Nearly 1,000 RivCo Properties Approved For Tax Auction, Including Lake Elsinore, Wildomar Homes

LAKE ELSINORE, CA — The Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved placing nearly 1,000 tax-defaulted properties throughout Riverside County on the auction block, to be sold via open electronic bidding.

The Office of the Treasurer-Tax Collector on Tuesday sought and got unanimous board support to partner with hosting site Bid4Assets.com to conduct the exclusively internet-based auction on houses and vacant parcels seized as a result of unpaid property taxes.

The sales are scheduled for April 23 and 24.

Rancho Mirage resident Brad Anderson questioned the Bid4Assets.com partnership, which has been ongoing since the previous decade, telling the board he didn't understand the preference for using "this internet-based bidding outfit to dispose of these properties."

"For common everyday people like me, it's difficult (to access hi- speed internet)," Anderson said. "People should have the option of using other avenues, other than the internet."

Deputy Treasurer-Tax Collector Michael Thomas and another staffer pointed to the "open, competitive and verifiable" resources available via Bid4Assets.com as positives in creating an online forum for the submission of bids on properties. The officials noted that if a prospective bidder lacks broadband or other reliable internet connectivity at his or her residence, public libraries and other facilities may be available.

"This makes it so that people don't have to go to individual properties to make a bid. That's the real advantage," board Chair Karen Spiegel said.

A total of 946 properties in default are slated for the selling block. However, if the tax liens are satisfied by the owners ahead of time, they would be removed from the list.

"The purpose of offering tax-defaulted properties is to collect unpaid taxes and return the property to a revenue-generating status by conveying the property to another owner, or motivating the (assessed party) to redeem," according to an agency statement posted to the board's agenda.

Minimum bids for real estate in arrears will start as low as $100 for several properties in Lake Elsinore and Wildomar, with the highest minimum ask listed as $1.16 million for a residential property in Desert Hot Springs, documents showed.

The minimum bid amounts set by the county represent tax and sales costs. Officials said that minimum prices would be reduced on some properties that do not generate interest in the first round of bidding.

The current total estimated aggregate value of the properties in default is $28.92 million.

This will mark the 14th year that the county has turned to internet- based auctioning for its entire portfolio of assets with liens.

Prospective buyers will need to register online and make a deposit in order to participate.

Under state law, before a property under lien can be sold off, it must be held in abeyance for at least five years.

The complete list of properties that are proposed for inclusion in the auction can be viewed at countytreasurer.org.