About McCracken County, KY

I haven't seen this before in my area. It has come to the attention of several other people in my area as well.

There are these little yellow signs, similar to the one here, in my neighborhood. They are advertising an online auction for a home that was foreclosed on. This particular home is a 3BR, 1BA, 1,100 sqft home that was sold a couple of years ago for $54,000. The home appears to be in good condition.

The company holding the auction advertises it as an online only auction. Their name is Williams and Williams Real Estate Auctions (www.WilliamsAuction.com). You must go to their web site and register to receive more information, view the starting price, place any bids or find details as to how you can tour the home. Private buyers can register as well as realtors. Brokers must register if a sales associate wants to place bids for a client or themselves.

I was watching the auction of the home in my neighborhood. Anyone who's used eBay before knows you don't want to bid until the last few minutes. Any bids placed before that time just raises the price unecessarily. The auction started at $1,000 on November 14 at 12pm. Now, 2pm, November 18 the price is up to $11,500. One particular bidder has a maximum bid that has been overcoming other bids.

The week before the auction I tried 3 times to get access to the home by calling the 800 number. Each time I was told the auction company would call me back. For some reason they did not have a lockbox on the front door. The company reps I spoke with on the phone did not know why that was. I'm told interested parties have been entering the home through a window to tour the home.

When I was unable to get access to the home I stopped and looked in the windows. To my surprise was another agent's card taped to a front window. I called that agent and was surprised to hear what he said. Apparently, he had done the cleanup work on the home to prepare it for sale (it was a typical foreclosure). The bank that owns the home then let this auction company take over the sale leaving this agent out in the cold. He told me he plans to place a lien on the home to recover his expenses. I'm not sure a lien will be possible as the owner would have changed but whatever.

If you are a buyer interested in bidding on a home for auction on this web site call me at 270-994-3749.

Saturday (yesterday) I attended a couple of auctions. The first one was for a couple of tracts near Mike Smith's new location next to I-24 here in Paducah. The tracts totaled a little over 7 acres in two tracts. Included was a modular home that is being rented for $650 / month (I think). The land in that area is development property. This area is currently home to several hotels, Mike Smith Toyota, Heartland Homes and several other businesses. I understand that Mike Smith paid about $115,000 per acre of his new car lot. These two tracts sold for a mere $50,000 per acre at the auction I attended. The auctioneer didn't appear real happy about the selling price.

The second auction I attended was for a home at 1531 Jefferson St in Paducah. This victorian home was a 4BR, 2 BA home with nearly 2,400 sq ft of living space. The asking price of this home was $96,000 when it was listed with a local brokerage. The home appeared in good condition although one of the upstairs rooms I toured had a severely crooked floor. This home sold for $70,000

The auctioneer didn't appear to be very pleased with either of these auctions. I wonder what his sellers opinions are now that the auction is over. Auctions may lead to an immediate sale of property but the sale amount may be less than what's expected, a trade of sorts.

The auctioneer charged a 10% buyer premium.

On November 24 at 1:30pm the McCracken County Master Commission will hold another monthly auction. The following properties are to be included in this month's round. The auction is held inside the courthouse at the foot of the steps.

• 3141 Broadway (Paducah's old Coke plant), to recover costs of $1,260,802.77
• 201 & 217 Glenn St, to recover costs of $1,002,084.21
• 7260 McNeil-Alsip Road, to recover costs of $167,336.52
• 2902 Clark St, to recover costs of $71,427.83
• 8825 Old Mayfield Road in Boaz, to recover costs $66,720.17
• 2701 Madison St, to recover costs of $46,747.10
• 290 Alben Barkley Dr, to recover costs of $106,069.54
• 1912 Adams St, to recover costs of $46,332.13
• 832 South 5th St, to recover costs of $54,368.15
• 1822 Broad St, to recover costs of $92,523.28
• 3418 Buckner Lane, to recover costs of $124,954.07
• 412 Oaks Road, to recover costs of $23,954.43
• 4250 Contest Road, to recover costs of $9,545.00 and $55,057.48
• 2930 Alabama St, to recover costs of $67,149.62

Many of these auctions may be cancelled due to agreements being reached by the owners and mortgage holders. Payoff of the sale amount is typically expected within 30 days.

Generally, a preview of the property is not permitted as the master commissioner does not have access to the properties. If anyone would like information on any of these properties I might be able to provide a small amount of info. Email or call me with the address of the property.

With today being election day the kids didn't have to go to school - at least for school anyway. Our voting precinct is at the school.

I set the alarm clock to go off at 6:30am so I got to sleep in a few minutes. After getting ready my son and I headed off to cast my vote. My son is 10 and this is the 3rd time he's been with me.

While on the drive over there I told him to keep it quiet while we were in the booth as I didn't need everyone knowing how I was voting. To my surprise he didn't say a word while we were in there except to tell me I had to close the flap while I was making a write in. After we left I asked him how he knew to do that. He said he had heard the others asking the same question and he had heard the precinct workers answer.

Besides the normal races I voted for, I'm interested in seeing what happens to the city of Lone Oak. Will it be dissolved or not? See a previous blog of mine about that issue. Another race is for my representative of county school board. The school board is planning a high school consolidation and most everyone is opposed to it except the school board. Many residents plan to vote them out of office. Unfortunately, the school board plans to move quickly so that even a new school board will have to plan for a consolidation.

In 1979, business owner Carl Ligon lead the move to incorporate a half-square mile area of Lone Oak, KY to avoid being annexed by the city of Paducah. The effort succeeded, however, the city hasn't been able to grow because of the same reason the city incorporated in the first place - neighboring residents don't want to be annexed and pay additional taxes.

Since the incorporation in 1979, Lone Oak residents have enjoyed their own police department, mayor, city commission and taxes. Now, residents are fed up with paying the taxes and say they are not receiving much in return or would rather go without.

One benefit of the incorporation is in the city's business licenses. Anyone needing a business license in Lone Oak will find them incredibly reasonable. Licenses are a flat $100 per year. This fee is significantly cheaper than in the city of Paducah where the fee is based on revenue. Additionally, the city payroll tax is 1.5% whereas the city of Paducah is 2%.

This election day these residents will vote on whether to dissolve their city and stop paying the additional taxes. If vote succeeds the city will dissappear 30 days after the vote. The sheriff's department will take over the police department duties and the taxes for the year will go to the county. The payroll tax will disappear as well.

The city of Paducah and McCracken County have been considering a merger. Talks of the merger have been delayed due to the unknown future of the city of Lone Oak. After the November 4th vote merger talks can continue.