County holds first ever online tax sale

Hamilton County’s first online tax sale was conducted Thursday in order to avoid health concerns related to the pandemic. The sale is held annually for real estate parcels on which property taxes are delinquent.

Only 62 properties went on the block, as most owners of the 321 originally delinquent parcels decided to pay rather than have their properties sold.

Of the 62, only 41 sold. Those unsold were generally small portions of ground apparently considered of little or no value to bidders.

County Treasurer Jennifer Templeton said gross proceeds of the sale were just over $2.4 million. But, the net amount to the county was only $225,000 with the remainder being the amount to be refunded to unsuccessful bidders.

Templeton, whose term of office expires this year, said that if she were handling the sale next year, she would go with the online method again since it appeared to work successfully.