not whether what type of
property it is whether it's just vacant
land or a mobile home or a single family
residence no bedrooms no bathrooms no
size no acreage
nothing so I had to research all of this
myself now on 1200 properties that's a
that's that would take me like weeks so
I did what any smart real estate
investor would do and I hired a virtual
assistant to do this for me and I had
the virtual assistant compile a ton of
data on these 1200 properties and it
took her and her team a good week to
get all of that
done so they compiled data on all 1200
properties and so then I had about a
week or so to then analyze this list and
figure out you know now I've I've got
the data on all 1200 properties but
still a huge list to have to analyze and
obviously not all properties are the
same and and there are so many different
ways to analyze it you can look at it
from the standpoint of like well what
which ones are you know the the nicest
homes on this list that's that's one way
of looking at it you can look at it from
the standpoint of which owner is
least likely to pay back their taxes and
and least likely to redeem this property
you can look at it from that standpoint
you can you know obviously analyze from
the standpoint of the type of
property are we going after vacant land
are we going after houses are we going
after commercial real estate etc etc so
there were a gazillion ways and honestly
the first time I looked at the list I
was just overwhelmed I was like where do
I even start so I started with what I am
most familiar with which is multif
family and I and I say I'm most familiar
with
that that's not entirely true but you
guys know that multif family small
multif family has has been a specialty
of mine for a long time that's
basically how I broke into real estate
and I knew that the list of small multif
family wasn't going to be a huge list
whatever it was on out of the 1200 and I
know from an investment standpoint
because I was approaching this from an
investment standpoint it would be very
quick and easy for me to analyze those
so I started there and I immediately
realized there is not going to be Hardy
any multif family that even made it to
the tax sale cuz remember people still
until the very day basically the day
before the tax sale they could still pay
up their
taxes so I analyzed the multif family
and concluded there was really only one
that stood out to me as like as likely
to actually make it to the tax s and I
was correct there was one lady that
owned like 10 duplexes and quadruplexes
and whatnot and I did a quick little
background search on her and found that
she lives in like you know like a
mansion in Downtown Greenville I was
like okay that lady is going to pay off
her taxes and sure enough she did
like a day or two later everything was
paid up so I started researching
everything by all of the other criteria
I could think about and so the way I
approached it was I actually started I I
decided to look at it from the
standpoint of what are the properties on
here that have the highest tax liability
because I figured that those are the
least likely to for people to to pay up
on them those are the people that are
probably so far behind they're never
going to get caught up and so that's
what I did so I I analyzed hundreds of
properties on this list and basically
paired my list down to it it ended up
being about like 35 35 properties out of
the 12200 that I was interested in
and then I spent basically an entire the
equivalent of like an entire workday
I I broke it up because I can't just
spend an entire workday doing this but I
spent basically the equivalent of an
entire workday just driving by these
properties because like I said not
all properties are the same and it was
actually a very
useful experience from the standpoint of
the tax sale cuz for instance there was
one property that wasn't there anymore
like the house you can look at on Google
Maps etc etc there's a house and you
drive by and there's no longer a house
there I don't know who picked it up and
and took it but there's no house some
homes were like
Shacks just awful you know completely
had like trees growing out the windows
you know things like that other homes
were really nice and the crown jewel of
it all for me was these two homes right
in Downtown Greenville and they had a a
pretty steep de tax liability going back
several years and I was like okay these
have a pretty good chance of making it
to the auction but guess what
literally the day before the auction he
that dude paid up and and I was not
happy about it but literally he
waited until the 11th hour to to pay
up to make sure that he kept those
properties so they didn't go to the tax
sale and fortunate that he
did so I went to the tax sale armed with
a lot of data I it was kind of like
those of you that have played fantasy
football with me typically in a
fantasy draft I have like a lot of
different sheets and a lot of different
things I'm analyzing to assemble my
fantasy football team it was kind of a
similar a similar look for me going
to the tax sale oh and by the way I
didn't even mention this tax sale
there there's so much that I could I
could do like five episodes on on this
tax sale cuz there's so many different
angles that I could approach it from but
one of the funniest things about this
was how Antiquated the whole process is
I mean this is this is old Greenville
right we we talk about how Progressive
Greenville is and it's the new South
