... to get to TN by 8 o'clock in the morning. To go to the county courthouse for the once a year real estate sale of property that the city or county will assume ownership of for unpaid taxes. Individuals have the opportunity to bid on these pieces of land, most with improvements, for the payment of taxes owed. If it is a very desirable piece, with some reason to be of high value, like a condominium, or a water access on a big TVA lake, it would naturally be worth more, and likely induce a number of potential buyers to show up.
There are any number of reasons the property would show up listed at this event. Several were listed, but withdrawn at the very last minute, like this morning, when the property owner filed for bankruptcy the day before. The little bit of real estate we were interested in has a small brick building right across the street from my peeps. Designed to be a duplex, it been empty for several years. They have been keeping the grass cut, and would be tending to the landscaping, except there is not anything besides grass/weeds growing in the yard.
We were supposed to be in the council-meeting room at 9:00, to register our persons, and get a number to hold up when we got ready to bid. We must have been pretty early getting in the line, as our number was 10. But we never got to use it. Though we sat through, literally, hours of bid-letting, we never stood a chance.
The bidding was started promptly at 10. We were read instructions as a formality about what would and would not happen, what we could and could not do. Including the line about: if you bid and did not get to the clerks' office to pay your obligation by 4:00 closing time, you would get a subpoena. And when you did show yourself up to answer the contempt of court charge, you had best bring your toothbrush, and plan to stay a while.
Lots of the properties drew no interest, so are now owned by the City of Chattanooga or Hamilton County. And will I guess be sold, buildings demolished, turned into empty lots to attract vermin and vagrants? I don't know. I am slightly wondering if those things that no one expressed even a smidgen of interest in could now be bought from the city/county for even less than the accumulated back taxes, just to get them back in circulation? Into private ownership and on the tax rolls again?
So, What, you may ask, happened with the duplex? There was much more interest than I had anticipated. There were several guys who must be renovators, and some competition for the little brick house and tiny lot. The bidding got up over $30,000, which was considerably more than I was prepared to write a check for. I'm kinda sad. but will definitely get over it. Now thinking that the new owner has so much invested in his new property he'll have to clean it up, and rent to reliable, dependable people with the hope of getting his investment back.
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