Innisfill Results?

[baller50]

Anyone know the results?

[ErnestBidder]

 I'm curious as to why the companies who are selling info kits are not also posting the results in a public place?

  Cheers to all, and it's been a very quiet summer, posting- wise.

[netpred]

Was this a featured property on OTS? If it was, OTS is supposed to provide the sale results.

By the way, has anyone noticed that OTS is posting far fewer featured properties? It looks like the municipalities are tiring of paying the high fees. Of course with only a few featured properties, an OTS membership is virually worthless. Might as well flush a couple of hundred down the toilet. The competition now provides title searches so where is the value of an OTS mmbership?

Any comments from OTS Jeff?

[26.2]

I'm curious as to why the companies who are selling info kits are not also posting the results in a public place

'Results' would be a great category for this website.  I am sure who ever posted results would get a lot of applauds.  Not too difficult...usually just a phone call. Those results would be archived on this site...what a great resource of info that would be! Also it would cut out OTS, one of the few reasons I would want to be a member.

[Dave2]

I'm curious as to why the companies who are selling info kits are not also posting the results in a public place?

  Cheers to all, and it's been a very quiet summer, posting- wise.

If I posted any more with my luck Netpred would be totally wasted

[OTS Jeff]

Was this a featured property on OTS? If it was, OTS is supposed to provide the sale results.

By the way, has anyone noticed that OTS is posting far fewer featured properties? It looks like the municipalities are tiring of paying the high fees. Of course with only a few featured properties, an OTS membership is virually worthless. Might as well flush a couple of hundred down the toilet. The competition now provides title searches so where is the value of an OTS mmbership?

Any comments from OTS Jeff?

The Innisfil property was not a Featured Property on OntarioTaxSales.ca.  Therefore, InfoPaks were not available through OTS, nor will we be posting the results of the tax sale.

Right now there are 11 Featured Properties on OntarioTaxSales.ca.  So far this year we`ve had 93 Featured Properties.  I don`t know how many we`d had at this time last year, but I know that we had a total of 222 Featured Properties in 2010.  Of course, this year is far from over, and I know that we have a number of Featured Properties coming up.

The vast majority of municipalities who have used our services continue to use our services.  And we continue to get more municipalities coming on board.
As for our fees  being high, I believe that virtually every municipality who has utilized OTS has found our fees to be quite reasonable.

As for the value of an OTS membership, here's an overview:

   Free InfoPaks
o   Today alone we have InfoPaks for 6 municipalities.  The InfoPaks are $10 each, or free for our GOLD Members.  That $60 saving on just today's Featured Properties goes a long way towards justifying the price of a one-year membership.

   Tips on tax sales
o   Over 200 Ontario municipalities have relied on our staff members for their tax sale expertise
o   We've assisted them with more than 1,500 tax sales
o   The lessons learned from the experiences that we've had, the situations we've encountered, and the problems we've helped solve, are shown in our Tips on Tax Sales
o   We never stop running into new situations, and we pass on valuable new knowledge to our members through our Tips on Tax Sales

   Tax sale results
o   We now have detailed results of over 900 tax sales
o   Find out, among other things,
   How much money the property sold for
   How many tenders were received
   Assessed value
   Pictures of the properties
   Characteristics of the property, such as zoning, dimensions, if it's waterfront, etc.

o   Results can be searched in a multitude of ways, using parameters such as
   If there's a house or cottage on the property
   Waterfront
   Photos available
   Vacant land
   Commercial/industrial
   Farmland
   On a road
   Municipality
   County/Region
   Geographic area of Ontario
   Specific date range

   Pictures
o   Right now we have 137 pictures of upcoming  tax sale properties available to our members
o   All of the pictures were examined by our in-house professional before they were loaded onto OTS
o   The person who examined these photos has a Diploma of Survey Technology and extensive professional experience in mapping
o   His expertise enables him to identify and reject pictures whose accuracy is questionable


   Title searches
o   None of our title searchers have less than 20 years of experience
o   Their expertise enables them to pick out title issues that other people might not be aware of
o   They work in-house, so we are able to provide same-day, or at worst, next-day service
o   We carry $2 million errors and omissions insurance, so we are covered in the event that we miss something on a search (we've never had a claim)

   Newsletters
o   We send our members a weekly newsletter, including
   Information on other real estate  investment opportunities
   New tax sale listings
   New tax sale results listings
   Tips on Tax Sales

OTS is a professional company, staffed by highly competent professionals from diverse backgrounds, offering professional services to our members.  I recognize that not everyone wants to utilize our services, or even acknowledge the value in what we do.  But our members certainly recognize the value of our expertise, products and services.  We will continue to provide our members with the highest calibre of expertise, the highst quality products, and the highest level of service.

