Nine certificates went to deed. Now I own nine rural parcels I can't sell.

This is the tail risk I'd written down and priced at zero.

140 certificates, mostly small residential, spread over four counties. 131 redeemed and the book earned $61k of interest across the period, which is fine. Nine did not redeem and I took them to deed. Average basis after legal, title work, and the notice process was about $3,100 each, so $28k of capital in nine parcels.

The parcels are 5 to 20 acres of scrub. Two have some road frontage, the rest are landlocked or reachable only across a neighbor's field. I listed all nine. After 14 months I've sold four at an average of $1,700. Carrying the other five runs about $2,400 a year between property taxes and having someone cut the growth twice a season so the county doesn't cite me.

So the nine positions are down roughly $19k against basis and still bleeding. The portfolio is positive overall, the tail ate about a third of the year's interest, and I'm now in the land business in four counties without meaning to be. Foreclosure procedure and what you actually receive at the end of it varies by state, and in one of my four the process cost nearly double what it cost in another for the same size parcel.

What I'd do differently, plainly: underwrite the deed outcome on every certificate before I bid, and refuse anything I wouldn't be willing to buy outright at the lien amount. If the answer to "what if I end up owning this" is "I'd rather not," that's a pass, however good the rate looks. And I'd set aside a disposition budget up front rather than discovering it in year two.