31
Member Experiences / Chatham Auction
« on: July 14, 2006, 10:30:15 PM »
We have been looking for land for the last year and have bid on a few properties but with no success. Our need is to find property where we can build a home and have room for gardening for my wife grow and hybridizes Daylilies.
We went down to look at a couple of lots in the Chatham-Kent Tax Sale. The first parcel was i a 1/4 of an acre property in North Buxton. The property is exempt from zoning requirements for it was created before zoning changes otherwise there would not be required frontage. The problem that I saw was the lot was surrounded by houses with septic systems that seemed to be seeping onto the property.
The second property was a 132' X 132' lot in Dresden a large flat double lot with two large trees that provided cool shade on an extremely hot day. The lot was bought back in 1902 and 10 by William Henry Green who is long dead and the tax was bing payed by the estate of Margaret Green who is also deceased.
We came up with an amount of $17000 and either sell it for 55K or if it did not sell build a retirement home on the property, I found some nice modular homes that had a small town look, we would place it in the center of the lot and have it surrounded by perennial gardens.
I look down through the package that we picked up and saw that this was not for sale by tender but by Auction. This meant that we had to make the 2 1/2 hour drive again on the 13th.
As we drove into town we drove by the house that was for sale and saw a truck with a trailer with a load of appliances and thought the owners had given up and were moving out. I thought this was good being that the land I was interested was up for sale first and bidders would hold onto the money so they can bid on the other property. With an auction you have to figure out what you want to spend and bring it as a certified cheque. However when I got to the Civic Centre I found that the owner had come in and payed his bill and it was cancelled
When we got there we were the only ones there and we sat in the back and I thought that no one was going to show up, that would be to easy. Ten minutes before things were to start people started to come in. There were around a dozen people that were just there to watch, 2 to 3 were like you in me just looking for an opportunity, but there where 3 to 4 contractors. From their conversation I took that the one was working on a house for resale and that they had come looking to bid on the house that was canceled.
There was no bids on the first property and they went on to the property in Dresden. The bidding started at $10623 and there were bids in increments between $100 to $500, then someone jumped up to 15 followe by another who bid 17, I bid $17-1 and I heard an uneasy 17-2 as if she had reached her limit, before I was able to put another bid in it went to 17-5, then all of a sudden the contractors that were sitting in the back took off and started biding like crazy, 3 of them biding back in forth $1000 increment trying to out do the other, they got to 35 and someone shot up to 48 and it stoped. What happened even the people that were running the auction had that confused look on their face.
Dresden is a small town and there is not much in the way of new homes being built, the real Estate guy I call said that Dresden had the lowest prices in S Ont, actually there is a lot of houses being sold as is or by power of sale. What I felt was that these contractors had come looking for the house which they would of bought and fixed up. With no one being interested in the commercial property and the house cancelled the contractor, with big checks in there pockets jumped in. You can't compete with people with deep pockets.
There were no bids for any of the other properties
We went down to look at a couple of lots in the Chatham-Kent Tax Sale. The first parcel was i a 1/4 of an acre property in North Buxton. The property is exempt from zoning requirements for it was created before zoning changes otherwise there would not be required frontage. The problem that I saw was the lot was surrounded by houses with septic systems that seemed to be seeping onto the property.
The second property was a 132' X 132' lot in Dresden a large flat double lot with two large trees that provided cool shade on an extremely hot day. The lot was bought back in 1902 and 10 by William Henry Green who is long dead and the tax was bing payed by the estate of Margaret Green who is also deceased.
We came up with an amount of $17000 and either sell it for 55K or if it did not sell build a retirement home on the property, I found some nice modular homes that had a small town look, we would place it in the center of the lot and have it surrounded by perennial gardens.
I look down through the package that we picked up and saw that this was not for sale by tender but by Auction. This meant that we had to make the 2 1/2 hour drive again on the 13th.
As we drove into town we drove by the house that was for sale and saw a truck with a trailer with a load of appliances and thought the owners had given up and were moving out. I thought this was good being that the land I was interested was up for sale first and bidders would hold onto the money so they can bid on the other property. With an auction you have to figure out what you want to spend and bring it as a certified cheque. However when I got to the Civic Centre I found that the owner had come in and payed his bill and it was cancelled
When we got there we were the only ones there and we sat in the back and I thought that no one was going to show up, that would be to easy. Ten minutes before things were to start people started to come in. There were around a dozen people that were just there to watch, 2 to 3 were like you in me just looking for an opportunity, but there where 3 to 4 contractors. From their conversation I took that the one was working on a house for resale and that they had come looking to bid on the house that was canceled.
There was no bids on the first property and they went on to the property in Dresden. The bidding started at $10623 and there were bids in increments between $100 to $500, then someone jumped up to 15 followe by another who bid 17, I bid $17-1 and I heard an uneasy 17-2 as if she had reached her limit, before I was able to put another bid in it went to 17-5, then all of a sudden the contractors that were sitting in the back took off and started biding like crazy, 3 of them biding back in forth $1000 increment trying to out do the other, they got to 35 and someone shot up to 48 and it stoped. What happened even the people that were running the auction had that confused look on their face.
Dresden is a small town and there is not much in the way of new homes being built, the real Estate guy I call said that Dresden had the lowest prices in S Ont, actually there is a lot of houses being sold as is or by power of sale. What I felt was that these contractors had come looking for the house which they would of bought and fixed up. With no one being interested in the commercial property and the house cancelled the contractor, with big checks in there pockets jumped in. You can't compete with people with deep pockets.
There were no bids for any of the other properties