Lenny Ogburn
Posted on March 17, 2011 byLenny Ogburn has always been an entrepreneur and investor, owning a partnership in 3 video stores in the early 1990’s, owing over a dozen rental properties and self storage units, rehabbed and/or flipped over 30 properties, has invested in car notes, business notes and real estate notes. In 1998, when he bought his present home at a great price, paying the sellers asking price and acquiring it by a subject-to deal, the county that year raised his property tax value to over $60,000 higher than the purchase price of his home. Having bought 7 properties that year, Lenny quickly realized that buying properties as an investor was tough to make cash flow from the rentals when the county jacked the values for investors and home owners.
Having lower fair market tax values helps a landlord/owner with making a property carry a positive cash-flow. Lenny dug in, learned the laws regarding property taxes, fought the counties, sometimes even taking the cases to Superior court, and wining lower tax valuations even in a rising market. Lenny has been fighting tax increase ever since. One county attorney even said that Lenny had fought the county harder than most commercial property owners. Lenny is still actively investing in real estate and enjoys helping other investors lower their property taxes.