Bids at foreclosure sale go far beyond taxes due

Bidders at the foreclosure auction Friday morning became animated over some properties as bids moved higher and higher. One couple from Malden bought three of the six properties up for auction.

On Friday morning, County Treasurer Robert Lothspeich conducted the auction on six properties that had gone through tax foreclosure. The morning tax sale attracted a standing-room-only crowd to the commissioners’ chambers in the courthouse.

Lothspeich began with minimum bids listed for the county to recover taxes, interest and other costs.

But as he got to two properties that included manufactured homes, bidding became competitive. Bidders jacked up the price of one parcel tripling what the county’s minimum bid was.

As the bidding continued, Lothspeich paused to reiterate that the county doesn’t keep proceeds above the minimum bid. Revenue over the minimum bid goes to the owner of record.

A seventh property, storage units in Tekoa, was removed from the auction bill after the county received $18,422.35 to redeem the foreclosed property.

Listed owners can redeem their property from the foreclosure auction until the close of business the day before the auction.

Minimum bids listed for the six remaining properties totaled $19,383, and auction proceeds totaled more than $47,208.

The 2003 doublewide Fleetwood manufactured home on E. Ash Street in St. John had a minimum bid of $6,136.21. After a long string of bids from six biddrers, Jeremy Smith of Spokane won with a top bid of $18,500.

Another manufactured home, a 1985 Liberty 14x70 on Ash Street in St. John, brought more than five times the minimum bid of $3,031.

Thomas Shawgo of St. John had the top bid of $16,100.

First parcel in the auction was three lots at Cleveland and 2nd Streets with a structure in Garfield listed for a $2,120 minimum. No one bid the first time around, but when Lothspeich offered it a second time at the end of the auction, as required under the foreclosure format, Mat and Heather Smith of Malden acquired their third piece of property with a bid of $2,700.

The Smiths earlier in the session purchased two other parcels in Malden for about $8,500. Listed minimums on the two properties totaled approximately $6,700.

Cindy Slatter of Clarkston won the bid for the last of the Malden properties paying the minimum of $1,372.