okay the tax sale is the Old South this
is how they they have done it for
however many years and so I looked up
on their website this is a few months
ago I looked up you know when if the
tax sale was happening I knew it always
happened in the fall the website was not
up to date at all did not have a whole
lot of information it just had a phone
number for the tax sale desk so I
called the tax sale desk and they were
just like oh yeah you'll need to call
call us back in a few weeks you know
we'll have pre-registration blah blah
blah so I called back in a few weeks and
they said okay on this date they gave me
a date you have to come in person and
pre-register and I was like okay great
day before that date I called them back
just confirming hey I just want to make
sure tomorrow morning is when we're
pre-registering for the tax sale yes
tomorrow morning you know we open it I
think it was 9:00 whatever I had no idea
what to expect I didn't know this was
going to be like real estate Black
Friday with a massive line I actually
got there like an hour ahead of time and
there was like nobody there and I hope I
didn't start a Trend there did end up
being some people showing up you know 15
20 minutes before including some people
from Atlanta so you know it's
generating that much
interest so so I went in there to to
pre-register and reminder this is weeks
before the tax sale we go in there
and you know there's maybe 15 of us
going in there to pre-register and by
the way they're only taking 100
registrants so it it it was the stakes
are high
so we go in there and I I went up to the
tax sale
desk and lady comes over and I'm like
I'm here to pre-register for the tax
sale you know she looked at me like she
was confused while why we were all there
and it was like we're here to
pre-register for the tax sale and she
was like no sir we're not doing
that until next week and I was like no I
called multiple times last week
including yesterday and was told that
you guys have pre- registration for
today we have people who drove up from
Atlanta they called yesterday and were
told the same thing you need to have
us pre-register so I don't know what the
miscommunication was there but
thankfully she was accommodating
basically the way it worked I had to
give we all had to give a form of ID
then they give you a card a big card
with a number on it and that's the
number that you hold up when you're
bidding at the auction and then they
have your driver's license tied to the
card so then at the tax sale when you
put your number up if you win the
auction they already know who you are
and and they do that because if you win
and you don't have the money to pay
right then and there you get a $500 fine
so you have to have all of the money for
your total bid amount for any of your
bids at the tax sale in the form of cash
or a certified check made out to the
Greenville County Tax
Collector all right so that's the
background story it and how Antiquated
that process was well then the tax sale
itself was was really funny so I got
there you know about 30 minutes in
advance the place was packed and one
of the employees at County Square it
was in the County council chambers so
where the County Council meets when
they're doing public hearings and
whatnot the the the parking lot
was packed an employee in County
Square was like what what is everyone
here for and she asked me this and I was
just like oh it's a tax sale and went
inside and I mean it was packed in there
now there were still a few seats left so
I was able to get a seat near the front
those of you that know me well know
I'm hard of hearing I make sure that I'm
near the front so that I can be close
to the action and actually hear what's
going on we were all in there
shoulder-to-shoulder standing room only
there were people like sitting like like
on the stage cuz there was a a little
stage platform area two auctioneers
they did their little you know
Auctioneer you know the auctioneer thing
it took me a while to kind of get
used to that because I've I've not I
I've participated in in foreclosure
auctions before but it's just a
different it's a different vibe
altogether this was like a legit tax
sale auction they had to go through
hundreds of properties so they had to do
it
quickly and there was a lot of stuff for
sale here again like I mentioned
vacant land commercial properties homes
mobile homes mobile home parks all sorts
of of different things were for sale
at this auction and it became apparent
right away that I was not going to be
participating very heavily in this
auction
I had done my homework of course I could
look around and see that most the vast
majority of the people in there had not
done their homework like everyone had
their I shouldn't say everyone but the
people that hadn't done their homework
they had their phones out and they were
like clicking on like the county tax
website to like see what properties were
were coming up next there was one one
guy directly in front of me that was
thrown around hundreds of thousands of
dollars at this auction I don't know if
he you know represented a developer
or whatever the case maybe but he I mean
I I only stayed for 3 hours and that
didn't even get let's see here I've got
the pages in front of me there are 14
pages that I printed off worth of
properties and we got through during the
3 hours that I was
there we got through five and a half
pages so this was an all day event if
you wanted it to be but during that
three hours that I was there a guy in
