Get ready for the the 2012 edition of the Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Auction. This year's auction is both bigger, more widespread and set to kick off by the end of this week.
The
Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Auction has traditionally been held in real-time until 2010 when the vast number of properties up for sale forced its move to online sales. The 2010 auction set records with thousands of tax foreclosed properties for sale. Then last year's auctions beat those records with more than 10,000 properties up for auction. And now this year's auction is set of shatter those with just over 22,000 properties up for sale, and about 20,000 of those are in Detroit.
"It quite literally touches every single neighborhood in Detroit," says Jerry Paffendorf, co-founder of
Loveland Technologies, which debuted a website last year (
WhyDontWeOwnThis.com) that mapped all of those properties in Detroit. He adds that every Detroit resident will more than likely know of a tax foreclosed property near them or someone buying one because the auction is so far reaching.
He adds that auction could represent the largest change of hands of property in the city in one small time period (about one month) to date. To him it speaks to the challenges the city is facing in regards to land use, neighborhood stabilization and bevy of other issues impacting local citizens.
Paffendorf says the situation has interest in this year's auction has risen considerably. He wouldn't be surprised if larger investors descend on the auction and alter the playing field in a sale process that has traditionally been dominated by smaller investors.
"Don't be surprised if somebody buys everything," Paffendorf says, referencing one investor who bought every tax foreclosed property for sale in Macomb County last summer for a few million dollars. "I have to assume this will be the biggest auctions ever in terms of sales."
For information on the Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Auction, click
here.
Source: Jerry Paffendorf, co-founder of Loveland Technologies
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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