Auction

Yesterday was just a routine (boring) early winter day. We're a month too early for snowboarding and a little too late for camping. I paid some bills yesterday morning and then did a little routine maintenance work on a 3 bedroom apartment. During my work on the 3 bedrrom apartment, I received a call from a tenant that said her heat was not working. So, after completing the work on the 3 bedroom apartment, I went to her apartment and found that someone had shut the gas off to the boiler. I relit the pilot light and checked that the boiler was working - no big deal. I also went to Lowes to get supplies for the one bedroom apartment that I'm getting ready to rent.

The most interesting part of the day occurred last evening, when my wife and I went to an estate auction. The weather was cold; there was a light drizzle in the air; and it was dark. I'm sure that the auctioneer didn't think about the light issue when he scheduled the auction (months ago). It was completely dark and there were no utilities in the house that was being auctioned. I think that we could say that was poor planning.

The house being auctioned was a very nice house in a low income area. It was a 2 bedroom house with a finished basement; a one car attached garage; a 2 car detached garage; and a large carport that was more like a shelter house. The floors were all wood and were absolutely beautiful. That was the good news. The bad news was that there had been a break-in and the waterlines were gone along with the A-coil for the furnace (and who knows what else). The other major detractor of the house is that it is literally 25 feet from a very busy railroad track. While I was there, a train went by and it shook the entire house!

I'm not really buying any more property (or at least that's what I'm trying to convince myself), so I had not intention of bidding on the property. The reason that I went is that there have been several auctions lately in our area where absolutely noone bid - not one person. The minimum bid on this property had been advertised as $12,000. My plan was that if no-one bid or if I was the only person to show up, I would offer them $5,000 for the house.

I was absolutely shocked when about 30 people showed up for the auction. The very first bid was $15,000 and the bidding kept going until someone paid $29,000 for the property. I'm sure that the bidders were all potential homeowners and that was certainly a great price for a retail buyer.

I firmly believe that the economy will soon collapse and I think that there will be deals that will be almost unbelievable when that occurs.