Property Acquisition - For Free?

by PTKitty

About 25 years ago, I decided to live "in the wind," sometimes known as a PT, or Permanent Traveler.

Our society doesn't appreciate, condone, or support this, but being homeless is about the same thing.  And few people seem to bother much about that.  The fellow I was dating at the time wanted to do the same thing, so we each disposed of most of our worldly belongings... sold, dumped or stored... and took off.

We each had a vehicle, which we used according to whim, occasionally using both if needed.  Unlike the "unwashed homeless" however, we needed to appear "normal," blending in wherever we went.  We did not want to attract negative attention, and being dirty and disheveled wouldn't help.  So we needed certain things: transportation, clean clothes, places to stay, cash.

I'll try to keep this part as short as possible, though it may be of interest under a different title, and there are many things a person needs to do or know to live like we did.  But it leads up to my free property situation.

Anyway, to support ourselves, we did things for people.

We needed cash for gas and vehicle maintenance, and occasional visits to campgrounds, where we could rest, get clean, do laundry, etc.  To avoid weather difficulties, we stayed south in winter.

We made friends along the way, and helped them with their needs, often getting paid for it and setting up future visits where we were invited to stay with them.  My companion was an electrician, and I'm a doctor.  His skills were more in demand than mine, however, because people don't trust a doctor-on-the-loose, so to speak.  And what could I do for them?  I didn't have an office, just knowledge, though I did a little consulting along the way.  Anyway, I learned to be an electrician's helper then, and we repaired and rewired homes and vehicles all over the U.S.  Some months we had plenty, some months not much.

One winter we left our belongings behind at a new friend's house and lived in the Caribbean, island hopping and, again, helping people.

Much less cash there, but the cost of living was almost nil.  On the days we had nothing, we picked up loose change on the streets to buy basic items like vegetables, beverages, and "pig bread" at local bakeries, called day-old-bread here.  Side note: The coins in that area are mostly aluminum and are so lightweight, they literally blow out of your hand on a breezy day.  Since wind is common there, and people tend to be careless, we found plenty of coins - enough to live on - about $1.50 to $2 per day.  Sounds incredible, but this was the eighties and we were in a third-world country.  (I just wish I had taken pictures of the banks of public telephones in the towns.  Very few people had phones at home, so the phone banks were the site of an all-night social event as people hung out waiting their turn to call someone, even if it was just the guy at the next phone.)

We enjoyed a fun and carefree lifestyle while we were homeless and met a lot of nice folks and made a lot of friends, both on the islands and in the U.S.  Well, we both own property in the U.S., and the inevitable taxes must be paid every year.  Since I had closed my bank account, we were using only his, and only for these kinds of expenses.  All of my cash went into his account to simplify things and all bills - his and mine - were paid through his bank.  Mail was forwarded to whatever friend we were (or said we were) staying with.

The second year we were out, my tax bill arrived addressed to him.  He was listed as the property owner.  Mind you, no documents existed to support a transfer of ownership.  I had not deeded it over to him.  He did not buy it.  He did not redeem it at a tax sale.  No, he merely paid my bill with my money, in his name.  Later that year, on a trip into Colorado, we stopped in at the courthouse in that county to correct the records.  They refused to change the name in their files.  I argued, I shouted, I blamed, I begged, I threatened to sue the county... all to no avail.  Once an entry has been made in a government system, even if a dumbass clerk makes the mistake, it takes legal action to change it.

Just why did he own my property?  Well, because he was paying the taxes.  I see, I argued, so all I have to do is pay someone's taxes for them and I get to keep their house?  Sounds like an easy and cheap way to accumulate assets.  The clerk only stared back at me with that dumb look you always see on government employees' faces.  I did, indeed, have to hire a lawyer to get my property back.  Back?  Something is wrong with this picture.  I never gave my property to anyone.  I thought there was some kind of legal procedure for that, and it requires paperwork.

Well, I don't have that property anymore (gave it to the kids, with proper paperwork, before anything else happened to it) and now live in another state, back to being an enslaved resident/citizen, for all that conjures up.  I asked at the courthouse here if that scenario was possible in this state, and they assured me it was not.  But it was only a blank-faced government employee who told me that.  So who knows for sure?

I suppose if you live in Colorado, or just want to own property there, all you have to do is pay someone's property taxes for them and it's yours.  Since that stuff is in the public record, you could pick and choose the properties you'd like to have.  You'd have each address and the exact amount of the tax bill.  Technically, this is not free since you need some money to do it, but it is free if all you count is the "purchase price" of the property, which you didn't have to pay.

I wonder what would happen if you managed to pay someone's taxes before they even got a bill and they didn't find out about it.  Surely, the property owner would contact you eventually to find out what's going on - if they could find you, but what if you managed to do this for several years and then sold the house?  Would they have to move out, pay rent, buy it back, or hire a lawyer like I had to?  Well, there are too many scenarios to consider here, and all of them would work out better for someone else than this one did for me.  I don't have that kind of luck.  It was quite expensive to get mine back.  Plus, I didn't marry the guy, so he could have made out like a bandit.  He's still in the wind.... I'm not.

The point here is to watch your back.  And don't take a clerk's word for anything.

While this seems to be a potential, though sneaky, way to obtain real estate the easy and cheap way, I don't have the time or inclination to pursue property accumulation this way.  But I offer this as a warning to watch your own back.

You never know when the bastards will take advantage of you.