The following information is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is distributed with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sough. (From a declaration of principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations.)
 
 

Almost every state has a Press Association.  It is normally located in the sate capitol.  The name that you can find it under in most cases is <NAME OF SATE> PRESS ASSOCIATION.

Almost every state Press Association also has a clipping service. You can subscribe to their clipping service in a couple of different ways.

You pay a monthly fee and inform the service of the legal notices that you would like clipped and mailed to you.  You can even specify the counties or the legal newspaper out of which you would like your legal clips.  They charge a small additional fee for each clip.

This is an excellent method of keeping track of the tax forfeited land auctions in the states and the counties of your choice.  It is a lot cheaper than subscribing to the various newspapers and then having to spend hours looking through them to see if you can find what you want.

What you do is check the Fun and Profits in Tax Forfeited Lands Manual for the state or states of your choice.  You can determine by reading the statutes which public official is responsible for publishing the notices of tax sales.  When you write to the clipping service you would ask for the legal notices published by that public officials with respect to the Sale of Real Property for non-payment of taxes.  Just read the statutes and word your request letter according to the legal wording in the statutes so that they can know what you are asking for.

Another method is to subscribe for only one month.  This is the technique to use in those states that have all of their tax sales on the same date or in the same month.  For example the State of Oklahoma has their tax lien certificate sales on the second Monday of October each year in each of the 75 counties. Oklahoma has their tax land auctions on the second Monday in June of each year.   I want the list from all seventy-five counties for their October tax sale notices.  The last time I subscribed I paid the Oklahoma Clipping Service $100 and I was furnished the legal notices listing the properties from all of the Oklahoma Counties.  Because there is a two-year redemption period in Oklahoma before the tax lien certificate holder can apply for a deed this gives me a huge list of delinquent property owners to whom I can write and attempt to acquire the property prior to the end of the redemption period.

Also, in Many states as soon as the property is delinquent for one year a notice must be published in the county where the property is located regarding the delinquency.  In most cases the name of the owner of record (not his address) is published along with the legal description of the property and the amount of delinquent taxes.  For example this is published in each f the counties prior to the property being certified to the Commissioner of State Lands in Arkansas for non-payment of taxes.  This list would provide you with a list of delinquent properties at least three years prior to being offer for sale at public auction.

In California, if you get the first legal notice which must be published by the Tax Collector in May or June of each year prior to the time that the property becomes subject to power to sell, you will have at least six years to attempt to acquire the property from the delinquent owner.

In states that have their public auctions at various times throughout the year it would be wise to subscribe on a monthly basis and only purchase clips in the counties of interest to you.

When you  contact the  press association's clipping  service ask if they have a reciprocal agreement with other State Press Associations so that you can obtain legal notices from whatever county you want in the United States.  You may have to do a little research and letter writing to find out in which newspaper the public officials publishes the notices required by statues so that you can furnish your press association with the names of those out of state newspapers and the counties in which they are published.