At any given time, Shelby County has an excess of about 3,000 properties in its land bank.
“They run the gamut from a ditch to an 11-story office building,” says Tom Moss, land bank administrator, of the properties.
Last week, the County Commission approved the transfer of 140 inner city lots to developer Harold Buehler to build low-income rental houses. Because the areas affected already have high rental unit and vacancy rates, the proposal sparked controversy over what exactly should be done with vacant lots.
Once someone stops paying their property taxes, it takes the county trustee about three years to acquire the property, though legal proceedings begin much earlier than that. The county holds a tax sale six times a year and, if the properties are not sold at auction, they eventually become part of the land bank program. A list of those properties is published each month.
“The market is smarter than anyone would ever be. These people have generally been by the property,” Moss says of the buyers who frequent the county’s auctions. “What gets sold is the existing houses. The vacant lots don’t and the house in disrepair don’t.”
