Richland Co. Tax Sale

[emerging.me]

Just curious if any of you guys were going to the big tax sale on Monday/Tuesday. Everybody seems to be talking about it. I wonder if there are any true bargains to be had. Sounds too good to be true to me.

[ResearchMan]

If I had money I'd look at it as an investment opportunity. Much of the property is redeemed within the year by the original owner. If you purchased land you knew would be redeemed I think you can guarantee about a 6 percent return.. There's a limit on how much you can make if redeemed and I'm not sure what it is.

In the past many of the employees around the Assessor's office made a lot of money because they had access to the delinquent parcel information. and of course they worked around that information every day. I'm thinking of the Tom Elliott time frame. In the 80s when Clara Bartlett worked in and eventually ran the office, she was buying up small lots around town. She bought the parcel next to my Dad's house and he winded up buyingit from her. She bought it site unseen and came exploring. I looked out the window one day and recognized her son who went to high school with me..and my dad recognized Clara..he worked for Richland County Council. She left under a cloud but I think she was a very honest person.

I can tell you the tax sale has gotten high tech with many from out of the area coming in to buy after extensive research. I developed a search engine around that data for a county project and until this past spring thought it would be deployed there..but I think my window has passed. They have very rich data on each parcel.

emerging.me please come back and tell us if you got a bargain!

[emerging.me]

Well... I will have to talk to my dad tomorrow... since he would actually be helping out with this little venture. My interest, I guess, is in two or three lots on the 900 block of Pulaski St -- but I'm sure it's the interest of many others as well.

[ResearchMan]

What day was that list printed? I was thinking about it too. You should look for people that redeeem their property year after year. If you can find decent parcels you can determine who always buys it back..after someone bought it at a tax sale. Or just find good land. Speculators often buy land up. Recently in a meeting with a NC firm I was asked to see which large tracts in the county had been bought up by large northern firms. I could not tell them which parcels but I checked later and many had been bought from out of state.

For a long time I've had very detailed information on every parcel in the county..but am under non-disclosure. My data is dated now too. But I've been thinking like you too! Good luck on Monday.

[emerging.me]

I think they're updating the list actively on the Richland Co. website. That's where I pulled it from.

Do you think that property would be something wise to go after? I'm primarily interested in 931 & 929 Pulaski. The property on that block that fronts Pulaski (directly across from the Vista Commons apartments and that old warehouse building that houses a dance company and the Columbia Music Festival Assn.) is broken up into a lot of tiny, narrow parcels. 931 and 929 are on the corner of Pulaski and Pendleton. The whole east side of that block is pretty wooded -- albeit kind of scrubby -- and there's even a stream that runs through the block closer to the Huger side. I think you could put a pretty neat little urban home on that corner -- I envision a 3-story "shotgun modern." I think you could probably see the skyline from a third floor balcony or a rooftop deck. Anyway, I know it would probably get redeemed anyway, but it's fun to dream...

Also, are these amounts that the bidding starts at the total property tax fees for the year, or just a partial amount that remains unpaid? I'm just trying to figure out what it'd cost to actually own the property if it went unredeemed.

Excuse the ignorance about all this. I have big dreams, but little experience with this kinda stuff.

[emerging.me]

BTW... I know I'm getting *way* *way* ahead of myself here, but since we're in dream mode... This is the kind of residence I had in mind -- this style, but sort of more visually in line with Vista architecture.

http://www.bildit.com/zimple.html

Even if this little scheme doesn't work out, we want to build something like this down there somewhere... eventually.

Could you even build a residence there because of the way it's zoned?

[Spartan]

That looks like a good plan to me. I didn't realize there were so many smaller pieces of property there. I bet that the city would work with you so that you could build anything you wanted. You might have to use the first floor for offices, and the upper two for res. ResearchMan might know more about the specifics of the zoning there.

[emerging.me]

After further discussions with the wifey and my dad... I think we're gonna hold off on this. It's just sort of too much to consider on such short notice -- I only started looking at this stuff a couple of days ago. Maybe this year we'll sort of get familiar with the process and try to make a good investment at next year's tax sale.

I'd still love to have something like that down there though.

ResearchMan ... if you've got any other thoughts feel free to share.

[ResearchMan]

Ha! Usually no one wants my opinion!

Well I like the church neighbors. The parking lot there & at Epting Distributors is always slam full. Sunday and Wednesday and other odd days in the week. It reminded me of the discussion on the churches around the prison. I was going to start a thread about historical black Columbia and the churches in that community. But I've never gotten around to exploring those churches (date of formation, etc). Black Columbia commerce used to be concentrated on Lady west of Assembly. I think up Wayne Street too.

I assume you like trains. I believe that area is very hot. In particular I think that whole block will be developed in the next couple of years. The church should do well. I read where the area across Huger has a new development plan. I think you should talk to Fred Delk about the city's plans. If they want to enccourage residential or not. I've got zoning maps around here somewhere but they will not be as current as the zoning. Perhaps Chip Land would provide those. Also..there are lots of speculators in the area. Remember our discussion about the prison. I expect the same thing is going on it that block.

The back side of that lot is a congregating area for guys that rummage through street trash. I often see them pushing a full grocery cart through there. I don't think these guys are homeless. Just poor people looking for useful trash. For some reason they stop there to talk with each other.

[emerging.me]

I assume you like trains.

Ha! Well, that was part of the reason I opted out -- I like trains, but my wife doesn't. I really wouldn't mind Amtrak rolling through there every morning at 4:00AM. Haven't asked anyone in the apartments how bad it is. I wonder. My dad works for CSX, so I grew up around trains.

Dude, thanks for your comments. Seriously, it's an education. Stick around!

[ResearchMan]

I used to live about 150 feet from the tracks on Green. The first night there I woke up at 3 am thinking the train was in the bed with me. I was out on the floor. I lived at the top of a 3 story building with a waterbed. I used to get white caps in bed when the train went by. But after a few years you don't notice unless you are outside carrying on a conversation.