Riverside County Offers Tax-Defaulted Properties in Online-Only Auction

What to Know

Prospective buyers must register online and make a $2,500 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 auction is scheduled to run from Thursday morning to May 5.

More than 800 tax-defaulted properties throughout Riverside County will be on the auction block, open for electronic bidding, beginning Thursday.

The Office of the Treasurer-Tax Collector is again partnering with hosting site Bid4Assets.com to conduct the exclusively online auction on houses and vacant parcels seized as a result of unpaid property taxes.

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The auction is scheduled to run from Thursday morning to May 5.

"By bringing the sale online, the county is exposing it to a nationwide buyer pool, greatly increasing the chance the properties will be returned to the tax rolls,'' according to Bid4Assets statement.

Bids for county-owned real estate will start as low as $100 and could go into the hundreds of thousands of dollars before the auction closes, officials said.

A 27-acre parcel in Winchester was originally valued at roughly $1million, but the floor price to begin bidding will be just over 10% of the original valuation, at $122,060, according to the auctioneer. Almost 80 properties will have starting bids of just $100.

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Bid4Assets CEO Jesse Loomis said the current inventory of properties was originally altogether worth just over $45 million.

"It's obviously a difficult time for counties everywhere, as revenues are down, while at the same time significant resources are needed to support the public,'' Loomis said. "Similar past sales for Riverside County have generated over $10,000,000, and we hope for this sale to do the same.''

This will mark the eighth year that the county has turned to internet-based auctioning for its entire portfolio of assets with tax liens. The online bidding platform is not a result of the coronavirus emergency.

Prospective buyers must register online and make a $2,500 deposit in order to participate.

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

The minimum bid amounts set by the county represent tax and sales costs.

According to the Treasurer-Tax Collector's Office, minimum prices will be reduced on some properties that do not generate interest in the first round of bidding.

Prospective bidders can view assets and register at www.Bid4Assets.com/Riverside2020, or request offline bid forms by contacting Bid4Assets at 877-427-7387.

Anyone who needs additional assistance can contact the Treasurer-Tax Collector's Office at 951-955-3999.