r/CaliforniaRealEstate

Looking for a real estate agent in southern Ca that negotiates pre auction homes.

Not selling anything — no course, no paywall, no email wall to read it. Just a hobby project I want a sanity check on.

I got into California tax-deed sales and got annoyed that every county "list" is a giant PDF where the good parcels and the junk look identical. So I started pulling the lists, cross-checking each parcel against the county's *own* assessor/GIS records, and cutting them down with rules you can actually read.

Stuff that surprised me:

- San Bernardino's July sale: of ~1,193 priced non-timeshare parcels, about **858 (~72%) open at or above the county's entire assessed value.** The "minimum bid" often isn't a discount at all.

- The most extreme lot: county values it at **$241**, opening bid **$88,341** (366×). Almost always a data/assessment quirk — never a bargain.

- Riverside: 946 parcels on the list, ~175 I'd actually spend diligence hours on.

Everything's free and the sources are shown so you can check my work: lot-brief.com/sales/ (sortable/downloadable), and there's a write-up of how I read a sale in the research section.

I'm genuinely just trying to figure out if this is useful to anyone but me. If you do this for real — what would make it worth using? What am I getting wrong? Roast it.

Obligatory: this is desk research, not advice — assessed value ≠ market value, verify title/access/everything before you bid.

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*858 (~72%) open at or above the county's entire assessed value.** The "minimum bid" often isn't a discount at all.

- The most extreme lot: county values it at **$241**, opening bid **$88,341** (366×). Almost always a data/assessment quirk — never a bargain.

- Riverside: 946 parcels on the list, ~175 I'd actually spend diligence hours on.

Everything's free and the sources are shown so you can check my work: lot-brief.com/sales/ (sortable/downloadable), and there's a write-up of how I read a sale in the research section. I'm genuinely just trying to figure out if this is useful to anyone but me. If you do this for real — what would make it worth using? What am I getting wrong? Roast it.

Obligatory: this is desk research, not advice — assessed value ≠ market value, verify title/access/everything before you bid.

This experience actually reshaped my entire view on California real estate.

In short, city cited me a code violation citatio after a 5 minutes google search , and recorded the Notice of violation to my property title the next day, without giving me a chance to even receive the citation.

Citation was because photos on gooogle don’t meet city current code. Without an in person tour, code enforcement issued the citation #1, clouded my title and ruined an active house escrow.

Citation #2 and #3 were issued and all my appeal hearing requests in writing and apppeal hearing fee is cashed, but no hearing was granted.

I lost 10 lbs within a week after I heard from the attorneys that 1. city’s code enforcement notices are essentially a lien on your title 2. to fight against this, you need a 3 year court process, during those 3 years, you can’t refinance, sell or change title to your property.

A 3 year court fight is essentially a $100k attorney fee fight and city has exemptions to reimburse attorney fees so you could win the case, but lose substantially in attorney fees.

So, I was told the best bet is to negotiate with the city and get a settlement.

I figured, due to my proofs in my hands, I shall be able to prove myself. I filed a small claim court case and asked for an injunction relief. As soon as I filed a case against the city, code enforcement immediately called me and said they would refund #2 #3 but not #1 and not refund all the processing fees charged by the center.

i went to court, provided all proofs ( cameras, home usages, witnesses for lease listings ) and city could not provide any proof. Judge ruled in my favor.

I thought this is the final decision. No, I kept receiving collections letter from the city stating I owe them clawback fees due to judge issued order against the city to pay me.

So, the current status is, city still keeps harassing me with collection fees for a violation that I never did and proved to be false allegations by court. I’m facing a $100 citation collection after fighting so hard, and am still owed for thousands of suit costs by the city.

This is probably why you can’t own property in smaller cities and cities in hardship, no matter how good the numbers look like.

TBH, this property has appreciated well, but I was on the edge of getting seized by the city because of google search..

In bigger metros, this problem is less of a problem because they have better understanding of civil rights.

In CAalifornia, you need to ask around and figure out if a city is truly buyable.