Bluewater tax sale

[MISAN]

Quite the experience for this newbie. Drove to Zurich Ontario to witness the sale of 33 Ellen st. Brucefield. Eleven tenders submitted ranging from $15220 to $60500, this on a broken down two story farm house c/w wood stove heating assessed at $84000. Some one either had not done there homework or really wanted this property. Ten of the tenders were between 18% and 50%, giving me an idea towards the next sale.

[speedfreeksteve]

In assessing if a person paid the right price in a tax sale, it has very little to do with what the losing bids were. You could say that the winning bidder was the one that did their homework and the losing bidder's didn't since they didn't win anything (assuming that the winning bidder will get their money out of it).

You should concentrate on making your bid at a level that  A) you are getting a great deal and B) you have a decent chance of a winning bid. If you are satisfying "A)" then don't worry if the 2nd highest bid isn't close to yours.

Although if you think there is not much interest you can go with the lowball approach which is basically like buying a lottery ticket, although with better odds.

[MISAN]

Thanks for the input, you are so right. The only tender that means anything is the winning tender. It is far more profittable to purchase this property at $60000 and put an additional $30--$40k into renovations than it would be to have purchased at the$90- $110k which is closer to the fare market value, and add the renovations on the top of this.

[Frank]

It is really a crap shoot.  I've placed bids that I was sure were going to win, and I was gong to win as well, and been outbid by twice my price....as far as I am concerned the winner really lost or broke even as they don't stand to make much from it... I have to assume that they really wanted that property, kind of a one hit wonder. 

On the plus side the ones where I have been successful, I have won by the very narrowest of margins...which tells me that I was right in the ball park.

You might see a hundred bids being placed on one property, and none on the next (in which case you would have won it by bidding the minimum...however, you have to ask yourself why no-one else was interested in it). 

roll the dice