Out-Of-Town Investor Gets Rude Surprise After Getting 'Good Deal' On Tax-Foreclosed Vacant House Purchase

In Syracuse, New York, The Post Standard reports:

• Toronto real estate investor David Ayanoglou thought he found a good deal in Syracuse: a vacant two-family house at 209 Columbus Ave. Ayanoglou visited the boarded-up structure, in a low-income area on the East Side. It needed work, but he decided it had a lot of potential.
• The house was available because the previous owner had not paid the taxes, giving the city of Syracuse the right to foreclose. The city sold that right in 2006 — along with tax liens on hundreds of other properties — to American Tax Funding LLC, a private company in Florida. American Tax Funding foreclosed in 2007 and sold the property in 2008 to Ayanoglou and a partner.
• A few months after Ayanoglou paid $13,000 for the house, his property manager called from Syracuse with bad news. The house had been demolished by the city.

For more, see Tax liens cause disputes for Syracuse, a Florida firm and long-distance homeowners.