J.  Beck

J.  Beck is a real estate attorney from Alameda, California (San Francisco Bay area). He is a former real estate broker, syndicator, real estate consultant and investor.

 John Beck is the author of many real estate books and is widely known for his Free and Clear System (1992)which teaches how to purchase property from tax sales, particularly in the western United States.

One of John's more recent books is “Amazing Profits” which explains how investors can profit from tax sale liens. John is also the author of The Forced Sale Workbook.

If you watch many T.V. infomercials you have probably seen John Beck marketing his tax lien course. I believe there are folks who have made some money through purchasing tax liens.

However this area of real estate investing does not appeal to me because of the fact that in many states, the previous owner has a certain amount of time following the tax sale to pay off the tax lien and reclaim their property. In these cases, there is no profit to be made by the investor.

Many have commented that they think what John Beck is doing is unethical. I personally don’t see anything unethical about purchasing tax liens. The fact that a homeowner has fallen on bad times is not the investor’s fault and purchasing tax liens does not take the omeowner‘s property away.

In many cases these tax liens are paid off within the redemption period following the sale and the property is returned to homeowner.

I wonder whether John Beck has made more money from the purchasing property through tax sales or from the promotion of his books and courses? I would advise doing some research on tax liens in your state to determine whether or not this area of real estate investing will work for you.

Also keep in mind that real estate investing, in general, requires a lot of time and money. Do you want you money tied up for months waiting to see if you tax lien gets redeemed?

There are many other ways to make a lot of money, legally and without the stress associated with purchasing tax liens. This is how I make a rock solid income.