Essex Lots

Essex Double Lot

With IRS liens and property taxes piled up against a property, this seller wanted to get out from underneath. Luckily he had equity in his rental house in Riverside Heights, Tampa, and decided to sell to us. The house had been a renovation project of his for some time, but the cost of materials and labor of the 1920’s built home quickly snowballed out of grasp.

The seller and I talked in his backyard and driveway for some time. He showed me the stage in his backyard where he and his buddies would have guitar jam sessions for hours on end. He showed me the hot tub where many beers were had and funny stories were shared. He showed me the car lift from a business venture that he and one of his buddies, who went to Heaven, shared. The good memories were everywhere, but he realized that his path of least resistance forward was to sell.

He’d received many offers in the past, but said it was tough to know who to trust and who not to trust. The property had turned into a massive headache he’d put off for some time, and he knew that the title search would bring up all of the City of Tampa Code Enforcement Liens, and other Liens from the Internal Revenue Service.

I told him that whatever came our way, we could figure out. Afterall, I was buying the property for the land, since it was worth more than the house.

He was right about the title and lien search. There was a mound of IRS and City of Tampa Liens. The tough part was getting ahold of the IRS. Luckily our CPA was able to help contact them by using an IRS phone line for professionals. It took a few weeks, but we received the corrected payoff (which was far less than expected) from the IRS and negotiated the City Liens from $48,000 to $4,800. All of a sudden the seller was going to received almost $100k more in proceeds than expected. It was a great win for all!

We closed a few weeks later, and Vikin Homes built two new beautiful homes on the land.