Understanding Real Estate Tax Auctions with Courtney N. Richardson

In episode 118 of the Better Than Success Podcast, host Nicole Purvy interviews Courtney N. Richardson. Courtney N. Richardson, Esq., LL.M, is the Founder of The Ivy Investor, a resource for women seeking to navigate the investing world in simple terms. When most people think of investing, they only think of the stock market. However, Courtney encourages diversification through investing in real estate. Courtney started in real estate as an Oil and Gas Title attorney in Appalachia (southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia) and Ohio during the Marcellus Shale boom. Her current practice area includes defending real estate property assessments and real estate tax enforcement with the City of Philadelphia. Before becoming an attorney, Courtney was an investment advisor for one of the top brokerage firms in the world. She is passionate about teaching how to create and retain wealth in the community through investing. Understanding Real Estate Tax Auctions After working in finance since she has been out of college, Courtney shares her story behind her entrepreneurial/real estate journey. Courtney explains in this episode how she began her entrepreneurship at the age of 12 making jewelry. Although she didn't particularly like jewelry, she thought this was a good idea. This started Courtney’s journey to where she is now. She began working with the stock market and the stock market crashed in 2009. That same year she lost her job. After being laid off Courtney decided to take in on a trade overseas and moved to the phileneese for a couple of months. She then got accepted into law school where she began her law career. She shares to the audience that living home was a big distraction for her so she moved to West Virginia to be focused and on a plus side, that was where the money was at the time. Moving on, Courtney ended up working for the best law firm in West Virginia doing gas and oil work. This is when she realized she enjoyed title work and real estate. However, Courtney’s creative side was never really utilized at her job so she decided to get creative and start her brand “The Ivy Investor”. She realized all of her close friends and family began to call  her for rollovers, insurance etc and came up with the idea to start a blog to help others. From then, people have been constantly sharing her blog and she was able to be a reference for some of the main concerns people had for investing. After working at the firm for two years, Cournet decided to continue her education at Temple Law school and received her LLM in Tax Law. She would be in the process of selling houses that have property delinquent taxes. As she was doing this, she realized “when people hear something and don't understand, they shut it down”. She then went on to giving basic real estate investing advice. During this interview she addresses the hot topic of investing through tax lien/sheriff sales. Courtney explains that in order for this process to work you have to do you due diligence. One suggestion she makes if you chose to invest in the tax auction is to do a “light title search”. That is, to make sure nothing crazy is going on with the property you want to invest in before investing your money because most of the time it is non-refundable. A “light title search” can cost you around $300 and this could save you a headache if you want to bid successfully.  All in all, as a tax professional Courtney tells the audience to get a list of the properties before hand and do your research because sometimes you only have 7 days to settle and this is where a lot of investors mess up on tax auctions. Being aware of the process will be your best bet with the tax auction because there is a such thing as a redemption period for example. In some cases, am owner can possibly redeem the home being sold at the auction within 9 months. “Tax auctions are strongly recommended for ‘BIG’ real estate investors, someone who can afford to sit on a property for a few months” - Courtney Richardson Contact Information: Website: The Ivy Investor IG: @theivyinvestor