FAQ

Sure but you are not done. They will give you a “list” of information that you can easily pull right off a county website for free but you still need much more information before you can even begin to use that record. 

Please take note, we are talking about Florida Only! There are different laws and statutes regarding tax deed surplus in other states and counties. There may be a list provider for another state that does not require lienholders to be paid first. We are not talking about them. Our training and surplus lists pertain to Florida.

Although Florida Surplus Recovery can seem intimidating with the statutes and liens, the state also has the most open public record laws in the country. You are able to get your hands on every document and piece of information you need concerning the property, owners and liens.

100% no! There was a time when I personally thought of doing it. However, at the time, there was practically NO information online and trying to figure out all of the processes and systems of each and every county was mind-boggling. I began gathering the information for myself, keeping notes, making lists and charts. Microsoft Excel and Access became my best friends. As I began to see how massively spread out and ridiculous all the information and links were, I decided THIS was a way better method for me to conduct my business. As it turns out, I am quite an introvert and the ‘salesman’ part of claiming surplus was not for me. I am far better working behind the curtain.

There is NO cherry-picking of records. Everyone receives them all!

Counties in other states are harder for us to produce surplus lists because other states/county auctions do not work currently like Florida (Live auctions, Property Information Reports online, No redemption period after the auction). 

However, on our website SurplusDatabase.com (NOT Surplus Database Pro), we have lists from counties outside of Florida. We also provide the Claim Form, Claim Process and County Contact Information whenever possible. There are no subscriptions on that website, you just go there and purchase lists whenever you want.

• First and most importantly, no matter how many people have access to good surplus records, the ultimate question is not “How many people have this record”… It is “How can I win this client?“. There are multiple strategies of competition: Lower percentage fees, visiting potential client in person, developing a good relationship over the phone, constant contact, services beyond surplus recovery, etc.
• Second, with surplus records, there is a new set of records 4-5 Days a week / every week. Each surplus record is a brand new person/possible client. There is no repeat of potential clients (well, sometimes there is since a person can own more than one property that goes to a tax deed auction). Also, now with the new Florida Statute in effect, lien holders have only 120 days to put in a claim or are barred forever, therefore there is a big push to gain the lien holders as clients as well.  So it isn’t as if ALL Asset Recovery Businesses are fighting over a set amount of 100 clients and once the clients are all chosen, there are no more.
• If you are looking at other methods of obtaining surplus records, they ALL create competition. We win by supplying the records the FASTEST way possible.

So while the short answer is ‘yes, you will have competition’, the correct answer is “if you are going to be in this business at all and have any chance of success, you HAVE TO get to the surplus records long before the county releases them and our website is the answer’.

If YOU found a county’s old surplus list laying around somewhere, you can’t think you are the only one who found it. Our method has a lot less competition that those surplus lists given a month or year after the auction.

Also, people will subscribe one month, take a break to process all those records, then re-subscribe in another month, etc. We have NO contracts or term limits. You are free to come and go as you please.

Once you receive your surplus records, there is a LOT of other work you have to still do: Locate potential client(s), gather necessary paperwork, submit claim to the county, track the claim, etc.  Therefore, having a new set of fresh records every auction day can quickly become overwhelming. With all this in mind, we believe there are plenty of surplus records and potential clients to go around.

We guarantee that our method is the fastest way of locating great surplus records.

One thing we can tell you for sure: If you cannot succeed with tax deed surplus recovery in Florida using our records, our methods… you will not succeed at all because there is no way to get records faster. Plus we give you the Property Information Reports, which is a tremendous time-saver for you. 

Update 03-10-2024: We no longer use the separate website, FloridaOverbids.com. All content from that website has been moved over to TaxAuctionSurplus.com so there is no confusion from having multiple websites.

Florida Overbids contains the Step-by-Step training for each Florida County as well as the County Claim Forms and Client forms. There is also a Q&A Section where you can ask county-specific questions. In short, Florida Overbids is for Training and Resources you need. You can purchase a subscription to this website alone OR if you join TaxAuctionSurplus.com, a subscription to Florida Overbids is included free.

Tax Auction Surplus is where we keep the Surplus Lists and Property Information Reports. You would log in and retrieve the fresh surplus lists each time we notify you there is a new on (typically every Monday through Friday).