front of me probably dropped like
$750,000 and I mean I'm sure he dropped
a lot more money in in the preceding
hours but here's the thing like the the
opening minimbid is the tax liability
so the minimbid amount is like next
to nothing and so like for instance
you know those houses that were
downtown like really nice big houses
downtown like the minimbid for them
was like $5,000
and I've heard and I've seen I've
witnessed this people getting properties
super cheap at this auction that was
not the case yesterday now I don't know
maybe towards the end of it maybe people
started running out of money but from
what I saw I don't think that happened
and so what I was seeing was like I
said people just slinging money around
like there's no tomorrow I mean it was
you know
there were tracks of land like there was
like 15 acres in Berea that sold for
like 450 grand
there was
all sorts of like if a house
came up so if if land came up you you
know like a little a small little piece
of land the auctioneers would do it we
would start at the minimbid and then
people would go up you know 100 200 you
know whatever the case may be it would
go up slowly if it was a house it was
like all right starting the bid at you
know 2800 all right 10,000 20,000 30,000
40,000 you know it it just started going
up by 10,000s and it was like there was
at one point there was this big old dude
with like a shirt that barely got below
his stomach a big old dude like that was
standing room only but had found a place
to sit like up in the front on the stage
like next to where all the official tax
people were and at one point he just
literally rolled backwards in
discouragement and just like flash all
his stomach and that was gross and
there was a very interesting crowd in
general here the the lady next to me
like was very flirty with like the
dude behind her that was
probably maybe 30 years younger than her
and was like right up against me as
well like I kept like kind of pulling
away you know trying to reposition
myself in a way that like her leg or
foot or arm or whatever wasn't touching
me it was like yeah we were
shoulder-to-shoulder but listen the dude
next to me wasn't pressed up against me
like that you know it it the whole thing
was and and it was also annoying like I
said she was flirty with the dude behind
me I mean they were talking the entire
time she did not even have one of those
placards to be able to bid why was she
there and the dude behind the dude
behind me she was talking to he was
completely unprepared he had no idea
what he was doing and it was clear that
a lot of people in there were were that
way and probably about an hour in maybe
two hours in a good quarter of the
people maybe more just gave up just left
and like I said I already knew by
then that I was not going to be doing
anything in this but I had already
invested all of that time and so it's
like I wanted to stay there and see how
things played out and so there
were a few interest
a few interesting things that happened
so one thing probably the most
fascinating thing and and the only thing
that I considered bidding on was there
was some land that was being
auctioned off and I I don't I I need to
go back and look if if it had like a
commercial stuff on it or whatever the
case may be but it was being auctioned
off and it was starting to to knock on
the door of like
$600,000 all right it people were going
back and forth
it was getting up to
600,000 and you know the auctioneers are
doing this and while this is happening
the actual tax collector comes out oh oh
and and I need to mention the tax
collector hilarious guy also Old South
he like gave this whole spiel about how
Greenville is such a great place and the
greatest thing about Greenville is the
people like that's how he introduced the
tax sale anyway that was really funny
that was at the beginning literally I
felt like I was in like some Podunk
Alabama town when he did that but he
seems like a really nice guy anyway he
comes out during the bidding and just
kind of casually sits down and then and
then looks at what they're bidding
and goes to the microphone he's like by
the way that land is
contaminated and the auctioneers look
over at him and you know they stop their
sing songy voice you know getting the
bidding up and it's just like quiet for
a second and they're like is that a big
deal to everyone and people are like yes
that is a big deal and so they're like
okay we'll restart the bidding so
remember this land was about to go off
you know about to be sold for close to
600,000 now nobody wanted to touch it
and the one guy that I said was in front
of me that was slinging around money he
got it for
35,000 now I had done no research on
that land so I had no idea you know and
and I'm not the type that I'm not going
to like quickly try to look it up on my
phone like some of the other people and
try to figure it out
$35,000 is meaningless to people that
have a lot of money but that's a good
chunk of change for me let's let's just
be honest here I'm not just throwing
$35,000 out there on a whim but I was
tempted to I was really tempted to
because I knew we had just seen in the
market that land if it were could be
decontaminated is definitely worth
$600,000 there were multiple parties
that would have paid
in the 500s for it and someone got it
for 35 I don't know what I don't know
anything about decontaminating a
property I don't know what it was
contaminated with or anything I mean it
