newbie with a couple of questions

[Jesse]

Hey everybody!  I'm glad to have found such an informative site on tax sales.  If you can bear with me I have a few questions on the process.

     - If I am the successful bidder on a property with buildings on it, how would I obtain the keys to those buildings?

     - Before I bid on a tax sale is it legal to take pictures of the property and any buildings that may be on it?

     - Is it legal to knock on any doors to see if someone answers and if so could I ask to see the place?

I know these are rather simplistic questions, but I have not been able to find any information on these topics and I don't want to do something that would infringe on someones rights or get me in trouble.

I greatly appreciate any help you may be able to supply and thank any respondents.

[Frank]

You are new indeed.

You buy the properties as is, there are no keys or permission to enter.  If you are successful you get all of the baggage that comes with the property including evicting the tenant/owner.

Take all the pictures you want but be careful not to get charged for stalking.  If you enter onto the property - you are technically trespassing.  If you wander up to the door when someone is home all that you will have accomplished is to alert the tennant/owner of the sale taking place - presumably by this time they are still either unaware, but may simply have ignored all the notices.  Once alerted the owner then usually takes measures to pay the taxes and have the sale cancelled - and you have defeated yourself.  

[Jesse]

Thanks very much Frank.  I see that you have a wealth of information on this topic and could see just how new I was to all this.

Again, greatly appreciated Frank!

[Frank]

Thanks, however nobody is an absolute expert at anything, and there is always room to learn.

My advice to you is to firstly read everything on this web-site, all of the postings on the forum, and all of the articles.  Study them, learn them, and be ready to be tested when you are done.  The real test is how you fair in an actual sale, win or lose, sometimes you can win by losing if others don't play smart and bid too high. 

This is an excellent web-site, use it to your advantage, and don't be afraid to post questions which might at first appear dumb - you an others (including me) can learn from the answers.

[RichD]

Hey Jesse,

Frank definitely seems to be the authority in this forum and his response makes lots of sense to me.

Not knowing your financial position, I don't know if this makes seance to you but what I did for my first tax sale property was to keep it simple ,I found a 2 acre lot in rule Ontario that the tender was pretty cheap and after doing some homework I put a relatively cheap bid in and got it. This way if something went really wrong I wasn't out alto of money and I would gain very valuable experience. It's comfort level, so if by putting a relatively high tender in on a property wether it turns out it's worth it or not makes you uncomfortable then keep it small and do your home work. As we gain more experience we can choose to go bigger and more complicated. Good Luck.

Rich