Best regards,

Jeff Oberman
President
OntarioTaxSales.ca

[netpred]

Thanks for your response Jeff.

I think that how I feel about your company is obvious so my comments are, to a degree, biased. However, I do have respect for you as a stand up guy who is willing to get involved here. So, good for you on that count.

Now my response to your post. This is not a rant but a well-reasoned response. Consider it well. First, your featured properties are down. Way down. Second, most of your featured properties are in Northern Ontario and nobody in this world (except for dave2 - but he is not from this world) bid on anything from Northern Ontario. Take a look at your current listings for proof of what I say. Your numbers are way down this year - we are 3/4 of the way through the year and entering the "low" season. This year you have had 93 featured properties but 222 last year. Your numbers are down. Way down.

As far as the current info packs being worth $60, that is nonsense. Noboby wants info packs on northern properties. They are only worth $10 each when someone wants to bid. Even then, a person can submit a tender in prescribed form without an info pack from your company. So as far as I am concerned, your current info packs have zero value.

As far as your fees go, you do not receive unfiltered comments from the municipalities. Question, if your fees are so reasonable, then why do many municipalities use Real Tax, but do not advertise on OTS? The answer is because of the fees. I have been told this by several treasurers. It doesn't make sense for them to use one service but not another. If the fees were reasonable they would use both. Do a confidential survey to confirm this if you wish.

You are correct that your results section is a good service. But is that worth $200? Especially since you only post results of those wonderful featured properties (mostly in northern Ontario).

It used to be that the photos of non-featured properties were useful. But now Tri-Target offers these for free. Funny how Tri-Target offers the same photos for free. Tri-Target also offers title searches to those of us who do not do our own. No membership fees for this service. Finally, if you check, Tri-Target has just obtained its first "featured" property. Of course the property happens also to be in northern Ontario.

As far as the other "benefits" of an OTS membership that you speak of, none are useful to any moderately experienced tax investor. Without trying to be rude, your tips and newsletter are useless to anyone except a raw newbie.

The fact is,that there are now fewer reasons than ever to have an OTS membership. I suspect that there will be fewer again next year this time.

Your final remark about professionalism is interesting. I do not wish to identify myself to you but I have emailed or left telephone messages to OTS regarding several issues and have never had a response from your company.

However, I give you credit for posting here and exposing yourself to comments like this.

[Pfm1011]

I am far from a fan of OTS , since they make it too easy for newbie idiots to overbid...of course they represent to towns they work for .. so it is their job to get newbie idiots to overbid for crap the town cannot sell ..

However I would tend to consider myself a bit above a newbie when it comes to taxsales but still think the membership is worth it. Yes the featured are down...(just throwing salt in the wound)

I would love nothing better then to see OTS go the way of the dodo , but in fairness they do have some value..   I also have no reason to question their quality or integrity

As per results..this forum should really have a results section.  ... Mind you I have requested results tons of time on here and rarely get a response..did anyone notice that the innisfil results arent posted here...

[26.2]

Your final remark about professionalism is interesting. I do not wish to identify myself to you but I have emailed or left telephone messages to OTS regarding several issues and have never had a response from your company.

Although I agree with Netpred for the most part, I have had a lot contact with OTS a few years back.  Jeff replied by email to all my questions.  The responses I got were always very professional but cautious.
That said, I have let my membership lapse. 

[Dave2]

Second, most of your featured properties are in Northern Ontario and nobody in this world (except for dave2 - but he is not from this world) bid on anything from Northern Ontario.

Nothing wrong with Northern Ontario except I use different criteria there then in the south.   Not a lot of towns in southern Ontario that will double or triple in size in the next couple of years and for some reason I have not been in a rush to let go of my (tax sale acquired) holdings close to town.    

Never was a fan of Beaujolais nouveau as I prefer my wine to age a little to maturity.

 I don't have time right now to get into the pro's and cons of individual posters right now I am too busy with the basics of buying property cheap and selling for much more then the 20% profit objective of some other board members.  

