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>>VO: Ingham county recently held its largest
ever tax foreclosure auction.
More than 70 properties were up for grabs,
although only about half of them sold.
John Bippus has been auctioning real estate
for 23 years and says the national foreclosure
crisis has caused big shift in business.
>>BIPPUS: The business in the last few years
is about half of what it used to be,
I have to admit. And I'm trying to get used
to the new paradigm of that.
And the reason I say that because I'm not
looking at units I'm looking at dollar value
In terms of it's half of what it used to be.
We probably sell just as many units or properties
as we have over the years.
>>VO: He says the lower prices at an auction
like this one can generate a lot of interest.
>>BIPPUS: As a buyer, there are some great
opportunities
if you're not encumbered with a property
to live in, or to make an investment or buy
a piece of land.
We just sold 74 acres up in Newaygo that sticks
in my mind that someone bought for $125,000.
Sounds like a lot of money, but for that piece
of land that's probably about half of what
it was worth three years ago, so they got
a good deal.
The county collected significantly more than
the taxes were and so that will help fund
local government.
So it was a win.
There are plenty of professional buyers at
his auctions. But Bippus says he can’t just
cater to them.
Part of his job is to generate bids…and
people won’t bid if there’re not comfortable
with the process.
Our style is geared towards -
so that a first-time auction goer can come
to an auction and know
what we're selling, who's on, how much, and
participate in the sale without being intimidated
or being concerned
that they're going to not understand the auctioneer.
I keep it at a pace so that everybody really
in the room knows what's going on, who's on,
and how much.
That keeps everybody together and nobody gets
intimidated when it becomes their turn to
bid on what they want.
All of our sellers that we work for want a
style like that. They want it to be fair,
open, and honest. Otherwise they wouldn't
have a live open honest public auction, in
particular you know we're selling for the
government.
>>VO: This year’s tax foreclosure auction
netted the county about $380,000. Much of
the unsold property will go up for auction
again later this year.
For WKAR Public Media, I’m Rob South with
reWorking Michigan.
