Thursday, August 4, 2011

2001 County Auction Real Estate Investments :)

This past Sun (31st), the boy's and I decided to go out and visit Matt's parent's- It was also my sister in law's birthday- we were able to visit and celebrate!  Matt's parent's property boarder's a creek on one side- Every once in awhile during the summer my boys will go swimming down in the creek- This past Sunday was one of those 'swim' day's- They and 3 of their cousins went creek swimming- My sister in law and I walked down to the bridge (that over looks the creek) to see all of the kids swimming- As I was standing on the bridge I turned and faced the direction of the picture below- I chuckled to myself as I remembered what this view represented 10 years ago................

Sept 2001...............

Aside from my obvious passions (God, my hubby, my kid's, Oklie, etc..) I have a total passion for any and all things real estate- Commercial or Residential- I don't care which- I LOVE IT!!  I was at my mom's house reading the paper and saw a little add for a county real estate auction- Every year our County would sell pieces of property that were virtually useless- unless someone could come up with a creative plan to use or re-sell the parcels-  There were several pieces of property that caught my eye- One of which was on a road right next to Matt's parent's house- After reading the add I packed up my diaper bag (Ryan was 2 at the time) and drove out to see where this little piece of land was-
It was 3/4 of an acre on the creek bottom :) Actually it wasn't exactly the creek bottom but it minus well have been.................There was something about it that I instantly liked- I had visions of lounge chairs by the creek and my boys swimming (so this never happened but it was a great vision at the time)........I came home, marked the date of the auction on my calendar and knew I wasn't gonna miss it for nothin'!!
The day of the auction arrived and I was not sure what to expect- I had gone to real estate auctions but never a county property auction- Ryan, Eli, and I all arrived at the court house (I was the only mamma packing kids with me) and found the overly full room where the auction was being held- The property I was interested in was close to the bottom of the list- This was nice because I got to sit and see how it all worked before it was my bid time-
Because the 'creek' property was to small to build on, covered in black berries, and had an obvious tendency to flood there was only 2 of us bidding- I was determined...........so was my opposing bidder... up to $350.00- I placed the final bid at $400.

We kept the property for 8 years- We cleared the little piece, poked in a little road, fenced the top of it (wish I had a picture of before and after), and leased it out to a gentleman who was looking for a place to keep his bee's- 

We sold the property in 2009 (for $1500) to a family that had high hopes of making it an RV spot where they could spend some weekends in the summer with their lounge chairs down by the creek while their kids swam- from what I have heard, they actually did all of the above :)
If you look at the picture below and let your eye's focus toward the back left- there is a little beach type area- that is the bottom of the property- It is shaped like a rectangle and goes up to the road (which you can't see).

Thank's for taking a walk with me down memory lane.....Happy Thursday!!

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