Calgary Tax Sales?

[Feruk]

Anyone been to a tax sale? Waste of time? Can you get any kind of deal? I know in the US you could potentially get a property pretty cheap. I suspect that's not the case here. There is a comment about a reserve bid being close to assessment value. But if that's the case, how do any of them ever sell?

Any experience with this?

http://www.calgary.ca/CA/fs/Pages/Property-Tax/Property-Tax-Sale.aspx

[Xtrema]

How does outstanding taxes at or below $0 make it on that list?

That said, I wonder if lenders are holding these property now.

[avishal26]

Are these foreclosed homes or is the City kicking out the owners for having $6,000 - $10,000 in outstanding property taxes??

That would be extreme to kick someone out for having 3 years of property tax overdue. . . .

[speedog]

People need to read the city's document - those monies that are listed against each property is the amount the current home owner has to come up with to keep their home - if they pay the city the amount owing, my understanding is that their home is now theirs and doesn't go up for auction.

The ones that do go up for auction will have a reserve price which isn't listed on this document but is based upon market value - I guess this is where you have to hope that the reserve hasn't been set too high, if it seems low then there's probably something wrong with the property and seeing as you can't do a home inspection before bidding, you'd be taking a bit of a risk.

[KrisYYC]

I'm curious how all this works as well.

Does the city pay off the lender with the money it gets from the winning bidder?

Does the buyer have to have the cash to buy the property outright or can they mortgage it somehow?

I knew the city could take control of a property that's delinquent on taxes but I have no idea how the money part of it works after the fact.

[tpurcell4]

Tax sales and foreclosures are more common in the USA, and that is because lenders and banks in Canada will write a clause into the mortgage that outlines they will pick up the taxes and add it to your regular mortgage payment should your property taxes fall too far behind. The same clause also exists for fire insurance, and that is because the City is able to foreclose in front of them for any value they wish in order to receive the outstanding taxes. The city would then take what they are owed, and the remaining funds would go to the next charge on title, which would be condo boards, and then mortgagors.

Therefore, many of these properties may not make it to auction if the bank finds out (as they do want to lose money) or the owner will make up the payments.

However, if you go to https://alta.registries.gov.ab.ca/SpinII/logon.aspx and login as a guest, you could spend $10 per title (total of $2,200 should you pull all titles), and find out which ones do not have mortgages registered. If there is no mortgage registered, then the price may be lower than one with a mortgage registered.