Tax Liens 101 from the Attorney Who Helped Rewrite the Rules: Stephen Morel

Stephen Morel has spent more than 20 years as a Louisiana title attorney working in the messiest corner of title work: delinquent tax sale titles. He helped rewrite Louisiana's tax sale law, and after Hurricane Katrina he built a title insurance program that put abandoned, forgotten properties back into the stream of commerce. Now he runs JurisDeed. His opening point is the one most tax lien pitches skip. "This is not a private investment, this is a government investment... You have to play by their rule book."

Stephen also explains why the Supreme Court took the gotcha out of tax liens. After Tyler v. Hennepin County, the investor who forecloses no longer keeps the owner's equity. What's left is an interest return, and a process you have to prove you followed.

What Ed and Stephen get into:

• Why tax sales are a real problem in the Northeast, for owners who paid off their houses and still face big tax bills
• Tyler v. Hennepin, Pung v. Isabella County, and who gets the surplus when a property sells
• What a tax lien actually is, and why most redeem long before foreclosure
• Fifty states, fifty rule books: notices, clocks and the receipts you need to get paid
• Post-Katrina New Orleans, missing owners, and why title insurers wouldn't touch abandoned properties
• The Robinhood idea behind JurisDeed
• Build it and they will come, and the decision he'd take back
• Learning more from mistakes than from wins

Also in this episode, Questions from the Underground, from Marnee in South Carolina: two years into a multifamily syndication, the sponsor sent a capital call for another 20% of her original investment, due in 30 days. Ed covers the three things a sponsor owes you before you wire more money, why you treat the call like a brand new investment, what the operating agreement says happens if you pass, and three things to do before you invest a single dollar.

JurisDeed is in closed beta at jurisdeed.com. Stephen also hosts The Innovative Investor Podcast, or find him on LinkedIn.

Got a question you want answered on the show? Send it to ed@clarkst.com.

Recorded September 2026.

Real Estate Underground with Ed Mathews. Find us wherever you get your podcasts, at clarkst.com/podcast or elevista.com/podcast

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