Real estate: June 2008 Archives

Either to save on cost or just to have pride in a job well done, many homeowners take on do-it-yourself projects rather than call in an expert.
From bathrooms to basements, weekend contractors often attempt tackle even the most daunting home improvement ventures.
What home projects have you completed?
E-mail Sean Adkins at sadkins@ydr.com with before-and-after pictures of the your most recent home projects.
Include your name, phone number and a description of the project.

This sheriff sale has just wrapped up. The last property has been sold, and most people here are heading out.

A few sales were postponed until later dates, but for the most part it seemed like a lot of the properties sold.

The prices of the sales ranged from a little below $2,000 to more than a million (although that was the rare exception.)

We just had a bid for $1,357,000

And after that about half the room cleared out.

The ladies behind me are still here and so are the power player lady for the previous post and Sean's sources.

But this room just went from really crowded to less than half full.

There's a woman in the far corner of the room who has bid on a ton of properties. She was involved in the first bidding war, but eventually dropped out.

There's definitely some power players in the room who go after a lot of the properties.

But then there are a lot of other people who only put bids on one or two.

We have another bidding war here. Not as long or as involved as the last one, but it was still pretty good.

The lady behind me just loves these bidding wars. But she lost again. I'm pretty sure she got outbid by the same guy as last time.

It's been pretty straight forward so far at the sheriff sale. One or two people make a bid, and it has pretty much been stopping there.

But we just had a bit of a bidding war for one piece of property.

The numbers started much lower than where they ended.

In the beginning, two main people were one upping each other. Then another guy jumped in. It kept going and going.

After the number of sales that were canceled or postponed, it was hard to believe that any homes were still left to be sold.

But there were. We've gotten through the first several properties here. Most have just had one bid placed for them. Only two had more than one. One of those two was postponed until a later date. One was sold to the highest bidder.

Here's a list of the first five properties and what they went for:

1. $1,795.22
2. $2,081.70
3. $2,171.24
4. Two bids were placed here. It was requested that it be postponed until August.
5. $2,082.36

The sheriff sale is officially under way, and it started with a reading of the rules, which mainly say the sheriff isn't responsible for anything dealing with the property.

The rules warned potential buyers to make sure they know what they are getting into. Buyers will have to pay taxes on the properties and be responsible for all other financial matters.

The big important thing was that once a bid is made, the buyer is responsible for paying that money, no matter what they may find out about the property later.

It's about 10 minutes before the sheriff's sale is set to begin and the assembly room in the courthouse is starting to fill up. A few minutes ago it was dead silent and only about 10 people were here, but now with 10 minutes until homes are basically auctioned off, a dull roar can be heard as people talk strategy and get ready for what it to come.

There's all different kinds of people who have turned out today. There are people looking to buy these houses and then resell them later. There are homeowners looking for a last ditch effort to save their homes and there's everything in between.

I have lots of great things to tell you about that are coming up this week so let's get right to it.

Today is the York County Sheriff's Office public sale at 2 p.m. These sales basically auction off houses that have for one reason or another fallen into foreclosure or have other financial issues. If you want more info on the sale, check Sean's column.

On Wednesday, the first book published using a new, eco-friendly printing method will be made in York County. More details on this to come.

If you're interested in checking out exactly what the company has to say about the new Arm and Hammer plant coming to York, you can read the company's press release here.

What are your thoughts about a new plant coming to town?