Both descriptions are accurate at different sizes, and the thing that separates them is cost per certificate rather than cost per dollar invested.
A $200 certificate is real. So is the fact that confirming the parcel is worth owning costs roughly the same whether the lien is $200 or $20,000. If a title look and a photo run you $200, you've spent 100% of a small lien and 1% of a large one. That single ratio is why individuals who buy a handful tend to buy in one county they know well and inspect themselves, and why anyone deploying real money sets a minimum lien size and a minimum parcel value before they bid on anything.
The second cliff is jurisdictional. Every state has its own redemption period, interest structure, notice requirements, and subsequent tax rules. Learning one state well is a weekend of reading plus a local attorney. Buying across five states means five sets of rules, five auction calendars, five sets of registration paperwork, and staff to keep the deadlines straight. That's the overhead that makes the scaled version look institutional.
So the honest floor isn't a dollar amount, it's whether your average lien can absorb your diligence cost and your yield can absorb your admin cost.
If you're weighing a fund instead of buying directly, minimums tend to start in the tens of thousands and many of those offerings are restricted to accredited investors, with the restriction coming from securities rules rather than the sponsor's preference. Whether a particular one can even be offered to you is a question for a securities attorney.
