Looking for a real estate bargain?

We’ve seen a few around Washtenaw County in the past few years, but now there’s a new batch coming onto the market.

No, not more foreclosures (though that’s probably headed our way, too).

This batch is the local rite of summer called the “Tax Foreclosed Properties Auction,” held every July by the Washtenaw County treasurer’s office.

This year the list of properties headed to auction - after the owners missed tax payments dating from 2007, prompting the foreclosure as allowed by the state and following court orders - contains dozens of parcel numbers.

In July, after all of the official notifications and processes to avert the sale have been exhausted, public auction sales will begin on the 85 properties that made the 2010 list.

A few already have been withdrawn - such as the land at 2008 Chalmers Drive, in the southeast part of Ann Arbor, where the city exercised its right of first refusal to buy the parcel. The purchase price: $14,990 for the ¼-acre lot assessed at just under $35,000.

Northfield Township also bought several parcels for under $1,000 each. Ypsilanti Township also is a buyer, acquiring land on Glenwood that had been owned by Faith Assembly Church.

But dozens remain, representing a wide swath of property types in just about every community in the county.

If you’re looking for a gas station, there’s one available on the corner of Platt and Packard in Ann Arbor. The property looks rundown, but it's just steps from where Rite Aid built a new store a few years ago. The minimum bid: $84,194, compared to the estimate of value based on the assessment, $625,800.

Want a buildable lot in Ann Arbor? Try 3254 Springbrook, one-fifth of an acre available for a minimum bid of $9,992.

Searching for a condo in Ann Arbor? Unit 55 in the Independence complex on Packard Road is available for the minimum bid of $27,466.

What about an entire condo development? That’s on the list, too: Phase 2 of Wellesley Gardens in Pittsfield Township went to tax foreclosure, creating a $1.2 million buying opportunity for anyone interested in taking over the 33 undeveloped acres in the 206-home complex. This is just the latest blow for the community, which already suffered when developer Jeff Brown left Michigan - and a trail of unpaid bills - in 2007.

The buyer of that land could build the 218 condos already platted for the parcel, or come up with a new plan for the property near U.S. 23 and U.S. 12.

The online auctions start July 20. They continue in September, October and November, according to the website. A few will be held in person.

Buyers will have to pay 2010 property taxes, in addition to the sales price. And all purchases are “as is.”

My first look at a county tax sale list came in 2003, when the list was much shorter - a then-rare commercial building on West Cross Street in Ypsilanti was on the list, but so were some properties that had obvious issues. Most were vacant parcels, some very small or existing solely of wetlands or some other issue that gave them value only to neighbors.

The properties in this year’s list represent more loss. Depending on the property, someone took a financial or emotional hit on most of these: Owners, lenders, neighbors, ex-residents, municipalities and the county.

Some might say they represent more opportunity, too, on the buying side. Most of the minimum bids are just fractions of the estimated market value, which was based on 2010 assessments.

By the end of the fall, we’ll know just how many of these properties were worth those bargain prices to buyers. And by then, county officials may have an indication of how the 2011 auction will shape up, based on who’s catching up on overdue tax bills - and who’s just letting them go.

Paula Gardner is Business News Director of AnnArbor.com. Contact her at 734-623-2586 or by e-mail. Sign up for the weekly Business Review newsletter, distributed every Thursday, here.