could have been plutonifor all that I
know but that was the the closest that I
came to actually putting in a bid was
just because it was like man I
mean what could be involved with
decontaminating a property that could
make it that much less valuable than
it was before I don't know some that guy
probably got an absolute steal with that
he may not have even known what the deal
was with contamination but obviously he
had some money and so it was probably
just one of those I'm just going to take
a risk with this and I was close to
being willing to take that risk I wasn't
willing to but I was close I was really
close really tempted to
the another interesting part
was when the real estate for a a
commercial building which I looked up it
appears to be some kind of Dollar Store
which I guess you know it's it's not
the the it's not the the business that
was for auction you have to remember a
lot of businesses lease the space that
they are in so this must be a situation
where where the the dollar store is
leasing their space I believe it was
in Berea and the the name of the
owner was just like a one woman
and she owed like $30,000 in taxes and
and and by the way that probably sounded
really degrading the name of the owner
was just a woman I I didn't mean it in
that way it's most of these properties
if they were commercial they were owned
by like another business so it was just
surprising just to see what appeared to
be just a regular person's name on there
if it had been a man or whatever it
would have still been just as surprising
just the fact that there was just a PL
Jane name there of a person that
appeared to own the real estate for
this dollar store was surprising in and
of itself during my time there that
property is the one that sold for the
most it sold for
1.625
million and and the guy that won the bid
looked like he was in his 20s may maybe
his early 30s and the auctioneers
tried to there was a guy in the front
not not the guy that was directly in
front me but another guy kind of to my
left who was going back and forth
with this guy and the auctioneer you
know tried to get it to
1.65 and the guy bit on it and then he
was like you know what no no I'm I'm I'm
pulling my bid back and so it was it
was kind of like that was the most
interesting moment because it was like
okay that's a lot of that's a lot of
money being slung around here again
and the auctioneers were like okay are
we done here we're nobody else is
bidding all right and and actually
people clapped because it was it was
such a you know we just didn't expect
those a lot of us didn't expect those
numbers to be thrown around I didn't
expect that and you know I was
just thinking what a shame that
lady she had a property worth 1.625
million at the tax sale was probably
worth even more than that on the open
market and she lost it because of
$330,000
she couldn't come up with $330,000 or or
put the property up for sale last year
you know sold it for every day for 1
million just like that she lost it
over $30,000 and and that was the case
with a lot of these I I was just that
was what was amazing to me things were
being sold at this auction at retail and
that was at the end of the day why I
didn't make a play on it was because it
was like I see better deals than this I
mean none of this is better than just if
these properties hit the market on the
MLS and so that was the that was the
most amazing thing to me I think these
people that are letting these properties
go based on the the fact that they
owe taxes they don't realize they the
way the market is right now they could
just list these properties as is and
make money back get those taxes paid off
and not just lose the property there
was what was kind of like the straw that
broke the camels back for me I had
two properties that I was kind of
targeting kind of in the middle of the
auction towards the middle
and like I said it became apparent very
quickly that this was not going to be an
auction where I was going to make a play
in but but these two properties that I
knew were would be coming up around noon
which is when I plan to leave I
wanted to hold off and just see what
what they sold for and the one was
kind of a a decent looking little house
in tailor and the other one was like a
Shack in like the west side of
Greenville and by a shack I mean like
it was really really rund down like all
the drive buys I did I gave the
properties a a score from 1 to 10 with
one meaning like demo and meaning you
know like TurnKey you wouldn't have to
do anything to it none of them were a
one and none of them were a 10 that I
drove by but this property that I'm
referring to as a shack was a three out
of 10 I mean it was really really bad
it sold for 80,000 the homman tailor
that was pretty nice sold for
160,000 no way no way I'm not buying a
Shack on the west side of Greenville for
$80,000 people are losing their minds
that that is not a good deal like I I it
did not make sense to me what was
happening outside of the fact that
people don't know any don't have better
ways of getting deals than than that tax
sale they literally thought that that
was their only option that's the only
thing that I can figure now I will
say that the and and I should mention
that that's the that's the inventory
issues that we're having right there are
not houses or properties for sale and so
now here we go we have a tax sale and
it's like finally there's all these
properties for sale people have been
