Washtenaw County's largest online tax foreclosure real estate auction started Tuesday

Added to the mix are the recent years’ falling property values, tight lending and uncertainty over the risks associated with real estate investments.

“I’m curious myself to see what the market’s like this year,” said Catherine McClary, Washtenaw County treasurer.

Previous tax foreclosure auctions typically featured fewer than a dozen properties. This year, 85 properties were on the list after the owners did not pay 2007 property taxes at the time or during redemption periods. They range from vacant land to single-family homes to commercial properties.

While many of the county’s sales started today, others will be taking place in September.

And within days, the first round of auctions will be over: The online auctions for 25 properties will end Wednesday, while another 22 will end on Thursday.

Activity was growing throughout the day today: By mid-afternoon, for example, 8 of the 25 properties facing a Wednesday auction deadline had bids. One house - located at 1475 Jay in Ypsilanti Township - had received 8 bids totaling $13,100, compared to its estimated value, based on its assessment, of $104,000. That auction ends Thursday.

“I think some of the properties are really good buying opportunities,” McClary said. “But people need to research (them). … We want informed buyers.”

The bidders could be from anywhere in the U.S., thanks to the national platform of online auctioneers Bid4Assets.com. The company has done the tax foreclosure sales for Washtenaw County since 1999.

“They have thousands of people who register then bid,” McClary said.

Bidders get a clear title and they’re not responsible for any previous charges related to the tax foreclosure. They do, however, need to be prepared to make 2010 tax payments, including the amount due on July 31. They also should research the terms of sale.

At auction end, McClary and her staff will start the follow-up work: Issuing quit claim deeds after collecting payment.

“We want payment within 24 hours,” she said. “That’s our focus.”

If properties don’t sell, it’s possible that they’ll be back for another attempt in September, when another batch of properties are scheduled to cross the auction block. Among those: A former gas station at Packard and Platt roads and 203 condo lots in Wellesley Gardens in Pittsfield Township.

Properties that don’t sell this week and don’t come back for a later auction will simply go into municipal ownership for ongoing maintenance.

In the meantime, McClary said, any prospective bidder who thinks the starting price of a property is too high should know how the price is set.

The county is required to set a minimum bid that includes “all taxes, penalties, fees, interest and the costs to bring it to auction,” she said.

The public can track the progress of the auctions, watching the number of page views and current price. Yet despite the thousands of page views during the auction, not many of them are generated by curious staff in her office, McClary said.

“We don’t follow it,” she said. “We wait for the results to come in. We don’t sit on the website all day. We have a lot of work to do.”

Still, McClary said, she’s eager to see how the auctions end. This year’s volume of properties and still-tenuous investment real estate market leave many questions about the likely outcome of this year’s auctions.

“We’ve had a few success stories (over the years),” McClary said, “but for the most part, we haven’t had that many properties. It will be interesting to see what happens.”