When we began this service, we had never heard of them and some did not exist yet. However, this has ultimately become one of our most asked questions.

We are not affiliated with any other ‘tax deed surplus’ business out there.

We own the following:

• FloridaOverbids.com
• TaxAuctionSurplus.com
• SurplusDatabase.com
• SurplusDatabasePro.com
• FloridaTaxAuction.com
• UnclaimedBankruptcy.com
• UnclaimedPropertyDB.com
• CaliforniaExcessProceeds.com

and a few other domain names that we are currently not using.

We get asked to compare ourselves with their service or review them but we cannot since none of us here use their services.  The only thing we can offer in comparison is that we supply our clients with daily (Lien researched) surplus lists we create from the auctions we watch live.  We also supply the property owners name and mailing address as well as the Property Information Reports from the counties.

There is no other company in the U.S. that does this currently.

We HAVE spoken with Wallace of TaxSaleResults.com and think very highly of him.

Once you receive our surplus lists on TaxAuctionSurplus.com, the work is not complete. You would still need to download the Property Information Report, determine if any liens are on the property that may take the surplus and then research those liens to see how much is owed and to whom.

On SurplusDatabasePro.com, we do all of that for you. Once our records are in your hands, you can begin your work of locating and signing the client. Plus, with SurplusDatabasePro, you receive the records much faster than on TaxAuctionSurplus.com.

With SurplusDatabasePro.com, you also would receive our “Monday Reports”. This is a report that we upload every Monday in which we take all records where any liens on them expired in the previous week and therefore, all surplus remaining is due to only the previous property owner. We then re-research those records to see IF claims were made, WHO put in claims and how much surplus is remaining (if any).

If you would like to see on of the Monday Reports as an example, here is a link to one: 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i2oQ_bDIHvtPqQAxloWzA3d_zKnpAye1/view?usp=sharing

First, not all counties put a list up on their website. In fact, most do not. Some will put a PDF list up once a year, others have a search form to search records.

However, as stated above, the information the county provides on their “lists and records” is not user-friendly to asset recovery companies. The lists they provide are meant for the previous owners to look and see if they have surplus.

There is not enough information to be helpful to asset recovery companies.

For example, the county list will provide something like:

Case#                Auction Date             Parcel ID                  Surplus Amount

2017-4515TD      08/20/2016                00012854J62A4           $25,621.55

If you were the previous owner of that property, you know that is the Parcel Number of your property and therefore, you found surplus for yourself. However, as an Asset Recovery person, the above information doesn’t help you. Using what the county gives, you will need to:

1. Look up the Parcel ID on the Property Appraisers website and find out who the owner was at the time of the auction. So you have to look back at the sale date (8/20/2016). If you look at the Property Appraisers site, it will show you who owns it now, NOT the person who owned it at the time of the sale… so you have to go deeper and look at the sale date that matches the auction date to find the correct owner who is entitled to the surplus.
2. Locate the Tax Deed documents pertaining to the Case # and within those documents, find the Ownership & Encumbrance Report or Title Report that the county was obligated to create at the time of the auction so all owners and lienholders could be notified. Therefore, you are able to see if there are liens or mortgages on the property that would be entitled to the surplus before the previous owner. Plus you may find additional addresses for the owner to help you locate them because they highly likely no longer live at the property that was auctioned off. (We say ‘highly likely’ because it is possible the person who purchased the tax deed at auction allowed them to continue living at the property in exchange for rent)

Performing those tasks above takes a tremendous amount of time. Therefore, after you have spent so much time on the above, you STILL have to deal with convincing the previous owner to hire you and putting in a claim with the county. Meanwhile, a whole new batch of surplus records is ready and waiting for you to begin with. It can quickly overwhelm you.

Can you begin to see why we say there is no over-saturation? There are massive amounts of auctions, records, documents and more to where it can become too much to handle and people give up trying to keep up.

And THAT is why we also created Surplus Database Pro https://www.surplusdatabasepro.com

You NEED help in keeping up with the tax deed surplus cycle. We have a team that is laser-focused on the tax deed records in Florida. We provide the great, researched records, you relax and deal with the rest.