waiting and and starving for properties
to come on the market for so long and I
think that people were just so eager to
get anything and so they were just
throwing money throwing money around
and and I'm sure there were several
developers there and then they were
probably the ones that were bidding up
you know those large tracks of
land because that's really a dry
market for developers right now it is
hard hard for them to be able to to
buy acreage to be able to you know
develop new subdivisions and whatnot
so that didn't come as a surprise to me
um
but that is really what I just said
before is really my main takeaway from
the this whole experience and I don't
know if I'll do it again I might have
to wait for the market to correct a
little bit but yeah my big takeaway
was that this Market is so nutty right
now and yeah people are like oh the
market slowing down right well yeah it's
it's the seasonal slow down it always
slows down in in November December this
time of year but looking if you gauge
the market by that tax sale things were
selling for what they would sell pretty
much on the Open Market at that tax sale
between 100 biders now I don't know if
they opened it up to more people cuz
there were way more than 100 people in
there but like I said there were some
people that had no business being there
they weren't going to bid anyway but
I at the end of the day I'm shocked and
and you know I talked to a a real
estate wholesaler recently that is
trying to to sell me some property and I
was like you know why isn't this seller
just putting this up on the market and
this wholesaler said well they'll
make more money going the Wholesale
route than they will on the open market
you can't sell this type of property
it needs too much work you can't sell on
the open market and I I I didn't argue
with them I just kind of inwardly
laughed and was like no that that is
100% not true in this market you can
sell anything
as long as you price it correctly and
when it comes to these properties that
need a lot of work I mean it it's it's
going to sell it is going to sell again
unless you just put it on there for way
way too much there is a market there
is a lot of money being thrown around in
real estate investing right now and
and and remember like I said these
people they had to have the cash at the
auction I I was thinking I was like
man and it it had to be made out to the
Greenwall County Tax Collector I was
like you know obviously they would get
busted but it was like if if ever there
was an event where someone should
should try to rob a bunch of people
that would be it right obviously I'm not
advocating for that and there were
sheriffs in there they were going to
make sure that nothing nothing went a
ride but it was like I was just looking
around just being like I wonder what the
total amount of money is in here I mean
it has got to be tens of millions of
dollars held between the the hundred
people in here that have money 100 or
more I guess and and that's the
story of real estate in Greenville right
now it is a story of a lot of money
being thrown around a lot of properties
being being sold for more than they
should be and listen if you're behind on
your HOA dues or your taxes or whatever
before it gets out of control sell the
property you can you'll get back your
money you'll you know if you've got a
loan on it you'll probably be able to
pay off the loan I mean there is all
sorts of of money being thrown around
that you will be able to sell the
property Don't Let It Go by the wayside
I I doubt any of my listeners are in
that situation but I'm just putting that
out there because I was just amazed
by some of these properties that that
sold you know that had a couple of
thousand of tax liability you know that
one that I mentioned let me look it up
the one that was $1 160,000 that sold
for 160
that
lady or that man actually owed less than
$4,000 in taxes and his house sold for
$160,000 like that's it's it's really
sad to be completely honest but
but that's that's the way it works now
they have a year to redeem it we'll see
I'm I'm curious to see how many of
these get redeemed based on the prices
that they went for I don't think very
many are I think a lot of these are
are going to end up going to the
buyers and at the end of the day I
think the another big takeaway if I make
a play in the tax sale again I need to
go back through and look at the
properties that sold cheaply but I think
most of the opportunities at this event
were small Lots it that seemed to be
where the actual possibilities of buying
something below market value was is
if you just want to buy small Lots put a
house on it whatever that was
generally speaking where it appeared
that there were opportunities I need to
go back and kind of call through the
list I don't know maybe if I have time
to do that I might do another episode
on that probably not but you never know
I don't plan these things out very
far in advance as you you guys can
probably tell I just kind of go with
the flow and let you guys know what's
on my mind that's it for today's
episode hope you guys enjoyed it as
always my contact information is in the
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I appreciate you guys I appreciate
everyone listen
thank you for listening thank you for
enduring my tax sale story I hope you
guys have a great rest of the week stay
safe stay warm enjoy the nice fall
weather we'll catch you next time
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