Our last two blogs have focused on the consequences of not properly monitoring real estate tax delinquencies, and common mistakes lenders make when managing tax tracking internally. As a quick review, when tax delinquencies aren’t accurately monitored, they can result in significant fees, risk of lost properties, and unhappy borrowers.
While some lending institutions handle tax tracking adequately internally, many struggle to allocate the appropriate resources to this critical responsibility. For that reason, outsourcing real estate tax services is common—however, some vendors are better partners than others.
In this blog, we’ll examine the unique services and capabilities that Info-Pro offers, and why you should consider choosing Info-Pro to handle your real estate tax services.
Annual checks and rechecks
It may seem obvious that a tax servicer should check each parcel annually, but many do not. They will do an initial comprehensive check, then monitor the portfolio bi-annually. The problem with this is if a delinquency or late erroneous happens in that off year—the tax servicer may not ever catch it, leaving fees to pile up and opening up risk of losing the property.
Info-Pro checks for delinquencies for every parcel in your portfolio, every year. We also go further than that and provide automatic “rechecks” 4-6 months after the initial delinquency check, to make sure nothing was missed and check back in with issues identified in the first check.
Basically, Info-Pro makes sure that nothing tax-related is going on in your portfolio without you knowing it.
Thoroughness
To Info-Pro, thoroughness in our real estate tax services means going above and beyond to account for any special situation. A common scenario that can happen is as follows:
- A tax bill is delinquent for a period of time, without the lender or borrower realizing.
- The tax agency eventually sells those delinquent taxes (and associated interest/fees) to a third-party tax buyer. Now that third party holds the primary lien position for that property.
- The tax agency marks the account as “paid,” with no note about the third-party transaction.
- If a lender or tax servicer simply checks the tax agency website, the account will look paid—and the lender and borrower may go years without knowing someone else holds the primary lien on the property.
To prevent situations like this and other unique or unexpected scenarios, Info-Pro is extremely thorough when monitoring for delinquencies. If a third-party purchases the taxes, we’ll find out—and let the lender know immediately.
Timing
Timing of tax delinquency checks are another area where Info-Pro exceeds other tax servicers. We know the tax billing cycle for every county in every state, so when a fiscal period ends, we perform our searches as soon as possible. Doing this ensures we identify a delinquency or erroneous payment quickly, to minimize accumulating fees and remove the risk of losing the property.
Tax Agency Nuances
That final area that gives Info-Pro the edge over competitors is our relationship with every tax agency we work with. We know each county’s nuances and processes, and work collaboratively to create the most efficient process for all parties. Other tax servicers apply a one-size-fits-all approach, which can mean missing a discount period, additional fees and other issues when the process doesn’t run smoothly.
In addition, Info-Pro provides all those tax agency nuances to our customers (lending institutions) via our online platform. That way, lenders have instant access to information if they want to check a due date, contact a tax office, identify discount periods or anything else related to that tax office.
Info-Pro is committed to providing the highest quality real estate tax services available. To discover how Info-Pro can support your institution and reduce delinquency risks, set up a free consultation today.
