Day 1 of Washtenaw County's tax foreclosure auction: 4 commercial properties sold
A former adult book store on East Michigan Avenue is one of four properties that sold Monday in Washtenaw County's tax foreclosure auction.
The building at 2485 E. Michigan Ave. was one of seven commercial properties up for bids in the auction that started last week.
Washtenaw County
The highest selling price recorded on Monday was $51,600 for 7970 Clark Lake Road in Lyndon Township. Its minimum bid was $29,900, and had an estimated market value of $248,600.
Also selling on Monday was vacant land on Ecorse Road, which sold for $4,200, and a small structure at 12208 W. Michigan in Bridgewater Township for $5,700. Both of those totals were the minimum bids.
Unsold were two bundled properties on East Michigan Avenue in Ypsilanti Township, and vacant land on Six Mile in Northfield Township and another parcel on Ecorse.
The county generated $83,500 in the commercial portion of the auction, compared to the $96,000 "break-even" figure.
The online auction at Bid4Assets.com continues Tuesday and Wednesday, when 24 listings for vacant land and then 33 residential properties, respectively, are sold.
Unsold properties will go into a sale later this year.
Comments
John B.
Tue, Jul 26, 2011 : 5:08 p.m.
I assume that the home in the Chelsea area that sold for $51,000 and is 'worth' $248,000 needs about $200,000 in work to be up to snuff?
WhyCan'tWeBeFriends
Wed, Jul 27, 2011 : 7:42 a.m.
The "worth" is probably what is owed on it. Sadly, it might also represent how it is being taxed. A devalued property has a stigma though, and will never command its true worth. If it sells for 51K and someone puts another 50K in it to bring it back to speed, it might sell for its 248K "worth", but buyers today are generally not that visionary. They complain about paint color, nevermind bowing basement walls! Money can fix everything in a property. You just need to know how much money is needed and buy right at the start.
Silly Sally
Tue, Jul 26, 2011 : 12:46 p.m.
The silly county doesn't want to get top dollar, or even recoup its back taxes. If it really did, it would allow a much lionger time than 24 hours to pay up. Even those who have a spare $50,000 lying around may have it in stocks and not in a bank ready for a cashiers check.. Even 3 days would make a big difference. They could require a non-refundable deposit of $1,000 and allow a week or two. Both methods would enlarge the pool of potential buyers and therefore increase the bidding and the eventual price paid. That said, this article left out the story of why someone would walk away from a home worth $250,000, and assuming that it was owned by a bank, why the bank would do likewise.
WhyCan'tWeBeFriends
Wed, Jul 27, 2011 : 7:36 a.m.
I think this needs to be published here much earlier than the first day of the sale. Many of us don't stalk the county website. Why do we hear about it now and not in time to make arrangements?
Lunefils
Tue, Jul 26, 2011 : 1:37 p.m.
A November 2010 Government Accountability Office reported: "Servicers typically abandon a foreclosure when they determine that the cost to complete the foreclosure exceeds the anticipated proceeds from the property's sale." The suggestion is that banks recognize that a home's true market value is well below the original mortgage against it, and are initiating their own "strategic default" on a poor investment. The GAO article is entitled, "Mortgage Foreclosures: Additional Mortgage Servicer Actions Could Help Reduce the Frequency and Impact of Abandoned Foreclosures", and can be found here: <a href="http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-93" rel='nofollow'>http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-93</a>