Greg Snow - Southwest Florida Real Estate Expert provides real estate services to Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Sanibel and Captiva Islands

  On Thursday May 21st, the remaining 48,000 plus tax certificates for unpaid 2008 property taxes are auctioned off to the lowest interest rate bidder (no higher than 18 %). This is a great opportunity for savy bidders to get a better return rate than on U.S Treasury bills. The winning bidder must deposit $300 or 5%, which ever is higher and complete the payment by May 25. If the property taxes remain unpaid by April 1, 2011, the certificate holder can intiate a tax deed to gain possession of the property, www.leetc.com.

 For whatever reason the owner did not or could not pay the tax bill, the certificates begin earning interest, even the ones not purchased earn 18% for Lee County, Florida. We have over $116 million in unpaid tax bills. The largest is over $800,000 on a 583 acre  parcel on Bonita Beach Road owned by the Ronto Group, www.rontogroup.com. Some tax bills are alot less like $359 on a residential lot in Lehigh Acres. Since anyone can participate in bidding, it is good sense to have someone knowlegeable so one doesn't purchase a "problem" property with environmental issues. This is a nice safe return on investment if one doesn't mind the wait.