Is there a real service business inside tax sales or is it just lawyers

I sat through a live deed auction as a spectator and counted maybe fourteen bidders who clearly knew what they were doing and thirty-something who did not. The ones who did not were asking the clerk questions the clerk isn't allowed to answer. That looked like unmet demand to me.

But every version of a service I sketch out runs into a wall. Telling somebody which parcels are worth bidding on sounds like an opinion on title, and in most states opinions on title come from a licensed attorney, so that side is closed to me. Doing the parcel research and handing over raw facts, assessor data, aerials, code violation history, sale history where the state even makes prices public, seems like it stays on the right side of the line, but the value is thinner and the buyer knows it.

The third version is post-sale work. Occupancy, cleanouts, quiet title coordination, redemption tracking. That's real labor with real pricing and it doesn't require me to render an opinion on anything. It's also only relevant to the small fraction of certificates that ever become properties, so the volume is limited unless I work for institutional buyers.

Where I keep getting stuck is that the first version is where the pain is and the third version is where the clean work is. Anybody who's actually sold into this space, I want to know which one people pay for. Licensing triggers for research versus advisory work differ state to state and I'd get that checked before charging anyone.