LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Due to the lack of bidders for the tax delinquent properties in the February online auction, the Lake County Treasurer-Tax Collector has scheduled a re-offer of the unsold properties.

This reoffer auction starts Saturday, May 12, and ends Tuesday, May15, online at www.bid4assets.com .

In hopes that a lower deposit may spur interest, the treasurer-tax collector’s office has reduced the deposit to $2,500 from the previous $5,000. Some minimum bids have also been reduced.

The deposit for bidding is due no later than Tuesday, May 8. Full details on where and how to send the deposit to the auction company – plus their $35 processing charge – may be found on www.bid4assets.com . The county tax sales link is on the home page.  

February’s online auction started with 138 properties, but after many were redeemed or postponed, 83 went on the auction block.

The local paper listed the parcels over several weeks in January. By the close of auction, only 23 properties had been sold, some for just the minimum bid of a few thousand dollars, according to the Lake County Treasurer-Tax Collector's Office.

Staff at the treasurer-tax collector's office said the small number of properties sold was due to the economy.

Past auctions often resulted in excess proceeds, coming in over the amount needed to pay taxes and fees.

According to the rules of county tax sales, available the Bid4Assets Web site, excess proceeds can be claimed by the previous owner after a waiting period.

In recent Lake County auctions there have been very little excess proceeds, the county reported.

Property owners of delinquent parcels that still wish to redeem their properties before the auction should contact the Lake County Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office.

Although it is now common for most counties to sell their tax delinquent properties through this Web site, many only list the parcel numbers.

Lake County has listed both the parcel number and the address of each property. This makes it easier to map the property online and appeals to a wider range of bidders, especially those out of the area.

The Bid4Assets auction company discourages “sniping” – that last-minute bidding that foils your bid – by adding the “overtime” feature. Any bid entered within the last five minutes of the auction will automatically go into overtime, extending the auction until no bids are entered for a five-minute period.

This allows the property to fetch as high an amount as possible, with overtime periods sometimes running for several hours.  

Since not all parcels in the auction will close their bidding at the same time, it is important to make a note of what time the bidding ends for a particular parcel.

On the auction Web site, auction times are generally posted in Eastern Standard Time, which isn’t always the local time zone of all bidders.

The Web site can email an alert to bidders when their parcel is open for bidding and also allows placing a maximum bid amount ahead of the auction. This amount is not visible to the public, but usually can’t be reduced until bidding ends for that parcel.