I am swamped with opportunities right now both on the buy and the sell side so much so that I don't even have time for the swat team stuff, but I will be patient.  It won't go away.  Some will work and some will fall by the wayside.  

Unfortunately they all take time, but I expect by after thanksgiving might even have some catches.

I will do my part in time in board related activities but I will focus my efforts where I will get my best return.   Always enjoyable in this business when the big ones don't always get away. The good thing is for other board members is I am totally knocked out for at least six weeks.

As Netpred doesn't believe  me might have to send my driver down to help him take a look

[26.2]

As Netpred doesn't believe  me might have to send my driver down to help him take a look

Nice limo Dave. 
Back to a results section of this forum...I don't know why it has not been done.  It is all public info, and this forum could do a better job than OTS, [sorry Jeff].

'Results' would be a great category for this website.  I am sure who ever posted results would get a lot of applauds.

As per results..this forum should really have a results section.  ... Mind you I have requested results tons of time on here and rarely get a response..did anyone notice that the innisfil results arent posted here...

What do you think Rob?  Some of the categories are not not to active and could be archived into general if space is a problem.

[netpred]

Dave:

I now have all the proof that I need. Aliens exist and they are all named Dave. BTW, I thought that you drove a blue vehicle .

26.2:

In theory I think that a results area is a great idea. The reality, however, has been well stated by PFM. There are only a few contributors here and many lurkers and non-contibutors. PFM has posted many results, but who else has? Do you think that a results area will cause the lurkers etc to actually get involved? As it now stands, there are fewer and fewer relevant posts here. I think that regular long time senior members are simply fed up with posting and getting nothing back from most people. I know for a fact that the most interesting conversations occur via private post and in some instances, involve members who are not particularly active here but who have lots to say. The issue really is one of how to get more people involved. That's why I thought that a private area might create an incentive. It has unfortunately not had this effect.

As an aside, I note that the results that Baller asked for have not been provided. I do not have these results as I had no interest in these properties. But it is unbelievable that nobody who has read this thread does not have these results. I am sure that somebody has them but the results remain unposted  .

[Dave2]

Dave:

I now have all the proof that I need. Aliens exist and they are all named Dave. BTW, I thought that you drove a blue vehicle .

One of the bonuses you get when you visit Franks favourite town of Moonbeam.  

I don't know why everyone got so negative all of a sudden.  I can't buy anything of value between May 24 and Thanksgiving anyways, too many people from the city,
and prices are too expensive as a result.  If you don't believe me read my posts.

But guess what happens less then a month away.   Like northern Ontario that everyone has been bashing.  There are opportunities there but they are different.

We just have to be patient.  I just hope everyone keeps getting discouraged.  I prefer the ones when there are only two bidders.   In the interim I will keep working away. May have to even bet Netpred again

[ErnestBidder]

  I've been inactive, bidding-wise, the past few years, but stay current with the postings. I was a lurker until I'd read each & every post, but I then registered, as I thought I had a bit to contribute. The board seems quiet, now, but the postings of the select few, or so, seem to be ongoing. Being inactive, for the present, in the bidding, I don't bother checking the results, but have posted a few in the past.

  The lurkers have their place, at first, but perhaps it's time to put in place a requirement that the lurkers register, at least, in order to read the current postings for, say, the last 6 to 12 months. At the very least, we'd know exactly how popular this board really is! If a member then never contributes in any way, a further requirement could be that they at least post their nom de plume after saying "Hi!". As well, I think that Rob would appreciate them chipping in the odd thank you for the great job he does here.


  Dave2, from the look of things lately, you'd better start hunting for a beer wholesaler!

[Dave2]

  Dave2, from the look of things lately, you'd better start hunting for a beer wholesaler!

Ernest Bidder:  I agree with you the board has been too quiet lately. 

Seeing as I always lose to Netpred time I made an appropriate gutsy bet with him.

Netpred:  Assuming everything goes as planned I may have something that is better then a tax sale.  Might even need additional partner(s).  All you have to do is confirm my perspective and enjoy the beer that I already owe you in quantities safe enough to drive without the hastle from the guys or girls with the black and whites cars. 

Let me know when you are by the local area?  I am out of town tomorrow but around on the weekend. Who knows I might have to wean you from tax sales (for a short while)