People interested in purchasing tax-foreclosed properties in Wayne County have until Friday to submit deposits.
The second round of this year’s auction starts the following week. The minimum bid for all properties is $500.
Jerry Paffendorf is co-founder of a group called LOVELAND Technologies that set up a web site to make it easier to see what’s available. The site, whydontweownthis.com, lets people view information about the surrounding area and the condition of some properties. And Paffendorf says there’s also a function where people can talk about the properties for sale.
"So if you’ve got something to say about the property, if you know something, if you’re interested in bidding, if you have a question, if you’re interested in bidding with other people just to do something with it, then you can say all those things there, and then we categorize it into one big feed, so you can see what the conversations are about the auction city-wide," said Paffendorf.
He says LOVELAND is also setting up another site that will allow people to get help with the refundable registration fee required to bid on properties. Paffendorf says he also wants to be able to crowdsource funding for people who don't want to own properties, but want to help others purchase them.
The first round of the 2011 Wayne County tax auction netted close to $10 million in property sales. That’s a big increase from last year.
About 13,000 properties remain on the auction block for round two of the sale.
