Every legitimate investment, and Tax Liens are no exception, have inherent risks.  Those risks are mitigated by the degree and quality of due diligence an investor puts in up front before investing money.

Your due diligence as a tax lien investor requires you find legitimate experts making recommendations using solid and acceptable sources for their research.  There’s no guarantee the investment won’t lose money, but you’ve given yourself protection from getting burned.

Investing in tax liens can make you money but they’re complex and have large get in costs.  However, many would be tax lien investors have been burned by get rich quick promoters.

Admit it, you’ve seen their infomercials.  Get rich investing in tax liens in a 30 to 45 minute presentation pitching their “all you ever need to know” CD/DVD/Workbook programs.  Google “tax lien investing” and the top pay per click ads and highest ranked sites take you to what’s known as “the landing page.” These landing pages promise to “reveal all the secrets” of getting rich with tax liens but they’re nothing more than a sales pitch for the same products.

At their core these people are information marketers, not tax lien investment advisors.

They’re not providing you due diligence about investing in tax liens.  In reality, you’re in a “sales funnel” getting pushed into an ever more expensive series of sale pitches for their products about tax lien investing.  Typically these information marketers have three levels of products or services or three degrees of burn:

1st Degree Burn—this is their pitch for the initial program ranging in price anywhere from a low of $39.99 to $197.  At this level the information they provide is general and vague with just a little more depth than the initial sales pitch.  Actually, the product is nothing more than a sophisticate sales pitch for the next level.

2nd Degree Burn—the advanced programs and strategies revealing closely guarded “secrets” and the best profit making strategies.  The products is usually a more expensive multi-media product and/or a live seminar.  Many offer ongoing marketing updates with a monthly fee of $39 to $59 charged to your credit card.  The fixed costs for this option ranges from a low of about $399 up to $3,000.  But, that’s not all, it’s a pitch for the next level…

3rd Degree Burn—At this point you know a lot about tax lien investing but, and there’s always a but, why go it alone?  Now they roll out the largest money maker (for them) the “Coaching or Mentoring Program” ranging in cost from $5,000 to $15,000 per year.  It actually cost you nothing  because you pay for the program with all the money you’re going to make as a tax lien investor.

Don’t get burned.  Should you find yourself paying for multiple products and services before you ever invest any dollars in tax liens themselves, you’re probably dealing with an information marketer.

Until next week—remember due diligence, due diligence and more due diligence then invest.