? ? This year's Wyandotte County / Kansas City, KS (or Unified Government) Tax Deed Sale was at Memorial Hall, located at 600 N 7th St., KCK 66101. Wyandotte County has multiple real estate tax sales each year, this one was on August 29, 2019 with the next sale in mid-December. Check their website for details and dates: https://www.wycokck.org/Delinquent/Sale.aspx

Unlike the Jackson Count Tax Lien Sales, this tax sale was indoors in the old hall in downtown KCK. There's convenient parking everywhere with a paid lot behind the building for $6 a day. If you get chilly easily be sure to bring a jacket, despite this tax sale event held in August, the building is well air conditioned.

Wyandotte County knows how put on a tax sale and I feel it is the best, most efficient, well organized real estate tax event in the Kansas City metro area.

They also have online registration! It's the only one I've found where you can simply submit the necessary documents online and complete your entire registration paperless. You just pick up your bid card at the Hall The day of the auction before the auction begins at 10:00AM.

Here's the tax sale online registration form: https://fs26.formsite.com/DLp325/form1/index.html

Wyandotte County also has a thoughtful delinquent real estate tax list where you not only get the excel sheet in order of case #, you also get additional information on the house, pictures and whether the property is a vacant lot (indicated by a V on the list) or has a house (I on the list). Quite the opposite on the Jackson County tax list where it is impossible to tell what you are looking at until you drive by the address and determine if it's land or a house/building.

Just as any tax sale in the area, you are subject to as-is conditions of the property and it's important to drive by the property and inspect it the best you can without trespassing. We looked at about 60 houses in this sale and it took about 8 hours to do the driving and about 3-4 hours to research beforehand the properties we felt were worth seeing.

Since the Kansas City area borders two states, it's important to distinguish the difference between Kansas, which is a Tax Deed State and Missouri, which is a Tax Lien State. Here's a great site that explains the differences: https://retipster.com/tax-liens-tax-deeds/

In Kansas Tax Sales, you are actually purchasing the deed and property ownership, however, It's also important to remember that you are buying the deed while paying off the taxes and that you are responsible for any other liens and if there is a mortgage, all this in order to acquire the deed after the confirmation hearing. The owner has the right to pay you for your bid purchase price and take back their property during the 12 month challenge period after the sale. It is important to consult an attorney and do your homework on a "quiet title" suit to better secure the asset. Later on if you want to sell a property from a tax deed sale, you may need a quiet title because some title companies wont insure a title for a property purchased from a tax sale.

Here are a few guides the county has about the tax sale and what to expect after: http://maps.wycokck.org/gisdata/TaxSale/Bidder_Instructions_English.pdf

The Experience:

There were over 700 case #'s (cause of action #'s) on the list at this sale with about 100 bidders in attendance. Most properties were vacant lots of land in the inner city area's of zip codes 66101 and 66104. These are plots of land where houses probably stood at one time, however, the owners have either passed away of just refuse to pay taxes on what most people would consider useless land in very low income, urban areas. One thing I would like to see Wyandotte County do is bundle the land bids together and bid them out at the end of the auction so that bidders who only wanted to bid on houses or commercial property could leave sooner. Most of the available houses were in zip codes 66101, 66102 and 66104.

In my opinion this tax sale offered overall the highest quality of houses to bid on in the Kansas City area based on the total numbers of homes available. You could probably reasonably generate cash flow from any house on the Wyandotte County list and it really comes down to your personal risk factors, tolerance and knowledge of KCK. Unlike the Jackson County tax sale last week where there were a number of houses on the list you just couldn't access how high or how costly your risk might be. There are some neighborhoods and streets in KCMO where most of the homes are boarded up or have evidence of a fire - this is not the case in KCK.

The auctioneer was easy to hear, despite the loud children in the back of the hall, and he never missed a bidder. The announcements and opening instructions were done in English and Spanish

Don't expect to find prime properties or any property for that matter, at this sale, to go under $10K. Prime zips codes in Kansas City, KS tend to be 66103 - Rosedale , 66106 Rosedale & Argentine, 66109 - West KCK, 66111, 66012 and 66226 - Bonner Springs. There were no available houses in the Turner area of 66106.

It seems like most people who bid and won were looking for one special house to purchase and probably planned to utilize it for their personal future home or for a family member. This is nice to see, however, this motive drives up the bid for each property and it makes it nearly impossible for a real estate investor to acquire houses at tax sales to fix and flip or fix and rent.

The tax sale started at 10:00AM and ended at about 1:00PM. This gives you time to run to the bank, because if you have a winning bid you are expected to pay no later than 4:45pm the day of the sale via money order or cashier's check - written out for the exact amount you owe and to the "The Clerk of the County Court." If for some reason you decide to renege on your bid you will be restricted from participation in the Wyandotte County Tax Sale for 2 years.

If you have any questions or thoughts about this tax sale please email me at jwoods@wootinvestments.com or leave your thoughts in the comments below

I hope this helps you if you plan to attend future tax lien or deed sales!

John Woods